The second season of Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Prime motoring show, The Grand Tour, premiered last night - and proved an instant hit with both fans and critics.
The opening episode saw Clarkson and co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May take three supercars across Switzerland before entering a hill-climb rally event.
Clarkson opted for Lamborghini’s V12-engined Aventador S, while May took the wheel of Honda’s hybrid NSX. Meanwhile, Hammond brought the all-electric Rimac Concept One -which he then crashed at the rally.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Hammond’s accident was the “climax” of the season opener, says The Daily Telegraph, although there isn't actually any footage of the fiery crash, “because their camera crew missed it”.
The “well-publicised” accident - which left Hammond in hospital with a fractured knee - was the most dramatic aspect of the “back-to-basics” episode, which brought a host of improvements over the first series, says the newspaper.
Gone is the “achingly unfunny” test driver, The American, while “the weekly Celebrity Braincrash comedy skit has been scrapped by popular demand”, adds the paper.
“Some parts were slightly flat”, says The Times, but “the production values remain high” and the trio’s “matesy bickering drove the episode”.
The new episode also proved popular on Twitter.
The second series of The Grand Tour is being shown exclusively on the Amazon Prime subscription service, which costs £79 a year. All 13 episodes from the show’s first season are also available on the streaming service.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance reviewThe Week Recommends Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition features lives affected by the Atlantic slave trade
-
Private Lives review: a 'witty' revival of Noël Coward's classic comedy
The Week Recommends Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers play the warring exes in this 'delicious retro treat'
-
Wilderness review: a soapy drama set in the American southwest
The Week Recommends Amazon series starring Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen is 'full of twists'
-
Volkswagen ID.5 review: what the car critics say
Feature The ID.4's 'sportier, more stylish twin' – but 'don't believe the hype'
-
Jamaica Inn review: a small patch of Caribbean heaven
The Week Recommends Guests will feel like one of the family at this boutique beach resort in Ocho Rios
-
Scottish Women Artists review
The Week Recommends Exhibition uncovers the work of female artists long hidden in 'historical obscurity'
-
Dracula: Mina's Reckoning review
The Week Recommends A groundbreaking and distinctively Scottish retelling of Bram Stoker's classic novel
-
Top Boy review: a fitting finale to the gangland drama
The Week Recommends This brilliant show is bowing out at exactly the right time – at the top
