The Grand Tour is just as bombastic behind-the-scenes

From extended explosion edits, to crass coffee jar labels


CLARKSON, Hammond and May get up to plenty of mischief and mayhem on The Grand Tour, but of course the anarchic tone of the Amazon series (and Top Gear before the infamous “fracas”) is dictated just as much by Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer, and his team of writers, editors and directors.

This is made abundantly clear in a new series of informative but also hilarious behind-the-scenes videos showing how the programme is put together, kicking off with the above (grand) tour of the editing suites.

Wilman takes viewers on a seven-minute walkabout of some of the six suites in which the episodes are cut together, introducing us to a couple of over-enthusiastic editors who appear to like nothing more than absurdly lengthy explosion and drifting sequences.

Not all of the revelations are to do with the production of the programme: the Grand Tour crew have a not-so-polite way of letting the other people who share office space with them to keep clear of their expensive coffee stash, for example.

While the clip is laden with the sort of gaffes you’d expect from a Grand Tour production, it also has more serious snippets of trivia. For example, according to director Phil they shoot 250 hours of footage for a single hour’s worth of show, and it takes roughly two weeks to pick the footage that makes the final cut.

And below is part two of Andy’s edit suite tour, which looks at the hardships endured by the presenters during the Mongolia special. But it isn’t just Clarkson, Hammond and May who have a tough time making the show, Wilman claims…

Jeremy Clarkson on The Grand Tour Series 3’s globetrotting high jinks

The Grand Tour Series 3 episode guide