When James Englesman called me a while back (unclear for legal reasons) to break the news that he, Thomas Holland, and Francis Bourgeois would be the new faces of The Grand Tour, I was proud. And scared. They knew it, too.
Stepping into shoes as large as the ones left vacant by Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond is a task only fools would undertake. Yet, there hasn’t yet been a trio more worthy of taking up the mantle than the three boys chosen for this task.
James and Thomas are proper automotive enthusiasts. James, whom I’ve ridden as a passenger with in a Lexus LFA at Willow Springs, and Thomas, whom I helped swap a clutch in his E46 race car during a race weekend, are among the most knowledgeable, kind, and funny people I can think of in this business.
Francis, I don’t know. But I love trains. And game recognizes game.
Sitting across from them and speaking about this triumph was a pleasure. It’s like seeing your friends get to the NBA Finals, or get a Grammy. And though these boys have huge shoes to fill, they have little intention of “just” doing another Top Gear or Grand Tour. All three hosts are creatives who live for their art form.
I asked them about everything I could in 15 minutes; here’s to the new Grand Tour.
Photo by: Amazon Prime
Motor1: What Was The Biggest Transition From Throttle House (And Filming Trains) To The Grand Tour?
Thomas: I think pacing and scale; it’s genuinely a totally different experience. And maybe in some ways, I guess, for Throttle House versus Grand Tour, the product visually, in some ways, looks similar.
Everything was so much bigger though—physically and in time and in the number of people there, right? So it was just kind of an adjustment. Usually, I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to film stuff…
Francis: …You did tell the director to get a particular shot at some point.
Thomas: I did tell the director of photography—yeah, literally the dude who’s famous for making Top Gear look the way it does—I recommended a shot to him on the first day, and everyone paused and looked at me, and James burst out laughing. I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna stand back.
Francis: From my kind of content that I put out, I’m going from filming with my girlfriend to filming with a team of 75 people; from filming with my girlfriend and an iPhone to filming with this big team with these massive cameras. The only downside to filming with this big team is that I don’t get the great back massages that Amy gives me.
Thomas: He did ask a couple of times, and we said no… The other thing is coverage, which is a concept that I was familiar with, but I didn’t really understand how covered a scene could be with that many cameras. You just do anything, and somehow there’s a camera filming it, which was a crazy experience, right? You go down over a hill, do this thing, and somehow there’s some camera on you. So it was a weird level of freedom to just be in the scene or just deal with the situation.
How Was The Creative Process For You Three, And How Involved Were You?
Thomas: Very involved.
James: It felt luxurious, the amount of collaboration we were given, and I think the production was certainly conscious of us coming from content creator backgrounds, where we do operate with pre-production, day of, and post-production as part of our kind of day-to-day. So it was lovely to be invited into those conversations.
Thomas: Yeah, we were involved in every stage of the process, from ideation of the films to on the day changing things, doing a new thing, whatever came to our heads.
James: Unless the set was received terribly…
Thomas: …Yeah, then when we had nothing to do with it.
Photo by: Amazon Prime
I’ve Seen Episode 1, And It Was Great. Without Giving Away Any Spoilers, That Race Was Legit, Huh?
Thomas: Yeah, that was a… thing.
And Was Francis Chasing The Train Real? Please Tell Me It Was Real.
Francis: Yeah, 100 percent. We were next to a railway line, so my ears were already in tune to the hissing of the tracks. I saw the opportunity—and I think this just goes to show, even though we are part of a massive team, they are so flexible and just ready to be as impulsive as we are. Within a minute of us seeing this train snaking in the distance, we were in our cars chasing after it with the tracking car.
Thomas: Francis, you didn’t see the train snaking in the distance. You felt it like Spider-Man detects the Green Goblin, right? You literally knew it was coming, and then, as he says, we jumped in our cars, and then somehow there was a camera car with us. Like it just-they just did it, and we just got that. It was crazy. What a moment!
James: We killed four Cayennes over those two weeks in the States.
Killed Four Cayennes? How Did They Die?
Thomas: Yeah, the camera cars… Just excessive weight and driving the hell out of them trying to keep up.
How Have Clarkson, Hammond, And May Supported The Show? Obviously You Have Big Shoes To Fill…
Thomas: We don’t want to ruin anything. But we met all of them, had dinner with all of them, and they were very kind to share their own perspective on it, which was very helpful. Just hearing that they were excited for it was—not necessarily a confidence boost, but at least made us go like, all right…
James: …James May was extremely humble. He’s really excited to see a new version of it. And then he asked one of the Amazon execs, ‘Could I come to the premiere?’ And then they were like, ‘…Yes.’
Thomas: Yes, obviously.
Photo by: Amazon Prime
How Much Of The Former Grand Tour Team Is Still In Place? Producers, Writers, Etc.
Thomas: More of it than not. All of the camera operators, all of the mini cam operators, Phil the director, who’s now executive producer, and some directors. Literally, most of the team is still present, honestly.
What Was The Experience Then Of Being Plugged In To This Legendary Production Team?
Francis: Well, my first meeting after receiving the email. I didn’t know who was going to be in the room, but it was a room full of people, including Richard Porter. I saw Richard, and I thought, “Okay, this is serious.” And I felt like I could unleash full car enthusiasm, and his ears would be totally in tune to all of the chassis codes, engine codes, etc. So it was a pleasure to work with these kinds of obviously extremely well-established people who have carved out the identity of the show.
Thomas: It’s funny you say that, because Richard called us after he met with you, and he was like, ‘So he came in and he spoke only in chassis codes. So I think he will be good…’ But no, it was surreal in some ways. The team itself, like the on-location team, was incredibly accepting. Like, there was no sense from them whatsoever that they were like, ‘Alright, come on, can you guys even do this?’ It was none of that.
James: I remember feeling a big imposter syndrome, though, because everyone on the team was all witty English people who are brilliant at what they do, and I’m on the other side of the camera being like, ‘They should be standing here.’ All really cool, and it was a joy to be away with them because it was like going away with all the cool kids, but they have to be your friends, because I never had any really.
Francis: But it is nice to feel like a big pack, like it isn’t just us, the presenters and the production. We’re all in the bar at the end of the day. We’re sharing the table, and it does feel like a big friends trip away, and particularly once we’re wrapped in certain locations, they know how to party…
Thomas: …Yeah, the English go hard. It’s also just an endless amount of stories from these guys. You just pick a new person and sit at a table, and you’ll hear stories not just of Grand Tour, but like of, like, oh, this guy drove the camera car in Mission: Impossible. That guy was in Spider-Man. These guys are the best of the best, so it’s super cool.
What Did You Three Want To Bring Differently To The Grand Tour, If Anything?
Thomas: I don’t know if there’s anything that we felt like, okay, we can do this bit better than they did. I don’t know if it was that necessarily. But we had the blessing of them being like, they’ve retired, and they’re supporting us, which is big. So I guess maybe that gave us some confidence or some feeling of, ‘Okay, we can do this.’ But other than that, we didn’t find a magical formula because there isn’t one. We just went out, and we are who we are, and we just did the show the best that we could.
James: Like in some cars, you can tell there’s heart and soul gone into them, and then sometimes you’ll drive one, and it’s just the same nameplate, but something is missing. And I believe strongly that the three of us can bring a sense of heart to the show that maybe previous iterations, and some of them have been pretty great, just haven’t quite locked in or aligned.
Francis, When You Were Chasing A Train With Chris Harris In A Convertible Mercedes, What Was That Like?
Francis: Well, it was just an idea I had because of the way that the road and the railway run for such an extended period over the North Wales coastline; I was kind of plotting in my calendar when a steam train would run over that track, and also simultaneously trying to arrange a saucy convertible. But then I also needed to find a driver who would be up for it, and thankfully, the chap who I was working with on that film knows Chris [Harris] personally, and kind of pulled us together. It was this bizarre reality where, you know, in the same way as meeting Jeremy [Clarkson], I looked at his face and his 3D profile. It’s just like, “oh!”
Does Clarkson Have A Very Notable Face? What’s With His Face?
Thomas: Honestly, it’s difficult to explain. But Francis is not off the mark when he brings up seeing Jeremy in real life. You watch him on TV, right? But you just kind of go like, “Oh, he’s there.” There’s a lot of presence to him.
Back To The Chris Harris Video—Did That Make You Think, ‘Okay, Maybe I Can Do This?’
Francis: Well, people obviously know me for my railway videos, but I’ve loved cars as long as I’ve loved trains, and I’ve wanted to find a release for that in my content somehow. I felt like that video with Chris was a nice way to let the pressure off a little bit and let out that car nerdiness. And I never expected anything to come from that video apart from people just enjoying us chasing a train. But for that to have then been picked up by Thomas and James, and then for them to have suggested me to the production team, has actually made that video one of the most important things I’ve ever done in my life.
James: Also, it’s not easy to just do an in-car, and Francis’s in-cars are so good. That’s really hard. My first in-car, I remember I went off in a Hyundai Kona for 48 minutes, came back, and all that was worthy of an edit was me saying ‘not sure about the green.’ That was it for 48 minutes. Whereas Francis has a way of just sort of only saying what matters.
Thomas: He just instantly did it… Sort of annoying, to be honest with you. He’s a good driver too.
Last Thing I Want To Ask—What Was The Process Of Bringing Francis Into The Fold?
Thomas: We were testing with tons of very talented people, and we’re just perusing and tossing names into the hat, and then James found that video and we watched it. We’re like, interesting. So we recommended him, and obviously they set it up, and they’re the ones that made the final decision on anything. But the moment that we tested with him, it was like, ‘Oh yeah, okay, that’s different. That works.’
James: A huge relief. We’ve been testing for ages, and if we didn’t find someone soon, it’s probably not going to happen. And then I think we got to the point where Thomas and I were like, “What about just the two of us then if it’s not going to happen?”
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