The Grand Tour Scrapped An Epic Episode Idea Because Of Terrorists
The Grand Tour has had to scrap one of its key road trip ideas for its fourth series because of terror threats.
The fourth run of Amazon’s big-budget car show was due to include a road trip from Saudi Arabia, which is technically allied to the West but has a very dubious record on human rights, to Cairo, in Egypt; a country that contains active Islamic State cells.
Arguably such an idea should never really have got off the blackboard anyway, but in his Sunday Times column the 59-year-old Clarkson said producers were “stuck with Slough” and specifically blamed “sporadic and vicious terrorist attacks” for the Cairo journey being dropped. He added:
“This would be an epic journey, except it would mean crossing the Sinai peninsula and, thanks to ISIS, the chances of us all arriving on the other side with heads were slim.”
An idea spanning the Andaman Islands near Thailand was also squashed due to a threat of violence: not from terrorists, but from an archaic and fiercely territorial tribe “that will kill anyone who lands,” the former Top Gear presenter continued.
Other ideas for The Grand Tour that never got off the ground included Australia, because it was deemed too boring and too close to too much media scrutiny. It’s also only four years since Clarkson, Hammond and May visited the southern hemisphere island with Top Gear.
The upcoming fourth series is the first to ditch the tent and be filmed exclusively on location as part of epic road trip ‘specials.’ It’s likely to begin airing this winter.
Comments
I detest terrorists
As an Australia I am extremely offended ):
They got in a lot of trouble when they did TG here, hence the “too much scrutiny” comment.
Let’s open a discussion:
Where would you like to see a Special take place, and what vehicles would you want?
:thinking: what about Bali?
Greece.I would love to see the reactions of the trio if they met greek drivers.And they could go to Acropolis for rally or sth
my home country Slovakia (or Czech republic as well) I would like to see how are they gonna complain about our “not very maintained” roads :D
and cars what about sth low budget skoda octavia or fabia (to 800 - 1000 euros)
New Zealand & Australia
Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
Canada
A race across former Yugoslavia - from Macedonia to Slovenia, driving either cheap people’s cars from that era, or doing a race between a car and a boat (via the Adriatic coastline)
The media does always make things seem wayyy more exaggerated than it actually is
exactly
They should do Gumball in crappy cars
Call it Slumball
“for political reasons . . . “
Australia: “Does that mean they’re not coming on, then?”
ISIS is an illiterate’s idea of Islam 💯
the Dakar has already made adjustments bcz of islamojihadists… I say arm the racers with equal fire power and award points for all baddies KIA’d whilst competing. Sorta like Golf with MMA added for fun
R.I.P Syria special
So they faced off with the inbreds and a bunch of angry South American veterans, but they were stopped by terrorists. Of course.
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