Finally, they’re back! After an almost two-year hiatus brought on by the pandemic, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have finally been able to film a new special in a country that isn’t the UK!

The new Grand Tour special, titled ‘A Scandi Flick’ is a play on the well-known rally racing manoeuvre in which a driver makes their car oversteer through a corner, was filmed in, I’m sure you can guess, Scandinavia. We start in Norway, on a football pitch which is later revealed through clever drone work to be on a rocky peninsula. This is the first shot of many that shows off the outstanding beauty of the region and why this special is so much more entertaining than the previous few, which have only taken place in Britain.

The opening stage of the first episode of the first season of The Grand Tour in South Africa. Credit: Flickr

After this brief introduction to the extraordinary setting, the boys then show off the cars they’ve brought along. As they are in the Arctic Circle, they decide it’s wise to bring vehicles that have four-wheel drive and that were originally conceived as loose surface, speed machines. Richard Hammond goes first with what he says is ‘the best and that’s that’ a 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STI V-Limited Edition. A long-winded name, but perfectly suited to one of the greatest variations of an already impressive car. James May then follows suit with a car that he also believes is the best, a 2004 Mitsubishi Evo VIII in a very distinctive bright yellow. The two then proceed to have a bitter argument about which car is superior as the even more bitter arctic wind spoils May’s long hair. After this mild-mannered debate, Clarkson rolls in with his car of choice, a 2004 Audi RS4 which the other two say is, quite fairly, wrong. The objective of the road trip is to find out which rally car is best and the RS4 has never taken part in a single rally race ever. His thinking was that the RS4 is the grandchild of the original Audi Quattro from the 80s which was an extremely successful rally car, which makes sense, probably. More arguing follows about the rallying credentials of Jeremy’s Audi and then they receive a text message regarding their quest across the great wilderness of Scandinavia. They are to drive through Norway, then through Sweden until they finally arrive in Finland at which point, they will hope to have found out which of the three is truly the best rally car.

From left to right: Clarkson, May and Hammond on a live show in 2008. Credit: Flickr

The episode is full of hilarious pranks such as Clarkson leaving Hammond’s car keys in a bath full of water and allowing it to freeze, and then Hammond encasing Clarkson’s entire car in ice, somehow. There is also plenty of nail-biting drama, regular viewers of The Grand Tour will be aware that Richard Hammond is prone to crashing his cars, such as the Rimac super car in Switzerland. And there are, not one, but two instances of a car crashing in this special. However, you may be surprised to find out, or not if you don’t really care, that both calamities were executed by none other than James May himself. Yes, that’s right, ‘Mr. Slowly’ crashed, twice. The first being quite serious after attempting a high-speed run in a dark tunnel, he skidded and slid sideways into the wall at the end, breaking a rib and giving himself whiplash. The second was when he broke through some thin ice whilst driving exuberantly on a frozen lake, obviously not frozen enough.

May’s close brush with death aside, ‘A Scandi Flick’ is one of the most entertaining specials that The Grand Tour has ever made, certainly one of the best made in a long time. The previous two were missing something that you couldn’t quite put your finger on, now we know. They were missing that outlandish sense of adventure, seeing parts of the world that you’ve never seen before. All the childish pranks and dramatic crashes aside, this episode has some of the most beautiful cinematography of any Grand Tour special. The monochromatic scenery coupled with the sheer unrefined terrain is what The Grand Tour is all about.

Overall, ‘A Scandi Flick’ was far from disappointing, which previous specials have been. Of course, it wasn’t really the shows' fault, it was due to the pandemic. But now the boys can travel abroad again and what a wonderful thing that is because this first post-pandemic special was a much welcome reminder that the three presenters are getting older but that they can still create a fantastic show, with a little bit of help from Amazons drones of course.

★★★★☆- A Scandi Flick is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.

TV Series Review: ‘A Scandi Flick'