The Grand Tour: One For The Road Review – Ending On A High

Spoiler warning for The Grand Tour: One For The Road

How exactly do you bring an end to Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May’s time on The Grand Tour, and by extension, the 21 series of Top Gear they fronted together? It must have been a difficult task – these two shows have meant so much to so many people, and it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the end of an era.

Well, you end it like this. One For The Road is Clarkson, Hammond and May, and the entire creative and production team behind this show, at their very best.

Let’s start with the setting. The best TG and TGT specials have always gone out of their way to show off the natural beauty of the countries they’re filmed in, and in One For The Road, Zimbabwe looks endlessly spectacular. Filming tech has come a long way since Top Gear first visited Africa for a special back in 2007, and the advent of higher-end cameras, drones and HD TV makes this probably the most visually spectacular the trio’s ever undertaken.

The cars featured couldn’t have been much better, either. The selection process – presented in-show as the trio wilfully ignoring Mr. Wilman’s instructions to drive laps of the M25 in electric cars – was simply each presenter choosing a car they’ve always wanted to own, and the resulting trio of mismatched, slightly tired ’70s classics exemplifies each’s personality and preferences in the same way as, say, those chosen for Top Gear’s Patagonia special, or indeed, its Botswana special – a show that plays an important role in this one.

I adored Top Gear growing up, and while The Grand Tour’s been generally strong, it’s always been a little more hit-and-miss for me. There was always that niggling worry that this episode would lean too heavily into the shouting and exploding that seems to have been the draw for a lot of fans in recent years.

It doesn’t, though. Where it is present, it’s delivered with a wonderfully self-aware nod to the viewer’s ability to suspend their disbelief. Generally, though, the show feels like a love letter, or maybe a heartfelt thank you card, to the people who’ve been there from the very beginning.

I don’t want to sound like I’m gatekeeping – I enjoy a good explosion or scream of ‘CLAAAARKSOOOOON!’ as much as the next person. I’m glad, though, that this final goodbye felt more like one of the earlier specials, one that simply took you along for the ride as three mates drove through a spectacular country in some cars of dubious reliability.

Then, towards the end of the show, the trio crosses into Botswana, and things get properly emotional. I won’t spoil things too much, because if you’re reading this, you’ve either watched the show already or you’re going to.

But the callbacks to the original Botswana special – the one that set the tone for the big, feature-length adventures that would come to play such a defining role in the success of TG and TGT – are handled about as perfectly as they could be. If you’ve been watching these shows for as long as some of us, I defy you not to get a bit teary once the haunting opening synth of Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers In Arms’ kicks in (and could there really have been a better song for the moment?).

Everything about One For The Road felt like the entire team behind it firing on all cylinders, and acknowledging the gravity that the end of this working relationship has behind it.

When James May first joined Top Gear in May 2003, replacing the cheery but ultimately short-lived tenure of Jason Dawe, I’d not long turned four – I hadn’t even started school. In other words, for about as long as I can remember, I’ve had at least some form of new telly from these three to look forward to. Even when it was all a bit up in the air in 2015, I don’t think there was any doubt that they’d end up somewhere. Now, I’m 25, and all of a sudden, I don’t have that constant in my life anymore, and that’s a strange sensation that I imagine a lot of people are feeling right now.

There’s a bit towards the end of One For The Road, as the trio cross the border into Botswana, where May, reflecting on his career and clearly holding back some emotions, says “I hope we brought you a little bit of happiness.” Yes, you did – you, Jeremy, Richard and everyone else that’s worked on these brilliant shows. Thanks for everything, and thanks for ending it perfectly.