THEY’RE NOT GONE FOR GOOD: CLARKSON, HAMMOND AND MAY CONFIRMED FOR SURPRISE GRAND TOUR CAMEOS
Just weeks after fans mourned the end of an era with the news that The Grand Tour was returning without its original trio, there’s a twist: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May won’t be entirely absent from the reboot after all.
According to reports, all three will make cameo appearances in the upcoming seventh series of The Grand Tour, set to launch on Prime Video on September 4. The move is designed to help introduce the show’s new presenting lineup — YouTubers Thomas Holland and James Engelsman of Throttle House, alongside trainspotting sensation Francis Bourgeois — to the audience that spent over two decades watching Clarkson, Hammond, and May at the wheel.
Grand Tour co-creator Andy Wilman confirmed the arrangement, telling 3Bs Radio: “Our guys are in the shows doing cameos, so we’re wishing them well because we do want to pass that baton on.” Wilman also explained why the production team deliberately chose presenters already steeped in car culture rather than established TV personalities, saying that trying to “parachute in three new, good presenters who are funny” simply wouldn’t have worked the same way.
Clarkson himself has already given the new lineup his blessing. In an interview with Autocar’s My Week in Cars podcast, he praised the trio’s chemistry, saying simply that “they’re bloody funny.” It’s a notable show of support from a man who spent 23 years building the franchise’s identity — first on Top Gear, then on The Grand Tour — alongside Hammond and May.
The original trio’s official run ended with the emotional 2024 special “One for the Road,” which saw them travel across Zimbabwe in cars they’d always dreamed of owning. Their return, even briefly, adds a bittersweet but heartwarming layer to the new era — less a full goodbye, and more a formal handover.
For longtime fans, the news softens what initially felt like a hard ending. Whatever the new trio brings to the format, at least one more chapter with the original three — even just a cameo — is still to come.
