REVIEW: Grounded by Covid and back on home turf, The Grand Tour trio may just have finally found Top Gear once again.
After the ill-conceived Madagascan disaster that was last Decembers A Massive Hunt, Lochdown returns to the bromantic banter, occasional schoolboy pranks and car-centred comedy that made Messrs Hammond, May and Clarkson such a hit for so many years.
Its almost as if the latter pairs time spent learning to cook and cultivate the land respectively has given them a new lease on life.
This 90-minute special sees the triumvirate of car-loving enfant terribles traversing the wild of Scotland, from the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed to the islands of the Outer Hebrides. But although they do encounter a Hillman Imp or Avenger or two along the way, this is actually and more than a little incongruously a celebration of USA-made vehicles. Essentially, this is childhood wish-fulfilment for the trio, who admit they all couldnt understand that while they fell in love with the cars they saw on American TV shows, their parents preferred the delights of an Austin Allegro, Vauxhall Viva or Ford Cortina.
The Grand Tour trio try their hand at choice Scottish phrases.
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Hence, as they gather together on the south side of the England-Scotland border, Clarkson arrives in a Lincoln Continental Mark V, Hammond is driving a 1971 Buick Riviera and May pulls up in a Cadillac Coup deVille. I feel like Elvis, he beams. What? dead on a toilet? Clarkson retorts.
As their slabs of Detroit heavy metal fail to cope with Edinburghs narrow, cobbled streets, provide a festival of roll and under-steer around Scottish racing track Knockhill and generally get under their skin in good ways and bad (much is made of Mays overwhelmingly burgundy interior and single dial that Clarkson claims Captain Slow wont need a speedometer), the lads have plenty of opportunities to take the mickey out of each other and their host country.
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond prepared for their assault on Scotland in The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown.
Naturally, most of the latter is about the weather. Presumably cops cant say, youre nicked sunshine, here, because no one would know what it meant, is quickly followed by Scotland isnt a place where you could navigate using the sun. Then theres the local cuisine, which provides inspiration for Mays meals, including deep-fried peas and carrots.
In a lot of ways, hes just as easy a target, something the other two exploit when they fill his bovine-inspired caravan (hastily deployed as a result of Britains ever-changing Covid-restrictions catching up with them) with water. The result is childish, mean and uproariously funny, a scene only bettered by a delicious moment of karma/comeuppance on Clarkson that really simply has to be seen to be believed.
Lochdown proves that building a bridge and getting over it is not a forte for any of these three presenters.
At one point, our intrepid travellers trade in their rides for such abominations as the Pontiac Aztek and the PT Cruiser in a muddy battle with the worst the Soviet Union had to offer, before breaking out muscle cars that are as American as an Eagle made of cheese (as Clarkson so eloquently puts it), like the Dodge Charger and the Ford Mustang, before the final leg across to the supposed American haven of North Uist.
Thats also when the veteran presenters are quite literally forced to build a bridge and get over it, something which most definitely does not appear natural to any of them.
While it might not quite stick the landing and some may still feel their humour hasnt updated with the times, stripped of their ability to go higher, faster, more off-road, or cause a major international incident, Lochdowns back-to-basics approach actually delivers their most entertaining adventure since they left the BBC.
The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
