Jeremy Clarkson has admitted to feeling “surprisingly unemotional” while filming the final episode of The Grand Tour and as retirement looms for the 64-year-old he admits he ‘dreads’ going into a care home.
Jeremy along with co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May have been presenting the Amazon Prime Video show since 2016 after their departure from BBC’s Top Gear. The trio recently embarked on a journey to Zimbabwe for the show’s finale.
They navigated challenging terrains in cars they’ve always desired a Lancia Montecarlo, a Ford Capri 3-litre, and a Triumph Stag. Reflecting on the conclusion of The Grand Tour: One For The Road, Clarkson remarked: “I’m not saying this in a derogatory way by any means but James has the emotions of a stone.”
He added: “He just doesn’t do emotions, so there were no tears from him. Hammond, yes.”
Clarkson confessed his lack of emotion was strange, given he could contact James and Hammond whenever he wished, and he was certain they would meet again. He also expressed his exhaustion from travelling. However, he conceded that he “would have been emotional” with the crew, but they are involved in his other Prime Video project, Clarkson’s Farm, where he tries to manage his farm in the Cotswolds.
Clarkson shared: “There I was with all these guys that I’ve known and worked with for 24 years and I said, ‘I’ll see you all on Monday morning’ because they all work on Clarkson’s Farm.”
He concluded: “I’m 100% convinced I would have been a lot more emotional without the farm show.”
Jeremy Clarkson has voiced his concerns about the state of global travel, noting that with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, the world is a “much more troubled place than it was 20 years ago”. He also referred to travelling as a “young man’s game” and expressed his dread of ending up in a retirement home, acknowledging at 64, he fears “fear it’s coming”.
Richard Hammond reflected on the emotional end of an era, admitting there were “a lot of tears” and that he would miss “them terribly”. He reminisced about their shared experiences: “We’ve seen each other in jungles covered in leeches, exhausted and grumpy in tents and boiling heat, elated in the most beautiful cities in the world.”
James May concurred that they “will miss each other”, including his own habit of “going on about things” and how the others would “pull me up about it”. He also remarked on the decision to conclude their journey: “In the end we got to the point where we said, ‘No, we must stop whilst we’re still vaguely ahead. We mustn’t keep going until we embarrass ourselves’.”
May also shared his mixed feelings: “It’s odd. I have mixed emotions about it. I will miss the adventure and the experiences and the craic and the ‘bantz’ and all that stuff.”
However, he doesn’t regret leaving behind the stress, saying: “I won’t really miss the stress of it because I’m old now and a bit frail compared with back then. I don’t know what to do next, but it’s a nice thing to look back on and think, ‘we did that’.”
The Grand Tour: One For The Road is set to premiere on Prime Video on Friday, September 13.