James May has revealed that he came close to death in Venice, Italy, while filming for The Grand Tour. May feared he was about to ‘meet his maker’ because he had “run out of strength” to swim to safety.
“I thought I would drown. I couldn’t get out of the slippery thing. I had completely run out of strength,” May said.
Jeremy Clarkson is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: “Everyone managed to get into their cars but somehow James slipped.”
Luckily for May (and us) he managed to escape the dangerous waters with his life, but that wasn’t the only time he feared for his life during filming. He was also left “genuinely scared” shooting scenes in the Namibian desert because of the hot conditions, and news has also emerged that he even broke his arm – however this wasn’t due to some death-defying stunt in an exotic location – he simply broke it while falling out the front door of a pub.
Producer Andy Wilman recently explained: “James fell over the night before filming, coming out of a pub. He rang me up and said, ‘I’ve broken my arm.’ His car was automatic so we stuck him on Eurostar, pumped him full of drugs and left him to it. James did more damage to it because he had to keep on going but he’s falling to bits anyway. We are not in Usain Bolt territory with that body.”
Jeremy, James, fellow presenting partner Richard Hammond and the production team have been filming the show on location across the globe, with parts of The Grand Tour shot in front of an audience inside a giant travelling tent.
The Grand Tour will launch on Amazon Prime Video on 18 November and new episodes will be released every Friday, for a 12 week run.