Richard Hammond hasn’t exactly had an easy time on Series 2 of The Grand Tour, so perhaps he’ll be glad to see the back of it. So far we’ve seen ten amazingly solid episodes of what is arguably now the world’s best motoring show – and they’re not finished yet.
This week’s Mozambique mini-special will see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May attempt to end world hunger with an incredible journey across the country – and Hammond is here to give us the details.
The Mozambique special, can you tell us why you were in Mozambique and what that program is about?
“For the special we made in Mozambique we realised that at the coast there is a lot of fish with an amazing amount of seafood. There are these markets where it is just a sea of beauty and colour and it is magnificent, but not that far inland people are, not starving, but they have pretty terrible diets. It is really low fibre, low protein and it is not good. So we thought that seems silly, we need to connect the two and then we can change the world. Perhaps even save the world! So we set about finding the best way of doing that to prove that it could be done. It was really difficult…”
Is this a new departure in some ways for The Grand Tour? The Grand Tour as a noble, charitable endeavour?
“In the light of what we have done in Mozambique? I do not think it is a new idea really, but The Grand Tour can be a worldwide force for good. It is in our genes to do that as part of the service. Along with entertainment for the world, we are also setting out to save it.”
What has been the single dumbest idea that any of you have had this series?
“Traditionally at the beginning of every series we sit down and we knock ideas around. Some of them are amazing, quite a lot of them are really terrible. The dumbest idea we have had this series is probably Mozambique. If it was that easy, people would be doing it, that was something we never quite grasped.”
In terms of things that went wrong, can you say what went wrong this series, and what went really, really wrong?
“Things that have gone wrong this series, I think we missed a flight or two but that is just logistics. Imagine corralling us around the world, it is not an easy task. I had a slight incident in Switzerland when I departed the road backwards in quite a fast car but I also crashed a number of times on a motorcycle in Mozambique. Basically, what’s gone wrong is I keep getting injured.”
Of all the places you have been to over both series, is there a ‘Hammond heaven’? Is there one place where you could see yourself settling?
“Whenever we travel there are moments when you find yourself thinking I could live here. Africa is a big continent but there are bits around – and I have travelled it pretty extensively – where sometimes I find myself thinking, ‘Do you know what? I could stay here.’ Part of it is being a Brit, I think. There’s something about the terrain – it looks very familiar but it is dialled up to eleven. The scale, the stretch, the scope, the views of the sky… so I could settle in Botswana or the Lake District in the UK because that is my favourite place on earth.”
The Grand Tour Mozambique Special ‘Feed the World’ will be available Friday 16th February 2018 on Amazon Prime Video.