The Grand Tour hosts on meeting original trio and their advice

The Grand Tour is back with six new episodes as incoming hosts Francis Bourgeois, James Engelsman and Thomas Holland take the helm of the relaunched series.

In February of this year, the new hosts were announced and would be taking over where Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond left off – and they have a firm stamp of approval from the original trio.

“We had dinner with them and we had a beer with James May,” Holland said of meeting Clarkson, May and Hammond for the first time, as Engelsman added: “James was excited for the transition. We asked his advice and he was more so like, ‘I’m just gonna watch you.'”

Holland continued: “His advice was deliberately [no advice]. He said, ‘It’s your thing now. Do your thing. Just don’t listen to me, do what you do.’ They were all very warm, all three of them. It was very nice.”

In the opening moments of the new series, the trio take a visit to Diddly Squat farm shop and a cheeky skit between the three and Clarkson begins. Albeit slightly an awkward watch, Holland admits he “disassociated”.

“It was really good fun and he was a good sport. I think we’re all very excited for that change.”

While the new series welcomes a new era of The Grand Tour, the hosts still want to honour the original format many fans know and love.

“We wanted to honour the comfort that people know from the format of the show and we kept our car enthusiasm as a central pillar that people will recognise in he show,” Bourgeois told Radio Times. “But I think we’ve given it our kind of stamp of our own identities, our senses of humour and car tastes. So I think we’ve struck a good balance.”

Holland added: “We did that but we didn’t do it all consciously. We are who we are so it’s not like we set out to be different, it’s just whatever our tastes in cars are, the places we wanted to see, things we wanted to do. That’s what’s in it.”

“We’re massive fans of the show so it wasn’t a case of us coming in and being like, ‘Time to shake things up!’ It wasn’t any of that,” Engelsman said. “It was more a case of how do we honour what’s come before? How do we play the same notes that the audience wants to hear and see? And yet still give it our own flavour.”

All episodes of The Grand Tour are available to watch now on Prime Video. You can sign up to Amazon Prime Video for a 30-day free trial.

Add The Grand Tour to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what else is on. For more TV recommendations and reviews listen to The Radio Times Podcast.