Jeremy Clarkson takes swipe at Bear Grylls for causing Grand Tour misconception

Exclusive: Clarkson made a dig at Grylls for not performing the challenges he portrayed on screen

Jeremy Clarkson took a swipe at Bear Grylls as he looked back at his 22-year career with Richard Hammond and James May.

The trio have ended their partnership, wrapping up their Top Gear follow-up show The Grand Tour, and dissolving their joint production company W Chump and Sons, which produces it for Prime Video.

Reflecting on the most significant experiences of their shows over the years, Clarkson, 64, expressed pride about genuinely living through the chaos that was portrayed on screen.

“If you were to ask James about his most miserable night, we’d all agree it was in the Himalayas,” he told The Independent and other reporters at a London event forthe final ever Grand Tour episode.

“I know a lot of people, after Bear Grylls was exposed for buying costumes and staying in hotels, assume everybody does and they assume that we do,” he hit out. “And we never did. If we said we camped, we camped.”

Giving an example of the kind of difficulties they endured both on and off screen he explained, “In the olden days, we used to have Weetabix tents, you know those little things you got in cereal packets.

“There was one night, when we were in the Himalayas and it was bitterly cold, and they’d given us these sleeping bags that had those zips that simply disintegrated if you used them, so it became a sort of satin very thin sheet that just fell off all the time. And we ended up wearing all the clothes we had and absolutely freezing.

“And my pillow, all our pillows. It was a very thin bit of nylon with some damp gravel in it. I just remember waking up the next day thinking I have 15 hours of filming and driving and, you know, doing difficult stuff today. And I’ve had no sleep at all, it was miserable.”

Clarkson made a dig at Grylls for not performing the challenges he portrayed on screen (Andrew Timms/Getty)

The TV star is currently enjoying the biggest success of his career with Clarkson’s Farm, a series airing on Amazon’s subscription service Prime Video that documents his attempts to run the 1000-acre farm he purchased in 2008.

Since premiering in 2021, Clarkson has extended his business empire by purchasing a Cotswolds pub for £1m – something he is developing a brand new series about, which will no doubt include the grim discovery he made outside the country boozer earlier this week.

The Grand Tour: One for The Road airs on Prime Video on Friday 13 September