The Grand Tour Lochdown: release date, trailer and news for Scotland special

It comes after Jeremy Clarkson addressed the future of The Grand Tour amid pandemic, admitting: "We're facing some difficulties.

“It’s one of the big nightmares it is. We chose a country, I won’t say which one we chose, but we were working on a story in a country which was an amber country, so we could have gone to it, and then it went red just a few days ago, so back to the drawing board," he explained.

For now, it looks like the trio will be keeping things pretty local, starting off with the Scotland leg. And it sounds like we're in for a right treat with Jeremy Clarkson revealing his highlight from The Grand Tour Scotland special, which of course involves Richard Hammond experiencing some misfortune!

So when will The Grand Tour Scotland special be released? And what can viewers expect?

Here's everything you need to know as the three petrol heads make their return.

The Grand Tour Lochdown release date

CONFIRMED: Part one of The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown will be released on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, 30th July.

So far in season four, we've seen the original Top Gear trio take on Cambodia and Vietnam in the 2019 Seamen special, before travelling across Madagascar in December's A Massive Hunt. This time round the petrol heads will be heading to the Scottish Highlands.

Speaking to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain, Richard Hammond opened up about filming the upcoming series.

"We managed to get one done," he said. "I mean, it's difficult going anywhere because obviously it's about travel and that's been off the cards. But there is another one, coming out later on this year."

Series four is comprised of a number of specials. The first – Seamen – dropped on Friday, 13th December 2019, while the second – A Massive Hunt – arrived in December 2020.

After the release of The Grand Tour presents Seamen, production was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic – however, it seemed as though the trio were back to work by summer, with Clarkson sharing a picture in June of himself and his two co-presenters at a safe social distance.

He captioned the image: "Today’s important work. Planning the next adventure.”

Filming then began in October with Clarkson posting another cheeky snap to his Instagram revealing The Grand Tour team had formed a social bubble.

This allowed the team to film new episodes of the show without breaking any of the coronavirus guidelines set out by the government and industry bodies.

While episode three was originally meant to take place in Russia, those travel plans were postponed – although James May confirmed in November the episode had not been cancel and that filming for the special in Scotland had already taken place.

He told RadioTimes.com and other press: "We’ve already filmed one for next year which is our recent Scotland adventure, so I would hope we could do another one next year but it’s slightly out of our control. It depends what happens with all the COVID stuff. But I’m confident we’ll be able to film another one, so two will come out in 2021!"

He added: "The Russia plan is simply postponed until we don’t know when, but we haven’t cancelled it. We’re just having to put it in the cupboard at the moment but we will get it out one day and finish it off."

The Grand Tour Lochdown trailer

Amazon Prime Video recently released the first full-length trailer for The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown, which gives a first look at how The Grand Tour filming was affected by COVID.

A day before, Grand Tour shared a teaser trailer on their TikTok account with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May back in action.

You can watch the full clip below.

What are the format changes in The Grand Tour season four?

An emotional Clarkson told the audience in the season three finale that the current format, featuring a live studio audience in a tented studio, will be scrapped in favour of more road trip “adventure specials”.

“So although the tent has gone, The Grand Tour goes on,” Clarkson said.

Amazon will also be backing solo projects for The Grand Tour presenters, with May immersing himself in Our Man in Japan.

Clarkson previously told the Radio Times he has “no plans” for what he will do beyond The Grand Tour, although the star is already hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire over on ITV.

“I never run out of ideas," the 59 year old said. "Someone asked me, before this series, ‘What can you possibly do with a car that you haven’t already done?’ But my head’s filled with enough ideas for five years,” he said.

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Where is The Grand Tour season four filmed?

Jeremy Clarkson told the audience in the season three finale that he had been working on season four “for some time”.

Clarkson, alongside presenters Richard Hammond and James May, were reported to have started filming their Seaman special in June 2019, while episode two wrapped afterwards in Madagascar.

In an interview with The Sun in May 2019, Clarkson confirmed that locations for season four will include Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

During a recent interview, James May assured fans the show will continue.

He said: "There are all sorts of lovely places without having to go too far. Everything is postponed, it’s not cancelled.”

May went on to admit it would be nice to take a break from exotic locales, saying: “It’s exciting to go to exotic places but I’ve been to an awful lot of them.

He added: “Whenever we make the Grand Tour, and it was the same on Top Gear, it’s about the subject first and the story, then we make it fit somewhere.”

Can I watch The Grand Tour if I don’t have Amazon Prime?

The Grand Tour is an Amazon Prime Video exclusive, meaning you need to be a Prime subscriber to watch.

However, if you don’t already have Amazon Prime Video you can sign up for a free 30 day trial where you can binge on The Grand Tour and more.

The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown arrives on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, 30th July. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for more news and features.