A SHOW with the word ‘carnage’ in the title and filmed in Mid Wales means it is must-watch television this Christmas.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May roaming the Cambrian Mountains and getting collared by the police in the south of Powys is all included in The Grand Tour: Carnage A Trois, which was released earlier this month.

The former Top Gear trio are back with another Grand Tour special, filmed in the UK – including Powys – after the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to their plans to film around the world.

The brand new special instalment of the show arrived on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, December 17, with Clarkson, Hammond and May turning their attention to French automotive culture.

This follow-up to the petrol heads’ lockdown special sees the trio embark on a whacky road trip across Wales in classic French cars while exploring our European neighbours and the inventors of motorsport’s attitude towards cars.

While French cuisine and culinary standards are often championed as among the best in the world, the world of French car culture can only be described as rather more bizarre.

Starting in the Cambrian Mountains, near Beulah, they try to drive up a mountain, as well as defuse a bomb, look at propeller-powered cars, and much more, including helicopters.

The trio then head on the race of their lives to the English Channel where they partake in an epic medieval climax.

Before Amazon revealed the premise of Carnage A Trois, the trio were spotted driving classic French cars in Wales by fans back in April. They also stayed at Llandrindod Wells’ Metropole Hotel, while Hammond attracted the attention of the police following a bout of road rage in Crickhowell.

The crew have been all over the world filming the show since it first aired in 2016, including Madagascar, Cambodia and Lapland, but executive producer Andy Wilman said they had decided to stay a little closer to home during the pandemic due to not being able to fly off to their usual exotic locations. And while places like Crickhowell and Beulah may not quite be Timbuktu, Nepal and Bangladesh – where they were due to go this year – Mr Wilman said the UK won’t be matched for beauty.

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“Normally we do big foreign shoots, go around the world and obviously we haven’t been able to do that,” said Andy, who produced Top Gear from 2002-15, in an earlier article this year.

“So, in lockdown, we’ve made smaller specials in the UK. We did one in Scotland which is coming out this summer and one now in England and Wales. If you can’t go somewhere far away and exotic you look for the most beautiful spots you can close to home, and Wales was beautiful that day. It was amazing where we were. We spent a week in Wales and had a fantastic time.

“Coming here is something we’d like to do again. We should be going to Timbuktu and Nepal and Bangladesh – places not quite as glamorous as Wales – but we just can’t. Not many places match Scotland and Wales for beauty.”

*The Grand Tour series 1-4 are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. You can sign up for £7.99 a month with a 30-day free trial.