The Grand Tour viewers have claimed a scary scene in the latest special was faked for the cameras.
First airing in 2016, the TV series stars the former Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond as they conduct reviews of various models of cars, as well as taking on motoring-styled challenges and races.
Their latest special, titled Sand Job sees them travelling across the remote African country of Mauritania to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Paris-Dakar rally.
Although many fans have loved seeing them tackling the ambitious task, some have blasted the series for a particular scene that appeared to show Richard, 54, in a sticky situation.
At one point during the journey Richard inadvertently drove his Aston Martin into a live minefield.
The moment came after the trio stumbled upon a bat-infested tunnel they needed to get through in order to continue their journey across the Sahara.
Stepping up to the plate first was Jeremy, 63, who sped through, only to slam on the brakes at the last minute when he spotted the minefield at the end other end.
Attempting to warn Richard, who wasn’t far behind him, it was too late as the presenter was already speeding through the tunnel, unaware of what laid ahead.
He was then unable to break as quickly as his co-star, and ended up driving through the barrier and landing in the middle of the minefield.
Clearly shaken, he remained unharmed and was able to quickly reverse out.
Even after those two close calls, they were then followed by the crew’s petrol truck, which also managed to avoid any of the explosives.
Although the presenters looked concerned about what had played out, some people watching on at home are convinced it was all for show.
After the programme’s release, some did some digging and discovered there was no such minefield on satellite images of the tunnel online.
Then taking to Reddit, they accused the scene of being manufactured.
‘I found the tunnel from Sand Job on Google Maps and I wasn’t able to find a minefield near this tunnel, so this was most likely scripted, but there is a big minefield problem in West-Sahara in general,’ the original poster shared.
‘The minefield bit was definitely scripted, but their reactions did look pretty genuine lol. The snowmobile hitting the fuel bowser was a different story. Nevertheless, still an amazing special,’ another wrote.
‘Minefield is absolutely scripted, there’s no way they would have had someone drive a truck through an actual minefield. There’s also YouTube videos of people exploring the tunnel and there’s no minefield signs. I will still say though, until I saw the truck going straight through the mines, I got REAL nervous for Hammond,’ someone else commented.
Another added: ‘I thought the fact one of their crews willingly drove through it in the fuel bowser was a dead giveaway of lack of mines.’
Meanwhile someone else pointed out what they claimed was a giveaway the fact what unfolded wasn’t entirely real.
‘I’ve done a bit of movie prop making in the past and the sign they erected looks like it’s been made to look weathered. They made the wood for the fence also look weathered, but the barb wire is still pristine. Of course that bit is faked,’ they wrote.
The Sand Job special, which is the penultimate in the long-running series, sees the presenters compete in their ‘hottest challenge ever’ where they must complete their journey in cheap modified sports cars.
‘Their journey begins with the world’s longest train and sees them tackle the killer Sahara and perilous river crossings, whilst protecting their precious fuel bowser from exploding,’ the synopsis explains.
While the programme aired its last full series in 2021, it has been followed by two specials, with A Scandi Flick released in 2022 and Eurocrash coming out last year.
The final special was filmed in Zimbabwe and is reported to be released sometime next year.
Last month Jeremy confirmed the series would be ending and branded himself ‘unfit, fat and old’ when speaking about why he was done with the ‘immensely physical’ show.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Amazon Prime for comment.
The Grand Tour: Sand Job is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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