Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.After 22 years Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have finally reached the end of the road. As the presenters of Top Gear first and then The Grand Tour on Prime Video, the trio have driven across six continents — and frequently crossed lines of political correctness — in the name of blokey entertainment. Yet for all the thousands of miles they’ve racked up, they have struggled to move with the times; their rubber-burning, controversy-inflaming vehicular high jinks increasingly at odds with an eco-conscious world. And so, perhaps sensing that their juggernaut is turning into a spluttering jalopy, they have announced that their new, Zimbabwe-traversing special, One for the Road, will be their last outing together.If the location is new, then the ride itself feels familiar — no schtick shifts to be found here. Driving vintage models up mountains and along rivers, in cities and on dirt roads, the men find themselves in much the same kind of predicaments as in past adventures from Argentina to the Arctic. Hammond repeatedly gets stuck and is “abandoned” by the other two; Clarkson misreads a map and leads the gang on a detour that requires them to negotiate a crocodile-infested lake and a single-track railway line. As ever, boyish enthusiasm about car specs dovetails with fitfully funny middle-aged grousing; digressive faffing offset with savvy editing and consummate camerawork.The high production value, however, doesn’t mitigate against the occasional needless cheap shot. “Call us by all means to complain,” Clarkson jests after a crass remark. “Simply dial 0800 bugger off,” chimes in May. When not straining to provoke, the trio are, in fact, on affable form here; their bantering giving way to moments of evident, if grudging, affection and some unexpectedly earnest reflections about the two-decade journey they have been on together.While Clarkson, Hammond and May cover the spectrum of boorish to boring as individual TV personalities, their undeniable chemistry means they have always been more than the sum of their parts. But, given the anger and offence that the trio (though mainly the outspoken Clarkson) have caused over the years with ill-advised stunts and insensitive jokes, there will be some who will feel that they haven’t earned the right to quite literally drive off into the sunset.Still, for long-standing fans there are a couple of scenes near the end that serve as both a rewarding callback to the first-ever special and a genuinely bittersweet bit of closure. And as they near their final destination, you wonder if the misty-eyed men might break down before their battered cars.★★★★☆On Prime Video from September 14
