Jeremy Clarkson and fellow Grand Tour hosts nearly died when TV stunt in Vietnam was hit by monsoon
JEREMY Clarkson nearly died attempting his most dangerous TV exploit to date.
The Grand Tour star and his colleagues Richard Hammond and James May were hit by a monsoon in Vietnam as they rowed one of the world’s most treacherous seas — where four people had just perished.
James had to be rescued when his boat was flooded by crashing waves, so producers pulled them out of the stunt.
The drama came as the trio tried to cross part of the South China Sea in monsoon season.
Sun columnist Jeremy said: “It transpired four people were killed an inch away from us. It’s about the only time health and safety has made the correct decision.”
“I, of course, was fine, but May had to abandon ship as crew boats were filling with water.
After initially rowing out across the Mekong Delta river, things turned nasty once they hit the choppy ocean.
Speaking on his Drivetribe channel, the former Top Gear host added: “It was an incredibly dramatic ending which was entirely accidental.
“The ending we’d planned, that we’d spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on, that we had researched for months, didn’t happen.
“As a result of the conditions we simply couldn’t complete [the shoot] but because of the conditions we had one hell of an ending - an astonishing ending.”
This is not the first time the trio have almost died during filming.
Two years ago Richard, 49, had to be airlifted to hospital after crashing an electric car in Switzerland and in 2006 he suffered life-threatening head injuries and brain damage after a 288mph crash.
The eagerly anticipated fourth series of The Grand Tour starts later this year, and a recent poll showed the show is the second most streamed series ever.
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