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The Travel Diaries

Richard Hammond

The Travel Diaries

Holly Rubenstein

Conversation, Personal Journals, Travel Guide, Interview, Society & Culture, Travel, Culture, Celebrity Interview, Destination, The Travel Diaries, Places & Travel, Holly Rubenstein, Wanderlust, Chef, Journalist, Arts, Podcast, Society

4.5813 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2022

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s episode I’m joined by one of British TV’s most famous faces, Richard Hammond. Stepping into the spotlight over twenty years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio to front the BBC's motoring show, Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.


The show went on to become the world's most watched factual TV programme - as proven by the Guiness book of records - at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week. The show saw the trio travel all over the world to take on epic motoring challenges, which they’ve since continued on The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, where the three embark on car related challenges across the world.


Now when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world, I’m not exaggerating: the filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia - and that’s only half of them. Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today’s episode, taking us from Canada to Botswana, to Bolivia, as well as to some much loved spots on British soil.


Destination Recap


  • The Forest of Dean, England
  • Biblins Campsite, Ross-on-Wye, England
  • Coast to Coast walk across England
  • Buttermere, Lake District, England
  • North Magnetic Pole, Northern Canada 
  • Botswana
  • Mozambique
  • Canadian Forest
  • Cambodia + Vietnam road trip
  • Mikadikadi Salt Flats, Botswana 
  • Kubu Island, Botswana
  • Bolivian rain forest
  • South Pole


Richard Hammond's Workshop Season 2 will be available to stream exclusively on discovery+ from Monday 17th October


With thanks to…

Sonnwies, South Tyrol’s mountain family-only wellness hotel with its own organic farm. Head to sonnwies.com to find out more. 


If you’d like to hear more from the podcast don’t forget to hit subscribe or if you use apple podcasts to hit follow so that a new episode lands in your podcast app each week, and if you’re really enjoying it I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review. 


If you want to be the first to find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein and I’d love to hear from you. 

If you can’t wait til then remember there’s the first seven seasons to catch up on - that’s over 85 episodes to keep you busy there. And don’t forget that all the destinations mentioned by my guests are always included in the episode show notes and they’re also on my website, TheTravelDiariesPodcast.com 

Thanks so much for listening.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the Travel Diaries podcast.

0:09.9

I'm your host, journalist Holly Rubinstein, and here each week I'll be speaking to a very special guest about the seven chapters in their life's travel diaries.

0:19.5

From their earliest childhood travel memory and the first

0:22.6

place they fell in love with to their hidden gem and what's at the top of their travel

0:27.3

bucket list. We'll be uncovering their adventures around the world and the travel experiences

0:32.5

and destinations that have shaped their lives. On today's episode, I'm joined by one of British TV's most famous faces, Richard Hammond.

0:42.3

Stepping into the spotlight over 20 years ago, Richard became one third of the iconic trio

0:47.6

to front the BBC's motoring show Top Gear, alongside James May and Jeremy Clarkson.

0:52.9

The show went on to become the world's most watched factual TV program,

0:57.8

as proven by the Guinness Book of Records,

0:59.9

at its peak 350 million viewers around the world were tuning in each week.

1:06.0

The show saw the trio travel the globe to take on epic motoring challenges,

1:10.0

which they since continued

1:11.2

on the grand tour on Amazon Prime, where the three of them embark on car-related challenges

1:15.7

across the world too. Now, when I say these shows have taken Richard all over the world,

1:19.9

I'm not exaggerating. The filmography includes Norway, Canada, Botswana, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina,

1:26.1

Namibia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, India, Madagascar, Mongolia.

1:30.7

And that's only about half of them.

1:33.0

Richard recounts some of these epic adventures on today's episode, taking us from Canada to

1:37.7

Botswana to Bolivia, as well as to some much-love spots on British soil.

1:42.0

In his newest show, Richard Hammond's workshop on Discovery

1:45.0

Plus, he trades his jet-setting lifestyle for a long-standing dream to set up a classic car

...

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