The Great Escapists release date: All the details about Richard Hammond and Tory Belleci's new Amazon show
Everything you need to know about Richard Hammond and Tory Belleci's new survival series – The Great Escapists.
Richard Hammond's new survival series The Great Escapists arrives on Amazon Prime Video today, with The Grand Tour presenter and MythBusters' Tory Belleci trying to survive whilst stuck on a desert island.
With the show following a self-professed science geek and a renowned petrol head, The Great Escapists features a number of home-made weapons, booby traps and the odd explosion as Belleci and Hammond compete to construct a paradise island playground.
The six-part series was filmed on Panama's San Jose Island in January 2020, with cast and crew "battling with a hot, humid environment, coping with crocodiles, scorpions and species of fish that can kill you in horrible ways," Hammond told Broadcast.
Here's everything you need to know about the fun, ambitious docuseries.
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When is The Great Escapists released?
The Great Escapists arrives on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 29th January 2021.
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How do I watch The Great Escapists?
The Great Escapists will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from 29th January onwards.
Prime membership costs £7.99 per month/£79 per year – find out more about Amazon Prime Video subscription costs here.
What is The Great Escapists about?
This brand new survival series from Amazon Prime Video follows The Grand Tour's Richard Hammond as he tries to invent himself off a desert island alongside his friend, Mythbusters' Tory Belleci.
Equipped with just their wits and scrap from a shipwreck, the pair must figure out how to build their way to safety or how to attract the rescue services.
Instead of working together, the duo seem to develop a healthy rivalry with Hammond attempting to build a vehicle from scratch, while Belleci seems more concerned about blowing things up.
Filming for the show took place on Panama's San Jose Island in late January 2020, with production requiring 65 people and 13 shipping containers, Hammond told Broadcast.
"Seven weeks later our team on the island and beyond had created, I believe, a new form of pop-science show. I’ve never been prouder to play a small role in a bigger, better team," he said.
The Great Escapists cast
The Great Escapists follows Richard Hammond and Tory Belleci as they see how they'd fare as castaways.
Speaking about recruiting Tory Belleci to be his co-host, Richard Hammond revealed to Broadcast that the duo hadn't worked together before The Great Escapists.
"[I walked] down to the beach to stand opposite Tory for our first scene. Only then did I realise, we had never worked together before. What if it didn't, you know, 'spark'?
"It did. He's a genius and I fell in love immediately."
TV presenter Hammond is best known for co-hosting BBC Two's Top Gear from 2002 until 2015, at which point he began presenting The Grand Tour with his fellow former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May. He has also hosted Brainiac: Science Abuse, Total Wipeout and Planet Earth Live.
US TV personality Tory Belleci rose to fame after appearing on the Discovery Channel's MythBusters. He has since starred in Netflix's White Rabbit Project, the Travel Channel's Thrill Factor and the Science Channel's The Explosion Show.
The Great Escapists trailer
Amazon released a trailer for The Great Escapists at the beginning of January, teasing Hammond and Belleci's efforts to escape the desert island.
The Great Escapists arrives on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 29th January 2021. You can sign up to Amazon Prime Video for £7.99 a month. In the meantime, check out our TV Guide.