The Grand Tour's James May visits famous Devon ship for new TV series

He has left his sidekicks behind for his own show

World-famous Devon tourist landmark the Golden Hind - a full-sized replica of Sir Francis Drake's iconic ship - will feature in a new television series next year fronted by James May. The presenter, best known for starring alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond in Top Gear and The Grand Tour, has left his sidekicks behind to star in his first Channel 5 series called The Great Explorers.

The new factual series tells the stories of three of the World’s most famous and infamous explorers – Christopher Columbus, Sir Walter Raleigh and James Cook. Last Tuesday, October 8, James and a film crew arrived at Brixham harbour to shoot scenes from the Golden Hind.

They exclusively booked the boat for half a day, but due to bad weather on the day, their visit was extended to double that time. After James was spotted on the boat, a social media post on community page Spotted Paignton sent rumours into overdrive after it joked that 'apparently' James had bought the pirate ship and was 'turning it into a Clarkson’s Farm reality series'.

Golden Hind owner Sean Twomey then fueled speculation further by teasing a 'huge announcement' that Friday evening. The big news was in fact that people could now sleep in a hammock on the boat when booking overnight stays dubbed 'Air b n Sea'. It was donated to the boat by James.

Sean has confirmed he and his wife Mary still own the boat and have enjoyed their best season so far since buying the ship around six years ago. Although he admits

Delighted that the Golden Hind will be on TV next year, with a possible screening date of next spring, he said: "They were there filming a documentary about Sir Walter Raleigh who was from Devon and was a distant cousin of Sir Francis Drake. This ship is like what he would have sailed on.

"The film crew were originally meant to have booked the boat for four hours but as the weather was horrendous and they had to do a lot of outside filming, they ended up being there all day until 4pm.

"I was there on the day and James was literally the way he is on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, especially as one of the crew has been his best friend for 20 years. They were having a laugh the whole time and it was really good fun.

"It was very classy because James would look at the script for two minutes and then everything was done in one take. In between takes, I was telling him about Brixham Pirate Festival and he was asking about our Air b n Sea.

"I asked him if we could keep the hammock they used for filming, so now we have two hammocks people can sleep in."