UK's adventure travel show 'Car and Country' to shoot in Kerala

KOCHI: Taking people on a journey filled with enthralling adventures, 'Car and Country' is all set to shoot the latest leg of the show in Kerala.

It will be its first leg outside the European continent. Showcasing a mixture of amazing super and vintage cars, it's a fun exploration of the finest European culture.

Hosted in collaboration with the support of Kerala Tourism, the show will have Porsche and other supercars racing past the greenery deep down south of India. The cars zipping past will include Porsche Track Version GT Cars, Porsche Electric Taycan, Porsche SUV Macan and Cayenne. From here, the racers will move on to the Gulf terrain.

Deepak Narendran and Ashique Thahir, two Keralites are at the wheel of this adventurous 'rush,' along with Freddie Hunt, a professional racing driver and son of legendary James Hunt, who was the 1976 F1 World Champion.

The other team members are Charlotte Fantelli, Paul Richards, Sammy Seeley, Paddy King, Adam Bertenshaw, Ken Clay, Malcolm Targett, Amy Holiday, Aimee Watts, Preetham Madhavan and Marion Ferg.

The team, so far, had some exciting trips through the picturesque bylanes of England, France, and Scotland, which were beamed through Amazon Prime UK OTT platform for nearly two months and have been lapped up by viewers.

The new edition of the Car and Country show captured Kerala's quintessential varieties like Kalarippayattu, Kathakali, houseboats, snake boat races, its local delicacies, majestic hills, backwaters, paddy fields and tea plantations.

They are planning to capture the beauty of three places in Kerala, Nedumbassery, Alappuzha and Wayanad and to screen it as two episodes.

Ashique from Kozhikode, who is passionate about supercars, and part of this elite league of the 'Car and Country' rush, said," The shoot of the last episode was challenging. We had to sleep over in tents in snowy mountains in extreme weather. We had to do wild river rafting in adverse climate conditions and do off-roading with the car."

"We let out a feel of the charming European landscape, rural communities, cultures and cuisine from the window of our supercars. Now we are happy to turn the world's attention toward this green tinged-state's natural brilliance. I am sure the show that emerges from our trip will be a superhit with local as well as the global audience," said Charlotte Fantelli.

It's both a travel and adventure show with Freddie Hunt throwing in his passion and speed into the ring.

Deepak Narendran from Kochi who has settled in the UK now, launched the show in 2014 and Ashique teamed up with him in the later episodes. It slipped into a two-year break due to the pandemic before re-emerging last year.

In its first edition, 'Car and Country' was aired on Fox International and the sponsors of the show were Emirates, Star TV, National Geographic and Star Health.

Realizing the potential of the show on the online platform, the duo moved the show to Amazon Prime UK in the later episodes. TV, radio presenter and model Danni Menzies and Lucia Coward- British actor and TV presenter, were part of the first season which was telecasted in four episodes exploring the English countryside in four iconic supercars.

The French leg in association with French Tourism, covered the French Riviera and Alsace. It also zoomed in on an automobile museum with a classic collection of Bugatti cars from across the world at Mulhouse in France. The vintage cars that propelled this round were 1959 Chevrolet C1, 1989 Ferrari Mondial, 1956 Porsche Speedster and MGA Roadster.