The Grand Tour's debut episode has been branded "uncomfortably hubristic" in a BBC review that describes the TV show as "wanting to be a movie".

Will Gompertz, the Corporation's Arts Editor, took a different tone to the widespread rave reviews elsewhere that praised the action-packed show after it premiered on Amazon Prime Video.

He takes to task the "filmic" nature of the show, saying that "the scale of the production, the quality of the cameras, the epic sweeping shots" make it seem like it was aimed at cinema audiences rather than those watching on TV "or a mobile phone, which is how I imagine a lot of people will view it".

The opening sequence - rumoured to have cost £2.5 million - saw host Jeremy Clarkson leave a shiny London office under storm clouds and take a black cab trip while listening to radio reports of his demise after parting ways with the BBC when he punched a Top Gear producer.