Grandmothers take on European road trip in new web series

Eccles based pensioners channel Clarkson, Hammond and May

A trio of grandmothers have taken a road trip across Europe for a new web series that has been compared to Top Gear and Thelma and Louise.

Pat Jones, 75, June Glass, 79 and designated driver June Lomas, 73 were plucked from their weekly tap-dancing class.

The three pensioners have gone on to star in the five-part series, which has saw them leave their homes in the northwest and taken to Catalonia for The Gran Tour.

The trio street danced with Spanish teenagers, took part in an indoor skydive and a yoga class and create their own giant heads out of papier-mâché.

The tour for Rentalcars.com saw then set off from Eccles, near Manchester, and collect the keys to a new Mercedes A-Class rental car soon after touching down in Barcelona.

As the only one with a license Ms Lomas took on driving duties.

She said: “I’m quite a confident driver at home, but driving abroad on the opposite side of the road in a brand new automatic, was an entirely different thing. I was quite nervous at first – going round roundabouts is hard. I’d only been in the car a few minutes when I’d clipped the wing mirror. We made so many memories on the road – I wasn’t expecting the drive to be such a big part of the trip.”

Each of the ladies were given the chance to choose an activity, with gran-of-three Ms Jones opting for a sunset cruise on the Balearic sea, which was not Ms Lomas' first choice.

She said: “That is one thing I am not partial to, sailing. I’d rather swim behind the boat than be on it.”

Ms Jones added: “I loved all the scenery, we had so much freedom to get out and explore. The funniest thing was when we painted and wore those big heads – we couldn’t stop laughing. The scariest thing was the skydiving – after I’d done it I felt incredible. One of the Junes is 80 next year and she did it, so I thought ‘I’ve got to do this.

“I didn’t even have a passport before we went because it had run out. I normally get around with my bus pass.”

Ms Glass is the oldest of the three and the only great-grandma of the group. The trio were all familiar with each other from a local tap dancing class, and while the two Junes were already firm friends, it was their first time truly getting to know Ms Jones.

Seventy-nine-year-old Ms Glass said: “I joined a tap dancing class when I was just shy of 40, so I’ve always been adventurous, on the go. I would say to anyone, go and do what I did. One of my granddaughters has always wanted to do a hot air balloon, and she says she’s so proud of me. I said to her, ‘Go and do it while you can, don’t wait until you’re almost 80.”