Top Gear's May flies to film troops

Top Gear has swapped race tracks for caterpillar tracks by heading to visit British troops in Afghanistan.

Presenter James May flew out to Camp Bastion for a film about the military vehicles used by the forces which will be screened during this Sunday's edition of the motoring programme.

It comes just a week after the stars were seen using a tank to halt a hatchback by blowing it to pieces in the first edition of the latest run of the BBC2 show.

May was shown how the vehicles are maintained and helped to carry out some mechanical work while he was visiting Helmand province.

He is among a number of stars who have headed to the base in recent years, with Gary Barlow making a visit last year for an ITV documentary.

In an interview with forces radio station BFBS while in Afghanistan, May said the feature was "about the improvements in military vehicles - an excuse to drive some interesting stuff about but also to talk about redeployment and all the admin and how difficult it is and how massive it all is".