All the gears and no idea

The presenter on the realities of farming and why rock stars should run the countryside

- Jeremy Clarkson and Paula Lester

I’M flabbergasted,’ declares Jeremy Clarkson, the notoriously outspoken motoring journalist, and presenter, when asked if he ever thought he would end up making one of the most popular and talked-about television series of this year—about farming. ‘I honestly thought it would serve up a gentle disappointment to fans of Top Gear and The Grand Tour, who have watched me for years, but it’s gone berserk.’

He is talking, of course, about Clarkson’s Farm, Amazon Prime’s eight-part programme documenting Mr. Clarkson’s hapless attempts to farm the 1,000 acres he’s owned in the Cotswolds village of Chadlington, Oxfordshire, since 2008.

Despite being dismissed by The Guardian as ‘eight hours of a buffoon screwing things up for our supposed entertainment’, the series—which details Mr. Clarkson’s travails, from buying a tractor (opting for a 10-ton Lamborghini, which everyone mocks for being too large) to being forced to hire a local contractor, Kaleb Cooper, who’s soon chastising his employer for making a right mess of drilling a field by going freestyle with the tramlines—quickly became one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits. Watching Mr. Clarkson chase his herd of 76 ‘sheeps’ on their frequent bids for freedom or trying to have a conversation with Gerald Cooper, a dry-stone waller with an impenetrable local accent, it’s easy to see the program’s comedic appeal. However, by poking fun at his own lack of knowledge and skill, Mr. Clarkson —an often controversially forthright character, sacked from Top Gear by the BBC after a fracas with a producer—has brought the harsh realities of farming to a much-needed wider audience.