Jeremy Clarkson says attempt to bring ‘happiness’ to Clarkson’s Farm led to ‘shell-shocking’ disaster

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed how a plan to bring “happiness” to Clarkson’s Farm backfired in a “shell-shocking” way.

The series, which follows the ex-Top Gear host’s attempts to run a 1,000-acre farm in the Cotswolds, has become one of Prime Video’s biggest hits since it started in June 2021. A long-awaited third series starts in May.

Clarkson bought the land in 2008 and, after the villager who ran the farm retired in 2019, he decided to see if he could run it himself.

The TV star has now shared behind-the-scenes details of the show, revealing how the idea of free-grazing his pigs – a rare breed called Sandy and Black – ended in disaster. Clarkson had been warned by land agent Charlie Ireland that it wouldn’t be as simple a task as he was thinking, stating: “Pigs need round-the-clock care.”

The TV star learnt this the hard way when many of the piglets died, with some of them being crushed accidentally by their mothers. In fact, so many piglets died that it left those working on the show feeling distressed.

“I reckoned the pigs would provide something that’s sadly lacking in farming today: a bit of genuine happiness,” Clarkson told The Sunday Times.

“Instead, it was almost unbelievably sad. I’ve never seen Lisa [Hogan, his girlfriend] so upset. The film crew looked shell-shocked.”

Clarkson continued: “We had a catastrophically high level of deaths and I was desperately worried we were doing something wrong, but it turned out we weren’t, it was just that pigs are bad mothers – the Sandy and Black particularly so. That’s why it’s a rare breed.”

The troubles have not ended there; Clarkson admitted that “behind-the-scenes, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong”.

He told the outlet how the wettest March in many years ruined his potatoes and spring barley, while he has to constantly contend with regulations.

However, the show’s success provides motivation to continue and, reflecting on why it has become such a hit, Clarkson said: “It was an enjoyable way of learning about where your food comes from. Because lecturing people doesn’t work. Television is rather obsessed with organic and diversity and sustainability, rather than where food actually comes from and the actual people who make it for you. I think it’s been a very useful programme for making people go, ‘Bloody hell, you work very hard doing that and earn no money at all.’”

Clarkson’s Farm returns to Prime Video on 3 May.