It’s been 18 years since Jeremy Clarkson bought Diddly Squat Farm, but only seven since he decided to take over the daily running of the place himself. In that time, he’s had a very, very steep learning curve.
Whether it’s practical skills like learning how to till a field (after, of course, having to learn how to drive the tractor in the first place), or getting to grips with the seemingly endless amount of bureaucracy and governmental red tape that comes with modern farming, Clarkson has had to put aside his rather large ego, roll up his sleeves and get mucky in his own fields. Even some of his biggest detractors (including myself) have had to admit they’re impressed.
But the arrival of the fifth series of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video marks a change. After seven years of stewarding his own land, Clarkson finally seems like a proper farmer: his bull has successfully impregnated most of his cows, and his flock of sheep is growing. He’s even got the farming community (who weren’t best pleased with his new venture back in 2019) on board. Unfortunately for Clarkson – and indeed Amazon, which reportedly paid the presenter a whopping £160 million for the initial deal – it doesn’t make for very interesting television.
