Jeremy Clarkson’s raw honesty and humour has struck a nerve with Britain’s farmers. But not all of them can sell mushroom powder for £40
It has been a brutally unforgiving spring on British farms but morale has been bolstered by the screening of series three of Amazon Prime’s hit series Clarkson’s Farm. Squire Clarkson can be relied upon to tell farming life as it is with a raw honesty lacking on other channels.
His sonorous, piss-taking voiceover commentaries on the effects of the weather on his crops are refreshingly blunt and all the better for lacking prissy links to the climate change narrative that now seem obligatory elsewhere. Sometimes only Anglo-Saxon words of one syllable will provide the mot juste to convey the awfulness of agricultural situations and the series wears its rating of 15 for foul language unashamedly at the top of the screen.
The show is successful because of the endearing Toad of Toad Hall chutzpah of our hero. It is an instantly recognisable stereotype. There is a proud British landowning tradition of making your fortune then buying a farm and carrying on farming until all the money is gone, usually in a trail of botched diversifications and expensive gadgetry.
Clarkson challenges all the received wisdoms and goes out of his way to find rules to break. But we know that the bigger the scrapes he gets himself into the more publicity will be generated for his Diddly Squat brand and that he will have the last laugh.
And humour is something that is increasingly lacking in British rural life. Jezza’s satirical take on the humourless edicts of the “pig police” provide a welcome counter narrative to the endless stream of directives confronting farmers in this country, though not necessarily elsewhere.
That said, his cavalier attitude to health and safety is sometimes literally too close to the bone, as in the chainsaw that nearly takes his unprotected, denim-clad leg off. In our own sparsely populated parish in Dumfries and Galloway in two decades, we have had three deaths from cattle or machinery accidents and two life-changing injuries to farm workers, one from a chainsaw. Hopefully viewers will have hoisted in the fact that farming is a dangerous business and been more influenced by land agent Charlie Ireland’s well-justified bollocking than by Clarkson’s example.
Political incorrectness is what we like about Clarkson though. His previous decision to allow the local hunt on his land – following normal custom in the Cotswolds rather than the metropolitan dogma of the media bubble – led to his Hawkstone Brewery being besieged by animal rights terrorists.
In this series, his throwaway remark about the pheasants he releases on his farm will no doubt draw abuse from the Axis of Spite. A lesser man would have avoided talking about it on camera but Clarkson earns respect by being willing to stand up and be counted as a shooting man.
Yet to those of us in remote parts of Britain, Clarkson’s Farm is a portrayal of Cotswold life rather than rural life. The area around Chipping Norton where Clarkson farms probably now has more in common with Chelsea than with where I farm. No one around here would think of hiring out goats to local celebrities to rid their wildflower meadows of thistles.
If we were able to start a farm shop, there wouldn’t be many customers around here prepared to pay £40 for 30 servings of lion’s mane mushroom powder to go in their coffee. And we would struggle to find anyone to work in it. Since Brexit put a stop to Eastern Europeans coming, it has been almost impossible finding labour; our most recent recruit to milk our cows we had to bring all the way from the Philippines on a temporary worker’s visa.
Clarkson’s Farm fans spot major Gerald Cooper change after teary cancer update
Clarkson’s Farm fans have spotted a major change in Gerald Cooper following his teary update after he returned from cancer treatment.
Clarkson’s Farm fans have noticed a major change in fan favourite Gerald Cooper after his cancer treatment in season 3 of Jeremy Clarkson’s hit Amazon Prime Video show.
The local dry stone waller and ‘head of security’ at the Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire sadly missed half of season 3 after being diagnosed with cancer.
Fortunately Gerald, who is unrelated to breakout star Kaleb Cooper, was able to return at the end of Clarkson’s Farm 3 following a course of successful radiotherapy.
At the very end of the third series, a tearful Gerald stopped the show to deliver a message to his fellow cast members while clearly emotional and struggling to hold back tears.
He told Jeremy, Kaleb Cooper, Lisa Hogan and Charlie Ireland: “I would like to thank everybody, all the film crew and all my friends here, all of you have been so kind to me and my family. Thanks very much.”
But fans say they’ve noticed a major change in Gerald since his cancer treatment.
Not only does he look healthier but he also sounds much clearer than before.
Viewers think the reason is because the show’s editors decided not to meddle with his speech as much due to his cancer diagnosis.
u/funnypsychology said: “Is it just me or does Gerald sound much clearer now?
“In the last seasons I couldn’t understand anything at all. Now I can get at least a few sentences.
“Also the subtitles just disappear when he talks sometimes.”
u/microgiant said: “I think Gerald deliberately leans into his West Country accent most of the time for filming because it’s funny, but there were times in Season 3 that were too serious for that.”
u/precarious314159 said: “That’s been my theory. There’s no way he doesn’t know they joke about how they can barely understand him after three seasons and probably multiple people asking him about it.
“I can see how the first season, they couldn’t understand him because he mostly spoke on the walkie talkie and then slightly leant into it.”
u/rover199809 said: “Someone did a video where they showed that the editors jumble up his dialogue scenes as well to make it more confusing for viewers.”
u/maartibo said: “I was watching Season 2 again and I realised during the moment in the pub with Jeremy, Gerald and Kaleb, the editors cut in bits of Gerald talking but in reverse. Only a couple of words but it made it gibberish.”
u/diminishedprospects said: “Was interesting to me how clear and concise he was in the final scene thanking everyone. When he needs to he can properly communicate without the local dialect. Love Gerald.”
And u/procedureminimum added: “He looks much healthier as well.”
