Jeremy Clarkson has responded to the “chaos” US vice-president JD Vance’s visit to the Cotswolds has caused to his Chipping North farm.
On Tuesday, the presenter told fans on Instagram that a no-fly zone has been imposed around the Grade II-listed manor house where Vance is staying, with the restricted airspace covering Clarkson’s own Diddly Squat Farm.
As a result, the production team behind Clarkson’s Farm, which is currently filming season five, has been forced to scrap any drone footage while the vice president remains in the area.
Vance is spending the rest of August in the hamlet of Dean as part of his UK visit, which mixes leisure with political engagements.
His itinerary has so far included a two-night stay with Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening, where fishing trips were combined with security discussions over whether Ukraine should cede territory to Russia.
The vice-president has since moved on to a Grade II listed Georgian manor house near Charlbury, Oxfordshire, an area favoured by celebrities, but some locals say the visit has caused major disruption.
Clarkson shared his frustration about on Instagram, posting a map showing a no-fly zone that covers his Diddly Squat Farm.
He wrote: “The JD Vance no fly zone. We are the pin. So on the downside, no drone shots today. On the upside, no annoying light aircraft.”
Kaleb Cooper, Clarkson’s Clarkson’s Farm co-star, also vented about the impact on his work under the presenter’s post.
He claimed his wheat was left wet in a trailer after he was forced to wait in the rain for Vance’s 19-vehicle convoy to pass.
“My wheat got wet in the trailer last night as the convo(y) stopped me in the rain in Chippy,” he wrote. “I could easily have went on my way and got it in the shed without getting in the way.”
“(If) he had just drove around in a VW Polo nobody would know who he was,” he added alongside several laughing emojis.
However, Clarkson has since weighed in on the reported “chaos” by sharing a short video of an undisturbed view of his fields.
“Utter chaos caused by Vance. How will we ever manage?” he captioned the post sarcastically.
Vance is staying at Dean Manor, a sprawling estate in a tiny Oxfordshire hamlet of just 12 homes, which one local told the Daily Mail the property is “as close as possible” to Clarkson’s farmhouse.
They added: “I’m willing to bet Clarkson can see it out of his bedroom window.”
However, any neighbourly encounters seem unlikely.
Clarkson recently criticised Vance in his Times column after the vice president referred to the UK as “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years” - a remark made amid ongoing tensions between Europe and the US over support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
In response at the time, Clarkson wrote, in part: “I’ve searched for the right word to describe him and I think it’s “t**t”. He also has no clue about history.
“Because far more recently than 30 or 40 years ago, as Vance claimed last week, our brave young men were being blown to pieces in some godforsaken desert to support whatever madcap scheme the American president had embarked upon that week.”
