When Clarkson’s Farm was first announced in 2021, you could be forgiven for raising an eyebrow or two in disbelief.
After all, who would want to watch former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson go about making a living from the land on his Cotswolds farm of Diddly Squat?
Turns out, quite a lot of us. For Clarkson’s Farm has gone onto become something of a ratings juggernaut: Prime Video’s most successful original series ever, smashing ratings records every time a new season comes out.
It’s made a star of its cast – not only Clarkson, but also his assistant, Kaleb Cooper, his land manager Charlie Ireland and even his girlfriend Lisa Hogan.
What’s behind its success? On paper, the concept doesn’t seem appealing: take one ageing presenter, best known for fronting a show about cars and larking about with his mates, and put him in a farm in the British countryside. The tonal shift couldn’t be more jarring, but it hits the sweet spot in the way it appeals to both farmers and casual fans.
Sheep farmer and author James Rebanks is one example of where the two collide. Speaking at Cheltenham Literary Festival in 2021, he explained that, far from putting people off farming, “what Clarkson has come along and done is gone, ‘Actually, no, everybody will watch a programme about farming, you just need to do it in a certain way.’”
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The focus of the show is just as much about farming as it is Clarkson’s attempts to liven it up with bonkers new experiments – attempts people will recognise from his days on Top Gear. The man is a presenter; he knows how to hold people’s attention and present information in an accessible way, because it’s something that he’s been doing for years.
And if that way includes making a prat of himself as he repeatedly gets things wrong about tractors, then all the better; it’s warts-and-all viewing where we’re encouraged to laugh at him as much as we do with him.
That said, this is a personal project for Clarkson: it’s clear that he cares a great deal about the inhabitants of Diddly Squat farm, as well as the animals.
Yes, his pigs get sent to slaughter twice a year, but it’s impossible not to get misty-eyed as he and Lisa mourn the death of a batch of piglets – born in the night and crushed by their mother. Or to feel upset on his behalf when another batch of grain fails, due to the increasingly unpredictable UK weather.
Perhaps as a result, farmers themselves have enthusiastically embraced the show.
“I can report back from within the farming community: they all loved that programme. They loved it,” Rebanks said. “Okay, he’s clowning around and he plays to that audience, and a lot of farmers are lads that like machines and they would have watched Top Gear and all the rest of it.”
Much has also been written about how successfully the show has raised awareness of how difficult a profession farming is. Amid the pratfalls and hijinks, a lot of time is given to illustrating how one bad season can result in a failed crop.
In one memorable scene, Clarkson discovers that during his first year on the farm, he made just £114 in profit. And, as he notes, while he has the might of Prime Video and his TV career to absorb the damage somewhat, other farmers don’t.
This combination of serious and silly – plus the authenticity of the way in portrays farming life – have helped give the show a rocket-powered lift-off. Certainly, there’s nothing quite like it on television at the moment: the closest comparison would be BBC show Countryfile, which is decidedly on the drier side. In the 21st century, we’re remarkably disconnected from the reality of where our food comes from. This is a welcome, accessible tonic.
Even scandal hasn’t dented its popularity: quite the opposite, in fact. In late 2022, Clarkson wrote an article about Meghan Markle where he professed to “hate” her and wrote that she should be made to “parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain”: a reference to a similar scene in Game of Thrones.
There was backlash. Clarkson later apologised “all the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head”, adding “this is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.”
A few months later, season two of Clarkson’s Farm aired. It quickly became Prime Video’s most watched original show ever, clocking up 4.3 million viewers for its premiere.
Now, with season four on the horizon, the show’s massive success shows no signs of slowing down. Season five is greenlit, and although Clarkson has already said he’s ready to “take a break” from filming after that’s wrapped, don’t expect it to be gone for long.
After all, there’s massive demand – and has singlehandedly transformed Clarkson’s public persona from controversial columnist to bumbling, good-natured farmer. Come rain or shine, Clarkson’s Farm will be gone; after all, it’s just about a national treasure.
Clarkson’s Farm season four is streaming on Prime Video from May 23
