Jeremy Clarkson is returning to Amazon Prime screens with a fresh series of Clarkson’s Farm this month.
Yet it’s not all sunshine on Diddly Squat Farm as Britain's best-known but least-qualified amateur farmer is seen in the initial episode in dire straights a year since the Amazon cameras last rolled.
The series opens in the summer of 2021, and from the off the future of the farm is hanging in the balance following a disastrous annual profit of £144 the previous year.
Since then, Clarkson tells viewers he has started growing durum wheat, added millions more bees to the fold and has ambitious plans to open a restaurant on the farm – which has hit headlines in recent months after it provoked a vicious battle with the local council.
Clarkson introduces viewers back to his Chipping Norton abode at the Diddly Squat farm shop, which has seen fans of Clarkson and the show flock to the premises to go home with a bottle of apple or bee ‘juice’.
However, the former Top Gear presenter stands alongside his farmhand Kaleb Cooper in the middle of his jam-packed car park and despairs as the road chaos the shop traffic has caused.
Jeremy says: “Last week, the main road jammed up for three hours. People couldn't get vaccinated at the health centre. They couldn't get a crew for the fire station.”
Amid the unprecedented demand, Clarkson and his team were forced to mow two acres of wheat from the nearby field to make more space for cars to park – but even that wasn’t enough.
A sober Clarkson says: “I just didn't think it through. I didn't think this many people would come.”
Later in the premiere episode of the series, Clarkson turns to the task of harvesting his crop for the season, on a wing and a prayer the 520 acres will rake in more than the princely sum of the previous year.
The team started in the barley field, where they harvested three trailers-worth of crop while a combine harvester bestridden Clarkson bemoaned: “I just don't have the mentality to be a farmer. I just lie in bed thinking the barley's out there and it's past its best.”
The barley is taken to the storage area, where an unwanted surprise awaits: the ‘local vandals’ have paid the area another visit and set fire to a second farm bund.
Clarkson tells the Amazon cameras: “I was talking to the rural crime police the other day and they have had their Mitsubishi taken away and they've been given a Vauxhall Corsa.
“This is the United Kingdom – the sixth richest country in the world. How the f***ing hell are they going to catch anyone in a Corsa?”
Clarkson’s Farm Series 2 launches Friday, February 10 on Prime Video
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