Fans may see some big changes at Diddly Squat Farm this time around, its star reveals.
As the newest instalment of his hit Prime Video documentary series Clarkson’s Farm approaches, Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that fans wanting an in-depth look into the inner-workings of the presenter’s Cotswolds farm may be in for a surprise this year.
Ahead of Clarkson’s Farm’s fifth season launching on Prime Video next month, Clarkson told The Times that the cameras following Diddly Squat this time around didn’t catch much actual farming going on.
“Honestly, we’re not doing any real farming this year,” Clarkson revealed. “There’s rabbits and market gardening – basically growing herbs for the farm shop – but that’s it.”
Since its launch in 2021, Clarkson’s Farm has followed the former Top Gear host’s efforts to transform his 1,000 acre farm near Chipping Norton into a thriving agricultural business, even in the face of the struggles facing the British farming industry today.
Clarkson, who appears in the docu-series alongside his partner Lisa Hogan and fan-favourite farmhand Kaleb Cooper, explained that due to rising prices for fertiliser and red diesel, which is essential for the use of farm machinery and tractors, every farmer is struggling in the current circumstances, which will be reflected in the new episodes due Wednesday 3 June.
He continued: “There’s no point. It’s impossible to make money [while farming]. Next year, the UK gets a carbon tax on fertiliser, on top of the fact that it already costs a million, billion pounds an ounce.”
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According to Clarkson, the only crop on the farm that’s risen in value is its rapeseed, but only because “it’s an oil product.”
A report in The Times also confirmed that the forthcoming eight-episodes of Clarkson’s Farm were filmed during Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ October 2024 budget, which imposed inheritance tax on farms that had previously been exempt.
While Clarkson’s Farm has never shied away from the struggles facing the modern-day British farming industry – in fact, the series has been widely praised by British farmers for the public attention it has brought to the struggling agricultural industry – this latest news may spell bad news for the ongoing series.
Ahead of its release at the start of June, Prime Video has just released an official trailer teasing what fans can expect from this season’s muddy adventures.
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Previously, Clarkson has said he will “definitely” make six seasons of the series with Amazon, but will stop production when he feels that they’ve run out of ideas. Clarkson’s Farm has proved to be so popular with viewers, though, that it could well expand into spin-off series once the main series has ended.
Last year, Kaleb Cooper was confirmed to have filmed an Australian-set spin-off from Clarkson’s Farm, Kaleb: Down Under, which follow his solo trip to one of the planet’s biggest farming markets.
Clarkson’s Farm season 5 returns on Wednesday 3 June. Seasons 1-4 are available to watch on Prime Video now.
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