Jeremy Clarkson has hinted at more heartbreak at Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire.
The former Top Gear and Grand Tour star owns both a farm and a pub in the Cotswolds in West Oxfordshire.
Diddly Squat Farm, which he took over in 2008, can be found in Chadlington, while The Farmer’s Dog pub, which he opened in 2024, is in Asthall, near Burford.
These locations feature heavily in the popular Prime Video show Clarkson’s Farm, which first debuted in 2021.
Now with four successful series under its belt, the documentary will return for a fifth season later this year, with filming on that one having wrapped last September.
One major plotline expected to feature in the eight new episodes is the outbreak of bovine TB at the farm.
In 2025, Diddly Squat was struck with a case of bovine TB, resulting in the herd of cattle being isolated.
A disease that affects many farmers, two consecutive failed TB tests mean cows are isolated and then sent to slaughter.
Following several animal deaths, fans are now concerned for a beloved resident donkey.
A new report this week by Heart said: “In early March, Jeremy introduced a new donkey to Diddly Squat Farm called ‘New Ben’, sharing a sweet snap of the animal with fans on Instagram.
“Ben is thought to have replaced a previous donkey, also called Ben, who regularly appeared on social media alongside his companion Bill.
“It’s not clear whether Ben is the poorly donkey in question, but fans will only have two months to wait until the fresh episodes begin rolling to discover what happens to the sick animal.”
Mr Clarkson also told the My Week in Cars podcast: “There is no script to this TV show, people always go it’s staged but the pigs dying, Gerard’s cancer – you can’t stage any of it.
“We’ve got a donkey that’s desperately ill at the moment, we’ve all got our fingers crossed that it makes it, but I don’t know, I can’t write a script saying ‘then it got better’ because you don’t know what the donkey’s going to do.
“So you have to be ready to go – but you do spend an awful lot of time sitting around doom scrolling on your phone waiting for the weather to get better or for animals to do something.”
Clarkson’s Farm series five is expected to come out in May, following the release pattern of previous seasons.
A total of eight new episodes will drop on Prime Video, with fans to be once again welcomed back to the Oxfordshire countryside for laughs and tears.
