Tearful Jeremy Clarkson reveals brutal reality of his farmer choir’s lives after their BGT audition

Jeremy Clarkson got emotional as he broke his silence on the farming choir he helped to set up that auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent over the weekend.

The Clarkson’s Farm star took to Instagram to reveal he’d tuned in to watch the choir perform on the ITV competition programme – and watched on as they were given the Golden Buzzer and sent through to the live shows.

The group sang a choral rendition of Elbow’s One Day Like This for judges Amanda Holden, KSI, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell on the show on Saturday night.

Jeremy, 65, told his fans he was ‘so happy’ as he heaped praised on the ‘fantastic’ choir, which is made up of farmers from around the UK.

The choir, which is now run by farmers Simon Gwilliam and Lizzy Dean, was originally set up by the former Top Gear presenter after searching for singing agricultural workers to appear in an advert for his Hawkstone beer range.

Speaking to his fans on social media, Jeremy explained: ‘I watched Britain’s Got Talent tonight for the first time because the Hawkstone choir were on.

‘They were just fantastic. These guys are all farmers and they work incredibly hard for really incredibly small rewards and to see them all on that stage with all that love in the room made my heart sing.’

Holding back his emotions, he admitted of watching the audition: ‘I actually welled up, and thank you Amanda Holden for pressing that Golden Buzzer.

‘It shows that I think people quite like farmers, and they were very, very good so well done, all of you. I’m a very happy man tonight because the choir is fab. That’s it.’

Fans flooded the comments section of Jeremy’s Instagram video to offer up their thoughts on the choir, as well as messages of support to the TV presenter for setting up the group in the first place.

One penned: ‘Over the last 5 years you have pulled back the veil of farming and brought it into the homes of millions… well done for bringing these farmers together.’

‘They earned that golden buzzer, they were fantastic and it was an emotional moment for all of us, thanks to you, Jeremy,’ a second chimed in.

A third wrote: ‘We love our British farmers. Feel the love guys – it’s real,’ as a fourth agreed: ‘Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the public got behind them for the win!’

Over the weekend, the Hawkstone choir were given the Golden Buzzer after their audition on the ITV show, sending them straight through to the live show round.

Tears flowed across the panel and among the audience — and in a moment that sealed their fate, Amanda, 55, reached for the coveted Golden Buzzer, sending the choir straight through to the live semi-finals.

The group of 32 farmers and agricultural workers from around the country were initially brought together by Jeremy and have been performing together since 2024.

Amanda said: ‘As you started, I completely welled up. I felt so much power. I love the whole community. I love how you’ve all got together and work your a**es off.

‘You work so hard every single day. You absolutely smashed it and I can’t wait to see what you do in the semi-finals. Congratulations.’

Guest judge Stacey Solomon added: ‘I don’t think anyone will understand the power of a choir unless they’ve been in a choir.

‘It’s such an incredible space to release and just letting it go. I’m so grateful that I got to experience that in real life, so thank you and congrats.’

Fellow judge Alesha Dixon said: ‘Music is so powerful, it’s like therapy. And you could really feel that. It sounded beautiful.’

KSI, said added: ‘Wow! Talk about multi-talented. Farming and then singing. Honestly, it felt like you belonged there. Congratulations and we’ll see you soon.’

The Hawkstone Farmers Choir will advance to the live semi-finals as they compete for the £250,000 prize and a coveted place at this year’s Royal Variety Performance.

Jeremy previously told the Daily Mail of the performance: ‘I wasn’t surprised to see Amanda moved to tears by the choir’s performance at their audition, because I’ve known for a while now that you can plough soil and shovel dung all day and still have a sweet, sweet voice.

‘To see the choir go from a half-formed idea to a musical phenomenon performing on national TV fills me with more pride than I can say and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for them in the semi-finals.

‘I reckon you’ll hear cheers of support from every other farm in the land too.’

Before their performance, choir member Katryna Shell told the judges and the crowd at Birmingham’s Hippodrome: ‘Jeremy Clarkson did a thing… Jeremy brought us together to sing, and it’s just really been amazing for us all.’

Katryna continued: ‘Every single one of us is in agriculture in some way or another. This isn’t our day jobs; we’re usually out in the fields.

‘We work by ourselves day in and day out, sometime 16, 17 hours a day. This has brought us together.

‘We’re not singers by nature. It’s brought us as a family – we have one thing that unites us and that is farming. We love what we do but it can be incredibly hard: really lonely, very isolating. To do this all together, it’s meant the world to us.’

Later on after their astonishing performance, Northumberland-born Kathryna added: ‘The choir has turned into something so much more than singing… We have come together as a community, something I didn’t even anticipate.

‘The choir is filled with all sorts of people with varying ages, singing experience, parts of the country but we all have farming linking us together – it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.’