‘I’ve worked with Jeremy Clarkson for years – we had one big worry about Clarkson’s Farm’
Clarkson’s Farm producer Andy Wilman has spoken about his biggest concern before the Amazon Prime Video show was made – and it wasn’t about money
In 2019, when a tenant who had been farming a thousand acres of Oxfordshire agricultural land decided to retire, the landowner, who happened to be TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, thought he’d have a go at managing the farm himself.
Almost on a whim, he suggested to Amazon Prime Video executives that his countryside venture could make for compelling television. The resulting programme, ‘Clarkson’s Farm,’ has unexpectedly emerged as a significant platform amplifying the authentic concerns of Britain’s farming community.
The series has also revealed a more tender aspect of Jeremy’s character, with the presenter candidly discussing his cancer diagnosis in the most recent series.
However, producer Andy Wilman, Clarkson’s long-time collaborator on programmes including ‘Top Gear’ and ‘The Grand Tour,’ has acknowledged his initial apprehension about the farming venture.
During an appearance on the High Performance podcast, he confessed he never anticipated that “a show about a man failing to grow things” would achieve such widespread cultural impact, noting: “All our best moments with Top Gear were kind of organic happy accidents, or just organically developing.”
‘Clarkson’s Farm’ followed a similar trajectory, he explained: “The whole premise was a sort of whimsical thing – he tries to make a go of his farm… all the focus was on Jeremy making a go of his farm. There was no plan or logic or perception that farmers would see us as beacons or would say, ‘Oh you actually are highlighting things that bothered us’.”
However, Andy confesses he never expected the programme to resonate so strongly with viewers nationwide, admitting: “Our big worry, apart from how authentic it would be, is how boring it might be.”
He revealed concerns that devoted Clarkson enthusiasts, accustomed to spectacular stunts such as strapping rocket engines to a Mini, or attempting to drive an amphibious car across the English Channel, might find themselves underwhelmed if the programme’s most exciting moment featured Jeremy simply “hitching a tractor trailer up.”
According to Andy, traditional reality programmes following entrepreneurs launching farms or businesses typically rely on genuine uncertainty about their success or failure for dramatic tension.
He elaborated: “The classic version of somebody doing a farm would be, ‘I’ve sold everything I’ve got. I’ve mortgaged everything… I’ve put all my life savings into this and I’ve got to make it work.’ Therein lies your jeopardy to take you through the series.”
But that conventional approach seemed impossible with Jeremy leading the venture, Andy explained: “Everyone knows Jeremy’s got a bob or two. So if the farm were not to make money or work, right, he’s not out on his a**e. That’s not going to happen. And that was the storyline gone.”
Despite these challenges, viewers became surprisingly engrossed watching Clarkson receive stern reproaches from farm assistant Kaleb Cooper for his extravagant purchase of a Lamborghini tractor. Now in its fifth series, ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ has captured the hearts of both working farmers and the wider public alike.
Speaking to the BBC, one farmer remarked: “Many farmers will think that this is putting them and their experience over in a positive way … There were some proper laugh-out-loud moments … I am so inspired by the way that Jeremy Clarkson has talked about the industry and the people who have helped him.”
Sheep farmer James Rebanks told the Telegraph that Clarkson had achieved more for the agricultural sector in a single series than the BBC’s long-running farming magazine programme, Countryfile, had managed in three decades.