Clarkson’s Farm star Jeremy Clarkson highlighted the harsh realities and financial pressures of farming while backing Britain’s Got Talent act The Hawkstone Farmers Choir
Jeremy Clarkson has reflected on his early misconceptions about agriculture and stressed the importance of supporting Britain’s farming community. The 66-year-old began focusing on farming around seven years ago, with the experience documented in his hit series Clarkson’s Farm, which returns for its fifth season next month.
Jeremy is championing one of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent contestants, The Hawkstone Farmers Choir, who are scheduled to take the stage this weekend.
The group, comprising solely of farmers from across the country, originally came together during rehearsals for a series of commercials promoting Jeremy’s Hawkstone beer.
Since then, they’ve captured public attention through the ITV talent competition, where their moving performance of Elbow’s One Day Like This secured Amanda Holden’s Golden Buzzer.
Prior to this weekend’s fifth semi-final, choir members Katrina and Ben joined Amanda and Jamie Theakston on Heart Radio Breakfast, where they had an unexpected surprise appearance from Jeremy through video call.
During the conversation with the former Top Gear star, Jamie noted the choir had spotlighted the “bigger cause” surrounding agriculture, remarking: “A lot of farmers feel isolated and it’s important that we get behind them and support them right?”.
Jeremy responded by reflecting on the difficulties he encountered during his transition from broadcasting into agriculture. “I couldn’t agree more,” he said. “I thought farming, when I started seven years ago, you just drove around in a Range Rover, went to the pub occasionally, moaned about the weather and then in February, you went skiing.”
He elaborated: “It’s unbelievably difficult and I’m lucky because I’ve often got a film crew here so there’s a lot of people but, when there isn’t a film crew here, you start to realise, ‘I’m all on my own’, literally all day, six in the morning until midnight, all day on my own.”
Reflecting on the financial pressures, he observed: “And then you think, ‘Oh god there’s no money coming in’, because there isn’t. And then you think, ‘Well what if you’re an actual proper farmer?’, like these guys are and all other people in the choir.”
He added: “You worry about money, you’ve got no one to talk to, you’re on your own, it’s not like most people who work in an office or a shop or a factory, these guys are on their own worrying all day long that the weather’s not right and that another subsidy has gone and they are being forced to grow bird food rather than human food.”
Discussing the choir’s unexpected continuation, he continued: “It’s a very distressing industry at the moment, so it’s great that the choir has kept going because we only brought it together to do some silly adverts for the Hawkstone beer brand and then they all went, ‘Well this is great, we’ll just stay together’.”
Concluding his remarks, he stated: “As Katrina said, I think it’s fantastic and for it to happen on Britain’s Got Talent and you giving them the golden buzzer Amanda that was just brilliant.”
Britain’s Got Talent continues Saturday at 7pm on ITV and ITVX
