The grease up line had me laughing a lot.
Mainly due to the expression on Clarkson's face then the realisation of both of them
I'm really enjoying. Very entertaining.
That young lad seems to be natural. Bounce off each other really well.
I wonder what Lisa Hogan sees in a fat, unattractive, multi millionaire broadcaster?
I'm 4 episodes in and think it's great, very well thought out. As has been said there's a lot of facepalm moments you know are just being done for entertainment but they're still funny nonetheless.
Must be nice to mess about with Amazon footing the bill (and paying you £m's on top), wonder if it's pissing off ordinary farmers who face bankruptcy etc. if their crops fail (or never have money available to invest in new machinery).
I'm enjoying it too. Love watching Harry's Farm on YouTube and this has that sort of vibe but not serious. Clearly being next door neighbours I think Jezza and Harry are pals. It was jezza's Alfa he reviewed on Harry's cars about 6 months ago and it was Harry's Testrarossa and Countach mounted on the big shelf of the set of the old TG before it changed hands so I'm sure he's getting alot of coaching from Harry.
He's clearly got access to resources that most other farmers who live hand to mouth don't that enables him to take a lighter hearted and stress free approach and affords him to mess about with his comedy japes for our entertainment value. Same with Harry...there is no way his farming interests alone have funded his posh house, 10 car and 10 bike garage, his posh yacht moored at Nice and all the rest. He's clearly not relying on his farm as his main source of income and wealth.
I watched the first last night and was both pleasantly surprised, and equally shocked at what a tough life a farmer has. The impact of rain was nuts, and although as above Clarkson has more resources you start to get a real insight to a predicament.
Must be nice to mess about with Amazon footing the bill (and paying you £m’s on top), wonder if it’s pissing off ordinary farmers who face bankruptcy etc. if their crops fail (or never have money available to invest in new machinery).
Doesn't seem so, head over to the farming forum, and they are very impressed with it/him. They feel it's about time farming is getting a fair and accurate representation on the Tele
There was a piece on the BBC site about this - seems he's trying to pitch it halfway between his petrolhead audience and the farming audience.
@kryton57 - I grew up on a farm, always thought it would be a hard sell to get someone to apply for it as a job: 80hrs/week? For minimum wage? Oh, yeah, it's 2am, chucking down with rain and you need to find a black cow out on the fell that's giving birth.
Just finished the series and loved it. Its easy to ignore/ see through the 'moarrr powah' Clarkson and the set pieces to camera.
I think people like Clarkson and Harry Metcalf are good for the farming world because they can do things that aren't financially viable but are the right things to do and help put money into people like Ellen the Shepard and Gerald the waller and keep those skills alive.
Shearing those sheep got her £1.75 per sheep - that was some serious graft and skill.
I was also impressed in Clarkson clacking around in a 14year old Rangie - I didn't see anything more blingy in the background anywhere.
I was deeply jealous though of Clarkson - that looked a nice way to spend a life.
Just watched Sheeping. I’ve never seen him look so old as when he went to say goodbye to the three and they were already gone.
Watched the first one tonight. By god Kaleb looked proper raging with the wonky drilling.
Reminds me of Ann Widdecombe on Strictly, or Portillo pissing about on trains.
A thoroughy unpleasant person attempting a carefully choreographed attempt at rehabilitation.
Finished watching it last night.
The bits that I enjoyed were the parts that appeared genuinely unscripted, and gave the most insight into farming - pretty much all of the sheep stuff fit this category, quite enjoyed the "harvest" episode too. Was genuinely surprised at the high-effort, low-return of sheep farming.
The bits that I found utterly cringeworthy were the very obviously scripted pieces - more like crap improv (as if there is any other kind) I suppose. It also made it difficult to tell which cock-ups were genuine, and which were entirely put-on for the camera. Did he really only book one lorry to collect the grain? Or was that a contrivance? Low point for me was trying to put up a telegraph pole for the owl box - like the worst bits of TG/GT. The exchanges with Kaleb about these things were deep into crap improv territory, but does that mean that the situations were entirely staged, or just the dialogue? "ok, now Kaleb yells at Jeremy for doing something stupid..... go"
Maybe a 6.5/10 from me. Medium interesting and mildly entertaining on average - but with peaks of both really good and really bad throughout.
Its all scripted. It's the TG format. The silly bit about trying to water the field with the silage sprayer...there was no way that was going to work, the thing with the pole for the owl box etc. Pretty much every scene with the Lambo tractor...obvious he bought that knowing it was way too large for his farm and seeded alot of silly japes in the tractor. But still entertaining. Just a bit of slapstick really.
but the Guardian gave this a really poor review so it may be worth a look.
LMs Guardian review was appalling. Shes clearly got a chip on her shoulder. Even if youre not a fan of JC, the program has a lot to be positive about.
Probably the closest a huge number of middle class prime subscribers will ever get to seeing what goes into farming, and how hard it can be.
Didnt feel the need to watch the GT, and TG got a bit silly towards the end. Its nice to see JC actually have to put some effort into something.
Maybe its all a setup, maybe between shoots he goes back to his house and leaves the contractors to finish a job he started badly. I doubt he needs the money of ensuring the farm is profitable though, so why wouldnt it be an appropriate midlife crisis for a man who has had every car under the sun available to him.
I hope he learns something
I hope the viewers learn something
Ill try and finish the series based on what i've seen of the first two.
I'm really enjoying it - I used to enjoy TG prior to it getting too big and everything being scripted - this feels like a step back toward the partially scripted stuff.
The 'Sheeping' episode was interesting - how anyone makes any money out of sheep farming is beyond me - and he did look genuinely cut-up when he realised the 3 sheep were dead.
As others have said - this is all in interesting into Farming for us city types.
This is also basically in insight into what i'd be like if i won the Euro-millions - Buy a farm - buy the biggest Tractor i could find - have no idea what i'm doing.
Sheep farming is going to make even less financial sense within 10 years. A rich man/woman's hobby. Fine for the Cotswolds... devastating for some areas of the UK.
Must be nice to mess about with Amazon footing the bill (and paying you £m’s on top), wonder if it’s pissing off ordinary farmers who face bankruptcy etc. if their crops fail (or never have money available to invest in new machinery).
I don't know about pissed off but coming from a small farm back ground it is always a bit of joke watching celebrity farmers who have hugely paid jobs and miraculously have other helping , donating time and equipment for free / cheap while the reality for a lot of small farmers is struggling with some 30 year old bit of machinery stuck in a field with any second job being very much in the normal wage range. E.g. Builder, truck driving etc. Of course if you're a wealthy farmer it may seems more real as you are probably better connected etc and all this is normal. Matter of perspective I guess.
Sheep farming is going to make even less financial sense within 10 years. A rich man/woman’s hobby. Fine for the Cotswolds… devastating for some areas of the UK.
Its all about scale. My dad had a small folk. Gave them up 20 over years ago. His cousin (Cotswolds based ironically) farms thousands of sheep, one employee. Does well and keeps ticking over.
And the pressures even on those with "thousands" will be steadily increased over the next ten years (a political choice not currently being owned up to, but made and committed to now). Smaller farmers in Wales and elsewhere will be shut down, the bigger herds will also become unprofitable. Sheep farming is part of the landscape in so many regions of the UK, and the public haven't yet been prepared for it disappearing, but that is what is going to happen.
did someone say blue passports?
Oh, the Sheeping episode made it very clear that scale was required for sheep farming to make any financial sense... so far I'm loving how they're getting key messages about UK farming across in a very simplified jokey way. Very approve!
the program has a lot to be positive about.
I think her issue was that Clarkson's "Schtick" is just wearing thin now. I watched the first half of the first Ep, and TBH, there were bits that were funny, but it's just so formulaic now, you can guess what's going to happen a couple of hundred miles away...
The sad thing is, I've watched a few of the documentaries he's done, and he's really good at it, and draws a massive audience I'd have more time if he'd done something similar with this "Look, I'm a millionaire, and even I can't run a farm to a profit" without all the sub-10year old arsing about.
Gerald the dry stone waller is a highlight for me.
I think he is genuinely in awe of Kaleb. His skill and knowledge at such a young age are impressive. Went to London on a trip, stayed on the coach, too many people.... classic
Binge watched it over the last few nights and thoroughly enjoyed it. Warming to Clarkson again as I'd gone right off him after some of his previous oafishness.
How badly are farmers going to get screwed without their EU subsidies?
Sheep farming is part of the landscape in so many regions of the UK, and the public haven’t yet been prepared for it disappearing, but that is what is going to happen.
It's going to be great for biodiversity!!
Gerald and Kaleb are hilarious.
Finished Sheeping & wilding last night. The series is a huh insight into farming - the ups and mostly down and the regulations!
Kaleb at 21 for someone whose left hi village once and didn't like it has mad skills and common sense, he surely is a TV star in the making but I suspect he'd refuse the offer. Looking forward to see if he ever gets his perm...
Watched it with interest. A sociopathic man who can dismiss the idea of thousands of deaths from air pollution, or disease prevention legislation as part of the "woke" agenda but is brought to tears when he has to cull three sheep.
Looking forward to see if he ever gets his perm…
You'll have to keep watching. Gerald gets a lockdown haircut too that doesn't disappoint.
Gerald's hair cut was spectacular.
I suspect the barber was blind, or had the same level of comprehension of gerald as everyone else does
Gerald’s hair cut was spectacular.
Yes!
I suspect the barber was blind, or had the same level of comprehension of gerald as everyone else does
He's about as incomprehensible as @drac 🙂
Yet he’s rather clear at the end of the final episode 😉
Quite enjoyed that, tractors really have got massive, used to think a Ford 4000 was a big tractor....
I miss that tractor
Must be nice to mess about with Amazon footing the bill (and paying you £m’s on top), wonder if it’s pissing off ordinary farmers who face bankruptcy etc. if their crops fail (or never have money available to invest in new machinery).
He does say something along the lines of he can't understand how farmers without Amazon backing and his Who Wants To Be A Millionaire salary funding things can make any money and keep going.
I know a fair few, I work with some farmers who have beef herds, so they can have a full time job and still manage small herds of 50-100.
My mates Sis married a dairy farmer, and that's the opposite end of the scale. 15 hour days, and can easily go a couple of years without a day off. They've got 3 kids too, I dunno how she manages it at times, or outs up with it.
Between 70%-90% of farm income is subsidies, even the Nfu aren’t really sure. Even British Leyland did better than that but we have to eat.
Some big lowland arable farms do very well out of this thank you and will have the cars and toys. most upland ones make no financial sense at all but how do you get out? Who do you sell too? What do you do instead? The most profitable crop any farmer will ever have is houses.
Currently subsidies are on the old EU Rules and it’s not really clear what’s coming next as the government are saying different things to different people. One vision is food production gets more commercial and becomes industrialized in a smaller space and the grants are spent spent managing what’s left for nature, recreation etc.
Maybe we could start paying a fair price to the producers, and less profit for the supermarkets that screw them down.
Just a thought
The problem is the concept of 'a farmer' is so ridiculous as to be absurd. It's like lumping everyone who sits at a computer for work together.
I teach the son of a farmer with 10,000 ha of arable down in Suffolk. Twin prop private plane, Ferrari F40 in the garage, talk of buying an island in the med. I live next door to a farmer here in the Highlands who's kids qualify for free school meals. Within a two mile ride of me I could swing through one small immaculate farm where being a custodian of the land seems to be at the heart of everything they do and another that is a disgrace to the profession and are ostracised by the local farming community for their animal husbandry standards, their farm management, their polluting and their littering.
But to the urban keyboard warrior they are all just farmers.
I'm enjoying it, 3 episodes in. They do seem to have made things hard for themselves by getting a tiller and drill that's narrower than the tractor, it's as if they bought all the equipment for the little 60hp tractors they looked at, and then Clarkson went and spent his own dosh on the Lambo, which could probably pull stuff that about fifteen meters wide.
I'll look up Harrys Farm on YouTube, thanks for the recommendation. I've watched Tom Pemberton who is pretty good, and also over in the USA, Cole the Cornstar is good entertainment and demonstrates the American way of huge equipment, and eeking out every bit of productivity from the land by stripping anything resembling a hedge or tree (look at the earlier stuff, more lately he has been playing with his house and getting a bit clickbaity. I think the last one is Grassmen from Ireland.
Surely the Lambo is just product placement, I can't believe he's daft enough to have paid for it.
I think they put 40 or 60k down when the land manager listed his equipment costs. So must be secondhand.
I was also impressed in Clarkson clacking around in a 14year old Rangie – I didn’t see anything more blingy in the background anywhere.
He does have 3 though, although the L322 does seem to be his fave. He did explain on Twitter the Lambo tractor was cheaper than all the others of a similar age, and now knows why.
Enjoyed it in the end. Wasn't sure after the 1st ep but ended up sticking with it. Might even pay his farm shop a visit.
I hope they do a follow up series. I was a little surprised that they didn't do more or rewilding or regenerative agriculture as clarkson mentioned the issues with topsoil so early on
How badly are farmers going to get screwed without their EU subsidies?
I've not read the details, but the locals in my parents village (it's not a village, it's 3 farms that built their houses back to back a few hundred yesrs ago for some company) have never seen so many ground nesting birds nests.
No one else has seen them, but they get their subsidies now based on how many nests there are so obviously they're there. 😉
