I remember a mate was in car journo-ing telling me Clarkson originally made a name for himself by writing his car reviews counter to everyone else’s – if people loved it, he found a way to hate it, and vice versa.

According to his book he started out playing the car reviewers game i.e. manufacturer flies you abroad for a nice jolly and in return you write nice things about the car and get invited to the next launch. He allegedly got an attack of conscience and decided to start writing the truth.

“Shall we grease up”

Laughed a lot more than I should at that line! 😂

(Although I have read one or two of his books, I think he is actually a reasonably talented writer when he puts his mind to it).

I first read his stuff when he wrote in Performance Car mag in the 80s/90s. He was very entertaining, and I still remember some of his columns over thirty years later*. There’s not another magazine journalist that I can say that about. Sadly, his books aren’t as good – or at least the few I’ve tried.

* an excellent one about riding Chris Boardman’s Olympic winning bike, and a brilliant one about the Paris-Dakar where he managed not to see any racing at all spring to mind.

Harry’s Farm. Harry was at the same machinery sale, he filmed it, was a shame not to see him appear in JC’s programme

This would be Harry Metcalfe of Evo mag, I guess? Harry’s Garage on YT is always worth a look so I’ll check out the farming one.

Only watched the first one so far. I’ve always enjoyed his work (not sorry), but have never felt jealous or envious of him in the slightest… that episode changed that…

We’ve watched three and are loving it. It’s funny, interesting and eye opening.

“I f*****g hate sheep”

I thought he was going to gibber as he left the abattoir.

The scenes with the thoroughly incomprehensible Gerald are gold.

NFU lady is a stunner!

Yes – very very good TV.

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

@gobuchul https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj-9lSEBBm0

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.