*blog contains spoilers*
Like some, lockdown for me has been a chance to hit the refresh button, binge on a few shows and just take advantage of being in my own four walls. With so much noise, isolation, opinion, and worry of new variants clouding the air, having some escapism and a new perspective is more than welcome.
Enter the latest offering from one of Amazon’s TV stalwarts,
Jeremy Clarkson. Instead of putting pedal to the metal in the latest supercar, his
new 8-part docuseries takes a sharp left turn onto his farm in the Cotswolds- a
drastic change of pace that feels quite apt to watch during the more subdued
times we’re living in. Going into the series, given the reputation that precedes
him, it’s hard to imagine him being a full-time farmer. But, due to his old
farm manager Howard retiring, and his Amazon contractual obligations looming, he set himself the
challenge of running the farm himself- what could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a lot unsurprisingly. Clarkson has a lot to
learn and quite a few people to learn it from. Whether it’s the ridiculously knowledgeable
and instinctive farm hand Kaleb with all his practical ability, farm banter and
phobia of going outside a 5 miles radius of the farm, ‘Cheerful Charlie’ the
realistic level-headed land agent who’s good with the paperwork, or the shepherding
saviour Ellen, watching Jeremy learn from all these people and realise how his
normal haphazard ways won’t cut it is the most endearing (and very funny) part
of the series. While some Clarkson critics go on endlessly about the tedious
Clarkson brand of ignorance, it’s precisely this that makes the show what it
is. Clarkson, in many ways, represents most of the people watching the show
across the UK who know nothing about farming and just how much it takes to be
successful. We’re taken through chapter by chapter the reality of running a
farm, each chapter more compelling to watch than the last and yes, while you
may cringe at how Clarkson tries to adapt the advice given to him and over-simplify
something that has been carefully crafted over generations of farming trial and
error, you actually learn something, and low and behold, you see him learning
too.
Every kick in the balls, every torrential downpour, every crop-crippling
heatwave, every piece of laborious government paperwork, every new-born lamb,
every lost animal, every failed plan A and plan B, every broken gate, post, and
piece of expensive machinery is genuinely felt not just by Clarkson and his
hilarious farming crew, but by us the viewer and it makes for genuine, sincere viewing.
And while by episode 8 after the harvest, he made Diddly Squat, he not only raised
a flock of sheep, but raised awareness for the farming life and the industry
that has been hit extremely hard by various circumstances (not just COVID-19)
and stands up for them having learnt himself what it means to be a hard done by
farmer. Farming in recent times has become a thankless task that requires a
whole community to come together for each other’s survival and you see that all
laid bare here. But as Jezza says himself, he’s never been happier and as the
viewer you can’t help but feel profoundly happy for him and the farming family
he has created.
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