TV host Jeremy Clarkson: ‘There are millions of things I regret saying’

Journalist and TV host Jeremy Clarkson has never been afraid of expressing his opinions, on-screen and off - and believes that in today’s society, “you can get cancelled in five seconds.”

You’ve recently traded gearsticks for gumboots, having relocated to your 400ha property in the Cotswolds in southwest England with your partner Lisa Hogan, to try your hand at farming.

And you had a film crew capture the whole thing for your new series Clarkson’s Farm, which is part reality TV, part The Good Life. What made you decide to do the series?

When the man who had been running the farm for me announced that he was retiring, I thought, well, how hard could it be? You just put seeds in the ground. Weather will happen. Food will grow. It will be fantastic!

And then I thought it might be quite a fun television program. Who knew that we were going to set five weather records in one year? And then have COVID. So it became an extraordinary endeavour.

“I’m sure there have been millions of things that have been inappropriate, and that I regret saying, but if you want me to pick a specific example, I can’t – because there are loads.” (Picture: Amazon Prime Video)

You got creative when it came to naming your rams, calling them Leonardo and Wayne, because they “play the field”. We get the reference to actor Leonardo DiCaprio, but is the other referring to English soccer player Wayne Rooney?

Yes! He has a reputation here for chasing the older ladies – [they] seem to be his favourite.

As a former host of long-time TV show Top Gear, you road-tested the best cars in the world, from Rolls-Royce to Ferraris. But now you’re driving tractors instead. How do they compare?

The tractor is a lot slower, but you can’t cultivate a field with a Rolls-Royce or Ferrari. I stupidly bought [a tractor] that’s too big. It would work very well in Australia but it sure as hell doesn’t work here – the lanes are too small, and the gateposts are too close together.

You’ve never been afraid of expressing your opinions, on-screen and off. Looking back, though, do you regret saying anything?

We’ve all said something we regret in our lives. I’m sure there have been millions of things that have been inappropriate, and that I regret saying, but if you want me to pick a specific example, I can’t – because there are loads.

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about whether it’s possible to protect freedom of speech without also allowing hate speech. What do you think?

The definition of hate speech... that’s what I find myself at odds with because it’s all so “woke”. I don’t think we have freedom of speech anymore because you can get cancelled in five seconds. We live in strange times, but hopefully it will correct itself.

Jeremy Clarkson features in this Sunday’s Stellar

You contracted Covid last year, which was something you’d previously expressed fear about, considering that you’re 61, have been a smoker and have already had pneumonia twice before.

What was your experience of it?

It was the least ill I’ve ever been – I was maybe 5 per cent below par. But of course I had to go and live in a room [self-isolating]. I thought, while I’m stuck here, I’ll work my way through all the [James] Bond films. Then I thought, maybe I’d like a drink, too. But I wasn’t sure if you’re allowed to drink when you’ve got COVID, so I went on to the UK’s National Health Service site. It said “No, you can’t.”

Then I tried the World Health Organization and it also said no. Every American site I went to said no. And then I found a website in Australia that said, “Yes, you can.” So I had a case of wine brought up and sat there watching Bond films for a week – it was a particularly good illness.

Clarkson’s Farm premieres Friday on Amazon Prime Video.