The second series of Clarkson’s Farm has become Amazon Prime’s most-watched show, it has been revealed.
According to audience measurement service BARB, the programme, which follows the adventures and misadventures of ‘accidental’ farmer and broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson on his Cotswold-based Diddly Squat farm, scored an audience of 4.3 million viewers for its first episode which was shown on February 10.
The success of the show comes after the streaming platform was rumoured to be rethinking its arrangement with Mr Clarkson following his comments regarding the Duchess of Sussex.
However, the former Top Gear presenter has now confirmed that season three is going into production and will be broadcast in 2024.
Mr Clarkson has won praise from farmers all across the UK for the honest portrayal of agricultural life. Speaking to journalists at NFU Conference last week, union president Minette Batters thanked Mr Clarkson for highlighting the issue of bovine TB and declared: “I love Jeremy Clarkson”.
The problem of bTB has been a prominent theme of this series and led to concerned viewer Rebecca Poole launching a crowd-funding campaign to support dairy farmer Emma Ledbury who was featured discussing a devastating bTB outbreak on her farm with Mr Clarkson.
Speaking this week on Channel 4 show Steph’s Packed Lunch, Ms Ledbury told presenter Steph McGovern that she was in ‘total shock’ after fans raised more than £34,000 to help her business survive.
She said: “It was a real shock. We found out this lovely lady called Beccie, that weÂ’d never met before, a total stranger, had set up a GoFundMe page through seeing my story on ClarksonÂ’s Farm.Â
“It is really lovely, a total shock. I was literally on telly for 30 seconds, so never expected any sort of support in this way, it’s just really lovely of everybody that’s donated.”
During the episode Ms Ledbury, whose produce supplies the popular Diddly Squat Farm Shop, can be seen telling Mr Clarkson that half of her milking herd, 60 cows, had been wiped out by bTB.
Ms Ledbury told Ms McGovern: “It is just devastating to lose your cows when you have spent so long, rearing them and getting them to be as healthy as possible, through no control of your own. It is really depressing. Mentally you just do not get over it, you cannot get over losing so many cows.
She added: “TB is a huge issue within the country. We are one of thousands and thousands of farms that are dealing with TB, who are losing tens of thousands of cows every year.”
Ms Ledbury said that the money raised will be shared with agricultural charity RABI, adding: “It is really important that we can share the money because we could spend it quite easily here, but there is a bigger picture and it is really important to get that message across that something needs to be done in order to support these farmers.”
