Jeremy Clarkson has been left in tears after his beloved piglets ‘died in alarming numbers’ on his upcoming third series of Clarkson’s Farm.
The presenter, and his partner Lisa Hogan focused their efforts in the latest Amazon Prime series on pig farming however, they were left ‘heartbroken’ by the deaths on Diddly Squat Farm.
Former Top Gear host Jeremy has now addressed on the ‘horrific’ breeding tragedy ahead of the new series launch next week.
He said: ‘It was just a heartbreaking time. I’ve never, ever seen Lisa cry — not once, ever since that all started and was unfolding. It was terrible.
‘It is weird, because you love them and you help birth them and you feed and nurture and care for them. I mean, you don’t say, “Let’s buy some pigs and hope they die”.’
Jeremy Clarkson has been left in tears after his beloved piglets ‘died in alarming numbers’ on his upcoming third series of Clarkson’s Farm
The presenter, and his partner Lisa Hogan focused their efforts in the latest Amazon Prime series on pig farming however, they were left ‘heartbroken’ by the deaths on Diddly Squat Farm
Jeremy went onto explain how he has had a real soft spot for pigs since he was a child.
He continued: ‘My mother always used to buy me toy pigs every Christmas and birthday into my twenties, and I thought it would be fun to have them — then they all just died in alarming numbers.
‘It was absolutely horrific at the time, and we had another calamity with them just the other day, but by and large they’re now going OK.
‘We’re getting more robust now, though — we’re a bit stronger at dealing with it.’
Opening up about the scenes, Lisa added: ‘It was heart-breaking. Jeremy’s always loved pigs, I didn’t think I’d be that enamoured by pigs but I did get really close to them as people will see. Farming’s just sad.
‘The animals become your friends and you’re isolated – there are certain farms that are really isolated – and the animals become your family. When they become unwell, you’re losing members of your animal family.
‘If that’s how sad we can get in front of a TV crew, imagine the farmers that are alone and having to do it with nobody around them when they’re losing animal after animal. It’s so difficult.
‘Every day it’s emotional whether it’s really happy because the weather is perfect and you can get on with the job at hand or it’s miserable if it’s raining the crops are failing and you can’t do a thing.
Jeremy broken his silence on the ‘horrific’ breeding tragedy, he said: ‘It was just a heartbreaking time. It is weird, because you love them and you help birth them and you feed and nurture and care for them. I mean, you don’t say, “Let’s buy some pigs and hope they die”‘
He continued: ‘It was absolutely horrific at the time, and we had another calamity with them just the other day, but they’re now going OK. We’re getting more robust now, we’re a bit stronger at dealing with it’
‘It’s very difficult to be unemotional about it. So, yes, I don’t want to go against what he’s said but I definitely think he’s becoming more a man of the land than a man of the road.’
She added: ‘Whatever you think, it’s an emotional job. You know, let’s talk about the weather: yesterday was beautiful, everything turned green here, and hopefully it’ll stay green until the crops are taken in.
‘But when it’s raining and raining and raining, you get frustrated as you just want to get on with the job in hand.’
Clarkson’s Farm is returning for a third series and it seems the local council are still on Jeremy’s case about his various business ventures.
The second series of the Amazon Prime farming show centred around Jeremy and the gang’s ambitions to open up a restaurant in the grounds of the farm.
Despite push back from the council, they eventually managed to open up the farm restaurant – after jumping through a few hoops to make it happen.
Throughout the new series, Jeremy is seemingly in more hot water with local councillors, who have set their sights on closing down his farm shop and car park.
This also means that Jeremy has to lose his beloved cow herd, however there are a new cohort of farm animals that arrive during season three.
The farm also battles to save the on site shop, which has become a hit with tourists, as Cheerful Charlie pushes back against the council’s endless red tape.
Jeremy and Charlie get to grips with the latest Enforcement Notice and try to hatch a plan to stop the shop and burger van suffering the same fate as the restaurant.
Clarkson’s Farm is returning for a third series and it seems the local council are still on Jeremy’s case about his various business ventures
The second series of the Amazon Prime farming show centred around Jeremy and the gang’s ambitions to open up a restaurant in the grounds of the farm
Despite push back from the council, they eventually managed to open up the farm restaurant – after jumping through a few hoops to make it happen
The central storyline throughout the series is Jeremy’s competition with Kaleb, who has recently been promoted to farm manager
At the farm shop, Charlie is tasked with making sure that Lisa is following the council’s instructions to the exact letter of the law, much to her annoyance.
Speaking about the new rules, Lisa said: ‘Charlie had to have a serious conversation with me and say that I could end up with a criminal record if I didn’t comply, it’s council regulations which I respect, especially after Charlie explained it to me in his clear and concise way.
Speaking at the official launch of the show at Diddly Squat Farm on Tuesday, Jeremy said: ‘On this show I don’t have to pretend to be someone else.
‘You see, on The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond isn’t as stupid as he’s made out to be, and I’m not as bombastic as I’m made out to be, and James May isn’t quite as boring as he’s made out to be.
‘So you’re playing a caricature, you’re playing a role, and you’re there to provoke and be stupid. But here you haven’t got any of that, so we’re just ourselves.
‘It’s incredibly relaxing — it is effortless. The TV side of it is a piece of cake, but the farming isn’t.’
But Jeremy believed the show is more real than most reality programmes because they couldn’t plan anything if they wanted to.
Jeremy said: ‘It’s genuine reality television, but it’s not hosted by someone in purple spectacles and a zany jacket. It’s absolutely real — what you see actually happens and none of it was planned.
‘On The Grand Tour everything was planned — and I mean literally everything.
‘It was like: ‘Richard, move your eyebrow THAT much.’
‘But nothing is planned on this — I have no script and every single day we meet to do filming, we have a vague idea of what we need to do — like I need to redrill this field, for example.
‘And I can actually guarantee we’ll do something completely different because the weather’s changed or a fence has fallen down, whatever it might be.
‘And you never, ever know what you’re going to do.’
Jeremey and his trust hand Kaleb admitted they are proud that the TV presenter is a genuine farmer instead of a ‘hobby farmer’.
He added: ‘While I do love the trailer for series three, it does slightly give the impression that we’re now doing ‘hobby farming’, which we’ve tried to avoid.
‘Kaleb is very keen that we showcase proper farming — and we do show proper farming. It’s not a little 20 acres, or a petting zoo.’
