Clarkson’s Farm star Charlie Ireland has opened up about his first impressions of Jeremy Clarkson and his initial reluctance to appear on the hit Amazon Prime show
Charlie Ireland has spoken candidly about his feelings towards Jeremy Clarkson. The 48-year-old has emerged as one of the central characters on Clarkson’s Farm since the show first aired in 2021.
Dubbed “Cheerful Charlie” by the former Top Gear host, he regularly appears on screen managing finances and helping Jeremy navigate the complex bureaucracy of the farming world.
Yet Charlie confesses the prospect of filming the programme initially “didn’t sit right” with him, despite having worked alongside Jeremy since he purchased the land that would become Diddly Squat Farm back in 2009.
Charlie acknowledges he could have declined to take part in the series. He ultimately agreed and has since become a well-known figure in farming circles, joining the likes of Kaleb Cooper and Chipping Norton local Gerald Cooper.
Jeremy, 65, acquired 1,000 acres of the Sarsden estate in Oxfordshire in 2009. The land included Curdle Hill farm, which was being operated by a tenant at that time.
When the tenant stepped down in 2019, the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? presenter chose to manage the farm himself. Though the television personality had no previous experience in farm management, Charlie recalls he demonstrated genuine enthusiasm for agriculture from the outset.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: “My first impression was that he was very welcoming and focused, obviously interested in what the farm was and what it was going to do – which crops, livestock, what the potential was. Not everybody is.”
Charlie confessed to having watched Jeremy on Top Gear in the past. The presenter helmed the car show for 13 years, alongside James May and Richard Hammond, with the trio later teaming up again for The Grand Tour.
The farming expert humorously claimed that “anybody who says they haven’t watched Top Gear is lying”. Despite appreciating Jeremy’s television work, he admits he hasn’t been “starstruck by anybody” thus far.
Clarkson’s Farm has already been commissioned for a fifth series, which Amazon plans to release later this year. Charlie attributes part of the show’s success to its timing, as viewers tune in to watch Jeremy grapple with challenging wheat yields and unpredictable weather conditions.
He suggests the programme could have been “pretty dull” had it been launched in 2014, a year when farmers experienced “brilliant wheat yields” and “OK prices”. However, Charlie commends Jeremy’s knack for storytelling.
He elaborated: “Jeremy’s ability to tell a story is absolutely phenomenal. And because what’s happening is real, it just captures that.
“I use 1,000 words, he uses six, and everybody understands immediately what he’s saying. He wrote a piece about birds on his farm the other day and said ‘Everybody loves a robin, but we all know they’re fighty little b******s.’ It captured exactly what a robin is, in just four words.”
