Jeremy Clarkson Reflects On Chris Packham Clarkson’s Farm Row

Jeremy Clarkson has apparently been doing some reflecting on his recent public beef with Chris Packham.

Earlier this month, Clarkson’s Farm was one of the shows being reviewed by the cast of Celebrity Gogglebox, including the Springwatch host and his stepdaughter and fellow conservationist Megan McCubbin.

Reacting to the opening titles, Packham said at the time: “That’s not what a farm looks like. Most farms are horrible monocultures which have been sprayed with deadly chemicals, time and time again, the ground pumped full of fertiliser, and loads of the animals are indoors – in crates, being crushed and kept in the dark.”

“That’s an idealistic view of a farm, and it puts the wrong idea in people’s minds,” he added. “And that’s only the [opening titles]!”

Clarkson subsequently fired back with a column in The Sun, in which he wrote: “The endlessly angry Chris Packham went on Gogglebox this week and erupted in blind fury about the Winnie the Pooh-ish opening credits to my farming programme.

“Now, of course this kind of stuff plays well in a room full of nose rings and Palestine flags at a vegan activist meeting in Hackney. But he was on a television programme, and it didn’t play well at all. Because it’s b*****ks.”

Since then, Clarkson has penned a second piece addressing the matter, this time in The Times.

The former Top Gear host began by explaining that he was someone who’d “always quite enjoyed being in trouble” since his school days, but since the reaction to him disclosing that his recent bout of ill health, he’d come to enjoy “being seen as a nice person rather than a troublemaker”.

“For the past few weeks, I’ve been wondering if maybe, at the age of 66, I should become an adult. A kind person, a tolerant person,” he suggested.

“That brings me on to Chris Packham,” he continued. “Just recently, he went on Gogglebox and said that the opening credits on my farm show were in no way representative of modern-day agricultural practices.

“Of course, I was very incensed by this and immediately wrote in The Sun that he was talking bollocks. But in the new age of tolerance and respect, I shouldn’t have done that. I should have kept schtum.”

However, he conceded that “offering up your left cheek to be slapped after someone has hit the other one” is “bloody difficult”, particularly for “someone like me, who’s spent his life throwing rocks in ponds to watch the ripples it creates”.

Clarkson’s column was published on Sunday. A day earlier, Packham’s representative had issued a statement to HuffPost UK, accusing the divisive broadcaster of “being disingenuous” and insisting that “industrial farmers are making a smokescreen to hide their horrors”.

Packham said: “I made the comments about the silly idealistic stereotyped cartoon at the top of his programme, he knows that. And he knows it paints an entirely unrealistic image of most of [the UK’s farms].

“The industrial farming fraternity love Clarkson’s Farm because it gives them something pretty to hide behind, a friendly flagship of good ol’ wholesome values. The truth is so very different, and it’s a truth that needs to be told for the sake of animal welfare, wildlife, human health and a secure environmental future.”

He added: “They can shoot at the messenger, but they will not silence the truth, even if Jezza has a big mouth.”

Jeremy Clarkson’s team have been contacted for additional comment.