Clarkson's Farm series two: Jeremy Clarkson back with Prime series on agriculture and food production

The series, which will follow another year in the life of Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton, sees Clarkson return as the amateur farmer with big ideas, along with everyone’s favourite farmer Kaleb, Gerald and his fantastic West Country accent, agricultural adviser Charlie and Jeremy’s girlfriend and farm shop keeper Lisa.

But it also shows farming’s darker side. Clarkson meets Emma, a farmer who says she can’t afford to take a wage.

"I was generally aware of this, but there’s so much of it now,” he says.

“Dairy’s in a proper mess because of TB and badgers. Pigs are in a real pickle because of lots of things, Brexit being the main one.

“Poultry farmers are in a total mess because of bird flu. Cereal farmers like myself are in a mess because we don’t know what we’re supposed to be growing, or what fertilisers we’re supposed to be using — and fertiliser is now costing £1,000 a tonne rather than £200 like last year.

“So, in every area, it’s a nightmare. It’s not a disaster for me because I’ve got other ways of earning a living but if you haven’t – and 99.9 per cent of farmers don’t have another income stream – then a lot of them are simply not taking a wage.

“They’re working seven days a week with their arm up a cow’s bottom for nothing. And they’re absolutely powerless.

“And people will not pay properly for their food. Food is far too cheap. I know you can’t say that, but it’s far too cheap. If the Government said, ‘Right, we’re going to double the price of food’, they’d be out of office within five minutes. But that’s what they’ve got to do, really.”

On the lighter side of things, he’s also taken up new agricultural ventures of cow farming, chilli-growing and beer-making.

"I thought it would be fun to grow Carolina Reapers because it’s very easy to grow them and they’re very prolific. But my God, they’re hot,” he says. “When I first tasted them, they caused me to actually burp while being sick which is something I’ve never experienced before.

“Anyway, we made a sauce out of them. One sauce was lovely and just beautifully spicy, then we did a hotter one which I think, in hindsight, was a bit too hot. We’re going to put it on sale anyway – ‘come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough’ sort of thing.

“So, yeah, the beer’s gone well, and the chillies have gone well.

“It’s really good fun, developing your own lager. It seems to be very popular now, which is great. I think we’re selling it to about 100 pubs now.”

Clarkson’s Farm series two launches on Prime Video on Friday February 10.