Jeremy Clarkson’s clash with villager over ‘moron’ jibe shown in Clarkson’s Farm
Presenter apologised at a village hall meeting for making the comments
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Your support makes all the difference.Jeremy Clarkson has been shown apologising to Oxfordshire villagers for calling them morons in an episode of Clarkson’s Farm season two.
In episode three of the new season, which arrived on Amazon Prime Video earlier this month, Clarkson arranges a Q&A for disgruntled locals in the village of Chadlington, West Yorkshire, who are unhappy with the impact of his farm and farm shop on the area of outstanding natural beauty.
“The lady from the parish council says those that are angry, are really angry,” he tells the camera as he drives to the village hall. “Like, really angry.”
He then says that the online Chadlington community board “in essence says that I’m the devil” and that he doesn’t want the villagers to come up his drive “with pitchforks”.
Clarkson says he hopes that the meeting will “calm it down”.
The Grand Tour presenter is then seen nervously arranging crisps, wine, and pineapple slices on a table at the hall.
“We were completely overwhelmed by what happened when the show first aired,” he tells the locals in attendance. “Traffic and mud and chaos and speeding. Absolute nightmare, I agree. So how can we make this look great and bring people to the area so they can spend but not spoil anybody’s life in the village?”
In response, one villager tells him: “You have shown no sympathy or empathy with the people who live in the village. You’ve described us as morons. You said, ‘Every village has one moron, I have six.’ I don’t want to be called a moron and I think you should apologise for that.”
Clarkson apologises, saying: “You don’t sound moronic at all and your points are valid. Some of the points raised on the West Oxfordshire District Council website, however, were moronic.
“‘That lambing barn has never been used for lambing.’ ‘Nothing is being produced on that farm.’ These things are silly things to say because obviously we do produce things on the farm.”
Another detractor then chimes in, saying: “But the fact is that ultimately you’re not a farmer, you’re a media personality. But we’re not Love Island.”
Much of the rest of the meeting is skipped over, but it ends with Clarkson promising to tidy up the site and look into traffic control, as well as offering VIP passes with discount for the shop to locals.
This row came before Clarkson was forced to close his controversial restaurant at Diddly Squat farm, after more criticism from locals.
He also later admitted that people couldn’t get to Covid vaccinations because of traffic created by his farm shop.
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