Jeremy Clarkson has shared a dire missive after filming season 5 of his Amazon Prime Video show, which has officially wrapped.
The Top Gear presenter turned farmer, 65, said the Amazon cameras have been ‘sent away’ to give the team on Diddly Squat farm a break.
Describing the events of the last year as a ‘conveyor belt of misery’, Clarkson warned viewers that the upcoming season will be a far cry from the comedic larks they might be expecting.
Instead, he has said the scenes set to air next spring will cover his health woes, the impact of Rachel Reeves budget last November – which brought changes to inheritance tax for farms – and an incredibly challenging set of weather conditions.
Writing in his column for The Sun, Clarkson said 2025 has seen little rain, rendering the new drill, underground mapping and tractor he sunk ‘a ton of cash‘ into unusable.
Then, the farm suffered another major setback when a case of bovine tuberculosis was detected, forcing the farm to shut up shop for two months.
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is one of the biggest challenges facing the cattle farming industry in the UK, and all infected animals have to be put down.
A second test confirmed the caseof bTB and the cow, who was pregnant with twins, was culled this week.
Laying out the challenges farmers are facing, Clarkson wrote: ‘The hours are brutal, the government hates them and they earn diddly squat.’
He continued: ‘It’s likely that the brilliant guys who edit our show will find some nuggets of humour in the mix and that there’ll be some laughs in season five.
What is bovine tuberculosis?
Under British law, animals with bTB have to be put down because the disease is extremely contagious and can demolish large herds of cows.
bTB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. It can also infect badgers, deer, goats, pigs, llamas and alpacas – leading to the infamous case of Geronimo in 2021.
Cattle are tested for the disease because it is zoonotic, so can pass to humans, so staying on top of it limits the risk to the population.
The UK’s meat and dairy products would also not be accepted for exports if we didn’t have comprehensive bTB testing.
The disease spreads slowly in cattle, so they often do not exhibit symptoms before it is picked up.
‘And in the relentless sunshine, the Cotswolds did look fantastic. But at the coalface, it was knackering.
‘Are we carrying on? Well, we’ve sent the cameras away to give us a break from that side of things for a while.
‘But yup. Kaleb’s out there now in his tractor and after I’ve finished writing this, I’ll be joining him.
The show goes on.’
Clarkson’s Farm season 5 will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in spring 2026.
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