24 Clarkson's Farm Facts About Diddly Squat And Jeremy Clarkson

Clarkson's Farm has been a smash hit on Amazon Prime for presenter and motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson. He is best known for presenting the BBC motoring show Top Gear alongside Richard Hammond and James May as well as The Grand Tour which debuted on Amazon Prime in 2016.

Clarkson's Farm is a comedy documentary series and Amazon Original which began on the 11th June 2021. It follows Clarkson’s attempt to turn the farm on which he lives into a profitable business. He owns Diddly Squat Farm, 1,000 acres in the Cotswolds which was formerly part of the Sarsden Estate in Oxfordshire.

After the success of Season One, Clarkson's Farm was renewed for a second season in July 2021 and it was released on the 10th February 2023. It was renewed for a third series in October 2022 and it is yet to be confirmed as to whether the series will continue after a media backlash caused by some of Jeremy Clarkson’s comments towards the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. 

Clarkson's Farm facts include why Jeremy Clarkson hates one of his cows, what strange ingredient Diddly Squat's new Vodka is made from and what other British farmers think of the show.

1. What Does Diddly Squat Mean?

Jeremy Clarkson has called his farm Diddly Squat and the shop Diddly Squat Farm Shop after the common phrase. Diddly Squat means “nothing” or “the least amount”, as in “today I earned Diddly Squat” meaning “today I earned absolutely no money”.

2. Where Is Diddly Squat Farm?

The farm was formally part of the Sarsden Estate which is a village about 3 miles south of Chipping Norton. In 2001 the Census recorded that Sarsden had a population of just 83 people. The estate itself holds the main country house which was rebuilt in 1689 after it was damaged by a fire. It is Grade II listed and the adjacent park alongside a Serpentine Lake and a Doric temple was landscaped by Humphry Repton in 1795. The thousand acres bought by Jeremy Clarkson also includes Curdle Hill Farm. Viewers can visit Diddly Sqat Farm Shop at 5-12 Chipping Norton Rd, Chadlington, Chipping Norton OX7 3PE.

3. Jeremy Clarkson Is Part Of The Chipping Norton Set

Jeremy Clarkson has been named as one of the “Chipping Norton Set” which is a group of media and political high flyers who live near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. Chipping Norton is around 75 miles from London making it far away enough from the capital to enjoy the countryside but still close enough to get into the city. 

Journalists have discussed the other wealthy personalities to have made Chipping Norton their home including the racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks and Rebekah Brooks who is the former CEO of News International and Editor of The Sun and News of The World. Her unethical dealings have most recently been exposed in Prince Harry’s memoir Spare. 

Also in the Chipping Norton set is the ex Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron and his wife Samantha Cameron. Charles Dunstone, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Carphone Warehouse lives nearby. Alex James, who was the bassist in the band Blur owns a 200 acre farm in Kingham which is 4 miles south-west of Chipping Norton. 

Howard Stringer, the Chairman of Sony Corporation lives in the area. Elisabeth Murdoch who is the CEO of media production company Shine Ltd and daughter of the News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch lives in Burford. Also the granddaughter of Sir Philip Oppenheimer, Emily Oppenheimer Turner lives in the area too. 

4. Jeremy Clarkson Used To Run Diddly Squat Farm On A Contract Basis

When Jeremy Clarkson bought his farm, the fields were mainly arable growing a rotation of barley, wheat and rapeseed. Before Clarkson decided to attempt farming the land himself, it was farmed on a contract basis by a Chipping Norton resident until his retirement in 2019.

One of the most endearing parts of the series Clarkson's Farm is that despite Jeremy Clarkson’s celebrity and notoriety, he knows nothing of the farming world and needs help from ordinary people in the Chadlington area. 

5. Who Are The Other Clarkson's Farm Team Members?

One of the most notable characters to come out of Clarkson's Farm is Kaleb Cooper, a young farm worker himself on his own land in Heythrop. He had previous experience of working on Clarkson's land before Jeremy took over as the lead farmer and he advises Jeremy on technical decisions and farming practices while at the same time getting visibly and audibly annoyed. One of the hilarious parts of Kaleb's personality that we find out through Clarkson's Farm is that he has rarely left the village of Chadlington and has only been to London once on a school trip but ended up staying on the coach due to his fear of crowds.

Gerald Cooper is another regular to appear in Clarkson's Farm but many viewers are unable to understand what he is saying due to his strong West Country accent. Gerald has harvested grain for 50 years. He specialises in the construction and maintenance of dry stone walls which form around 40 miles of boundaries around Clarkson's Farm.

Charlie Ireland is an agronomist who helps Clarkson with farm management, political and government regulation and his finances. In a review for The I Newspaper, Charlie was described as “a stickler for the rules who delivers increasingly bad news with the polite manners of a parish vicar”. 

Lastly Jeremy Clarkson’s girlfriend Lisa Hogan assists with running the increasingly busy farm shop on the site. Lisa herself is an actor and screenplay writer who was born in Dublin. The pair began dating in 2017.

6. Other UK Farmers Love Clarkson’s Farm

In the United Kingdom, the most popular farming show is named Farming Today and it’s broadcast every weekday morning on BBC Radio 4. When Clarkson's Farm aired on Amazon Prime, farmers were surprisingly very positive about the show and its representation of UK farmers. As well as the show's good humour, many farmers have commented on how Jeremy Clarkson does not make light of their hard work but instead shows how dedicated Farmers are to feeding the country and how difficult the job actually is.

7. Jeremy Clarkson Has Won Awards For His Farming

In 2021 the National Farmers Union actually awarded Jeremy Clarkson the award for Farming Champion of the Year stating that he is a vocal champion that produced a show which showcases the realities of farming and has made the lifestyle really resonate with the public. Jeremy Clarkson and his farm assistant Kaleb Cooper also won the Flying The Flag for British Agriculture Award at the British Farming Awards.

As well as being a brilliant and entertaining show, Clarkson's Farm really embraces the branded content and advertising opportunities available today. Farming has been presented on the show as incredibly difficult and hard to turn a profit so it is interesting to see all of the business opportunities that Jeremy Clarkson and his team have created while filming the show to keep the farm running. Fans of Jeremy Clarkson now have somewhere to go to support his work. Many viewers have taken day trips to Diddly Squat Farm Shop in Chadlington to purchase the humourous products from the farm including honey from the farm’s bees which he named Bee Juice and candles created from their beeswax named “This Smells Like My Bollocks” parodying Gwyneth Paltrow’s often mocked candle which is advertised as smelling like her genitals.

8. Police Have Been Called To Diddly Squat Due To Traffic Complaints

In Clarkson's Farm Season Two, viewers were able to see how difficult it was for Jeremy Clarkson and his team to get planning permission from the local council and it was discussed on the show that the council had a bias towards Clarkson and did not want to support his farm for reasons undisclosed. He has faced backlash from the local community and the people of Chadlington over his comments and the popularity of the farm shop with many stating that it is causing traffic jams, noise pollution and light pollution in what would have otherwise been a small and quiet village. 

After the first season had aired Clarkson wrote on Twitter that he is truly sorry about the traffic around the farm shop and that he is doing everything in his power to rectify the situation. The traffic was 3 miles long and the Police had to attend to handle the disruption as people were unable to reach the vaccination centres in the village and firefighters could not get through. 

Interestingly it is revealed in Season Two that the local council turned down Clarkson’s idea to create a larger car park to satisfy the demand and to manage the traffic to the farm despite the local residents being upset about the volume of traffic.

9. Kaleb and Gerald Are Not Related

Kaleb Cooper and Gerald Cooper aren’t actually related despite having the same surname and being from the same village.

10. Amazon Have Reportedly Cut Dies With Jeremy Clarkson

In December 2022 Jeremy Clarkson was heavily criticised across the media, government and on social media for comments he made in The Sun newspaper about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Many people called his comments misogynistic as he claimed to “hate [Meghan] on a cellular level” and that he dreams “of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds… throw lumps of excrement at her.” 

Jeremy Clarkson has apologised and has stated that he was purely referencing a scene from the TV show Game of Thrones but these comments have led to him being let go from many of his media commitments. It was reported that Clarkson's relationship with Amazon was likely to end with both Clarkson's Farm and The Grand Tour not being renewed after the current episodes still being worked on are finished.

11. Over £30,000 Was Raised By Viewers To Help Dairy Farmer On The Show

After the airing of Clarkson's Farm Season Two, a crowdfunding project started to help raise money for dairy farmers Emma and Pete Ledbury who were featured on the show discussing their devastating losses as a result of Bovine TB. Emma Ledbury shared in the episode named Badgering that she had lost almost half of her dairy cow herd to TB. Clarkson's Farm viewer Rebecca set up the crowdfunding campaign and has raised more than £30,000 so far! In an article with Farmers Weekly, Emma Ledbury said that she was in shock and is incredibly excited and thankful to the public.

12. Amazon’s Highest Rated Show Since Records Began

Season Two of Clarkson's Farm became one of the most watched TV Shows after its release in February 2023 with 4.3 million viewers watching. This makes it Amazon’s highest rated show since figures began.

13. Jeremy Clarkson Is Appealing The Council’s Restaurant Decision

After the disappointing run in with the local council seen on Clarkson's Farm, Jeremy Clarkson has decided to appeal to West Oxfordshire District Council over their decision to not let him open his restaurant. The council refused plans initially which asked for permission to extend the farm shop car park and to create a restaurant which uses ingredients found on Diddly Squat Farm and from other struggling local farmers. Jeremy Clarkson had previously written to the council stating that he no longer wanted to open a restaurant but after the success of Season Two it looks like he has changed his mind. A hearing regarding the planning appeal is set to begin on the 14th of March 2023 so there may still be hope for viewers dining out at Diddly Squat yet.

14. Jeremy Clarkson Hates One Of His Cows

According to Kaleb Cooper, Jeremy Clarkson hated one of his cows. In an interview with BT, Cooper said that Jeremy hated “The Attack Cow”. He claims that she was just protecting her calf and Jeremy and a camera person got into the wrong place at the wrong time. He also said that the cows hate all drones and cameras and The Attack Cow would also chase camera people whenever they got near to her.

15. Clarkson Claims Farmers Are Taking Their Own Lives Due To Bovine TB

One of the difficult moments of Clarkson's Farm Season Two is when the team discusses the effects of badgers and their link to Bovine TB. The Clarkson's Farm team discuss testing badges on the farm and what impact it would have on their profits and livestock if TB were to infect the cattle. On both the show and in interviews Jeremy Clarkson has stated the controversial fact that badgers who have TB need to be disposed of but there are also many Activists campaigning to protect badgers from harm. Clarkson makes his views clear on the subject and directly comments that farmers are actually contemplating and committing suicide due to the fact that their herds are getting Bovine TB and the cows are subsequently killed resulting in loss of livelihoods and entire farms.

16. Kaleb Cooper Only Earns 50p An Hour Through His Cow Business

According to the Performance People Podcast, Clarkson's Farm assistant Kaleb Cooper only pays himself 50p an hour. He discussed that he recently bought eight calves and feeding them on milk cost him around £200 per calf. He then sells them at nine months old. As a contractor he has discussed how the current cost of living crisis in the UK and Brexit have caused many essentials to rise including Diesel which he notes was 32p per litre last year and it is now £1.20 per litre.

17. A Diddly Squat Farm Shop Sign Was Vandalised

In February 2023 a fan of Clarkson's Farm changed the words on a Chadlington road sign from Diddly Squat Farm Shop to Diddly Twat Farm Shop. Jeremy Clarkson posted the amusing photograph on Instagram saying, “someone’s been busy in the night”. The sign writer still remains anonymous! 

18. Kaleb Is Saving To Buy His Own Farm

In an interview with BT, Kaleb Cooper has addressed rumours to the general public who believe that he is now a millionaire because of his involvement with Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime. He hit back at the rumours saying that is not quite how it works with TV. He goes on to say that every bit of money that he does get he saves as he wants to buy his own farm.

19. Kaleb Cooper Has Two Children

Between Season One and Season Two of Clarkson's Farm, Kaleb Cooper has become engaged to his long-term girlfriend Taya and the couple now have a son named Oscar. The pair are also expecting another baby and they announced that their second child would be a girl via a gender reveal on Instagram which saw pink smoke coming out of a tractor's exhaust.

20. Kaleb Can’t Appear On I’m A Celebrity Because Of One Issue

After a few comments in Season Two of Clarkson's Farm, Kaleb Cooper seems to be asked in every interview when the public can expect to see him on the ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. He claims that he would like to do the show but there’s only one problem, he hasn’t got a passport!

21. A Third Season Of Clarkson’s Farm Will Go To Air

A third season of Clarkson's Farm will air on Amazon Prime as it was being worked on before Amazon allegedly cut ties with Clarkson due to his comments about the Duchess of Sussex. Amazon have previously stated that season three of Clarkson's Farm would show Jeremy Clarkson moving into areas of the farm that currently remain untouched including Woodlands and lakes.

22. Clarkson Believes Covid Made His Show A Success

In an interview with Southwest Farmer, Jeremy Clarkson stated that he believes the success of the program Clarkson's Farm was due to the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic led lots of people in the UK to rethink their city lifestyles and contemplate moving to the countryside. He claims that his show is unlike the regular countryside programs we see on UK TV which are a bit too twee and he wants his show to put forward the reality.

23. Hawkstone Lager Can Be Found In Over 100 Pubs

Another business idea that we’ve seen launched from Diddly Squat Farm in Season Two is Hawkstone Lager. Jeremy Clarkson can be seen across the series trying out different business ideas using his farm to keep it profitable including selling homegrown Wasabi to fancy London restaurants and making his own spicy chilli jam. Hawkstone Lager seems to be one of the most successful business ideas to come out of Diddly Squat. Clarkson claims that it is being sold to around 100 pubs so far.

24. Diddly Squat Now Stocks A Cow’s Milk Vodka

Not all of Jeremy Clarkson’s business ideas on the farm are embraced by the public and his new idea to create a vodka made from cows milk may take a while to become popular. Clarkson's Farm now sells Cow Juice Vodka which is 40% alcoholic and costs £39 per bottle. It is made from Whey which is the liquid that is left over after milk is curdled and strained to make cheese. Would you like to try it?

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