Television Clarkson's Farm

UnrelatedPsuedo

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I keep saying this but if you read his Sunday Times articles you can see he really is committed to that farm and going through a lot of the ups and downs that all farmers go through. This has been the case for at least a couple of years now.

Obviously, there will be a bunch of elements crowbarred in for entertainment but the central premise is about a legitimate effort to run a farm as a profitable business (albeit mainly unsuccessfully)
Nah. The Amazon money ensures it’s a profitable business. He’s made a show out of farming. Which is grand. But it’s in no way an attempt to run a profitable farm inside the show. I don’t doubt he cares about sustainability in his small town but the Tv show and the farm are Divorced from each other.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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Like I say, a lot of it can't be scripted. Yes you can do multiple takes, but you can't do retakes of shepherding. The animals only give birth or die once. The crops really are destroyed by pests and weather. It genuinely is a skill to drive a tractor and trailer alongside a combine harvester.

You can make it all into a watchable TV show but the basic premise of that show is real.
No. The premise is ‘Let’s watch a pretend buffoon play at farming’. Clarkson is monetising his existence and a faux character. He’s an honest as Boris at this point.

For the production cost of the show he could employ a farmer to run a profitable farm. Which he will have done. The show is 100% entertainment. Which is completely cool. But it’s scripted reality TV. Not a doco.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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I mostly liked when they scripted the rain and then the drought and the lamb births. Great writing.

Also @UnrelatedPsuedo you're aware that pretty much every show (even though those that present themselves as "reality TV") is scripted?
You’re literally supporting my point. Not arguing against it.

You can pithily ask if I realise that reality tv is scripted. But you know full well I’m not suggesting the weather is included in that scripting.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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Yeah that's my mate you're talking about there who supposedly scripted it so don't be a cnut eh? I can tell you she's got ADHD and definitely wouldn't have had the patience for millions of movie-style takes (nor would Clarkson I'm sure), but yes obviously she had to find ways to get interesting things to happen on camera. In fact most of her time was spent in the pub trying to get Gerald to turn up for spurious reasons to pass comment on things or "help out". But that's not a script.

I echo the sentiments of the vast majority of people in this thread - don't like Clarkson but the show is great and for once he's largely not being a prick.
In a truly box office ‘My dads harder than your dad’, my friend worked on production of this too.

At no point am I suggesting there are millions of takes. Nor am I pretending they scripted rain or lamb births. But they did shoot all day in the rain for days at a time and they shot multiple lamb births.

Just as they wrote a script around the lad having to cancel his perm due to Covid.

I haven’t even shot the program down in Totality. I’m hopelessly in love with a woman that giggled the whole way through it. It’s clearly loved by many.

You don’t have to talk about your buds ADHD as some Trump card. This is a scripted tv show with multiple takes. It’s often easy to see through Clarksons acting. It’s ALSO clear as day that he is moved by the births at times. But the comments on afterbirth are punched in. The lines weighing up beauty and ugly were written.

It’s a TV show. If your mate is involved she would have told you how the sausage was made. They returned for additional shots weeks after the fact that made it into episodes at the same time. Its TV.

I’m not saying anything controversial beyond ‘Clarkson is a bad actor. It’s easy to see and I can’t suspend my disbelief’.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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@Everyone - Judging my recent replies it does sound like Clarkson possibly fcuked my wife. I promise you all that’s not the case. As you were.
 

T00lsh3d

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Charlie is the man. Everyone loves Kaleb, but Charlie is the real hero
 

sidsutton

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The whole show was worth it just for the conversation with Gerald via walkie talkie during the harvesting.

Is Gerald also Kaleb's father? Or related in some way?
 

2 man midfield

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The whole show was worth it just for the conversation with Gerald via walkie talkie during the harvesting.

Is Gerald also Kaleb's father? Or related in some way?
Just the same surname I think
 

Vidic_In_Moscow

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I'm not saying it's scripted but apparently Gemma Colins is in the next season. no pig or cow jokes before anyone says anything, should go without saying but know what some of you are like
 

2 man midfield

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I think most here would accept certain elements are staged, like making sure Gerald is on hand as much as possible since he’s comedy gold. That’s a given.

But “scripted” implies something else, which is what I think people here are taking issue with. Putting certain elements together and then filming what happens isn’t really the same as sitting down and writing a farm based sitcom which is what @UnrelatedPsuedo seemed to imply.
 

2 man midfield

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Really shows up what a load of knee-jerk nonsense the hatchet piece from the Grauniad was much earlier in the thread. Bet she had most of written before she started watching.
Oh yeah definitely. I’d be amazed if she watched the whole thing at all.
 

0le

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I enjoyed the series having binged watched it the other day. At least from an outsiders point of view, I think it does a good job of raising awareness of the costs and perils of farming, but also remained entertaining.
 

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Gotta say I really enjoyed the series and am happy to hear they got a second series. It was surprisingly informative about farming and Clarkson actually came across very well in it.
 

Mr Pigeon

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I just started on this and like this better than James May in Japan series.

Never thought I'd enjoy a farming show, but kudos to Clarkson.
It's the strangest premise for a show. Jeremy Clarkson working on a farm, growing crops, building a nature habitat and talking about conservation. And a sheep called Wayne Rooney.
 

Pogue Mahone

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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...ers-lament-veto-of-jeremy-clarkson-restaurant


Fellow farmers, other food producers and local residents, even some who really don’t like Clarkson’s take-no-prisoners style, argued that the case illustrated a disconnect between planners and the needs of modern farmers to find new, imaginative ways of making a living.

“It’s a real shame,” said Pete Ledbury, who farms with his wife, Emma, at the North Cotswolds Dairy just a few miles from Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm. “We know that we have to diversify to make a living and create more jobs for the countryside. Turning down projects like this doesn’t help. I think it’s pretty shortsighted of the planners.” Emma Ledbury spelled out the pressure that farms such as theirs were under. In recent years they have lost 40 of their 100-strong herd of pedigree holstein cattle to bovine tuberculosis, drastically cutting their chances of turning a profit. It costs 32p to produce a litre of milk, for which supermarket buyers have been paying them about 28p.

Selling milk directly to the customer via a vending machine at the Diddly Squat farm shop for a fairer price has helped keep them going and they were hoping to provide milk, cream and butter to the restaurant. Those hopes appear to have been dashed. “British farming is in a mess,” she said.
 

11101

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Whether you like him or not he makes a good TV show.

A big part of the success of the first was the innocence of the other cast members. I hope they haven't lost that.
 

rimaldo

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Whether you like him or not he makes a good TV show.

A big part of the success of the first was the innocence of the other cast members. I hope they haven't lost that.
apparently caleb calls himself “the caleberation” now and doesn’t allow filing to stop unless he’s made one of the runners cry.
 

11101

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apparently caleb calls himself “the caleberation” now and doesn’t allow filing to stop unless he’s made one of the runners cry.
Google Translate has no idea what you're on about here either.
 

Cascarino

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apparently caleb calls himself “the caleberation” now and doesn’t allow filing to stop unless he’s made one of the runners cry.
There’s also that whole thing about not liking toilet paper so halfway through season 1 he began wiping his ass using crew members
 

dannyrhinos89

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Ill watch ot as i found it entertaining but I don't really see where they go in season 2. I have a feeling it will be more set up or staged.
 

stefan92

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Ill watch ot as i found it entertaining but I don't really see where they go in season 2. I have a feeling it will be more set up or staged.
As the trailer showed some new projects (cows, restaurant) I guess it will be mostly the same reasonably unstaged setup - Clarkson saying "how hard can it be" and then learning it the hard way.

Which I quite like, it's entertaining and feels quite real, seeing how stuff really works and not the usual TV romanticism about country life.
 

dannyrhinos89

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As the trailer showed some new projects (cows, restaurant) I guess it will be mostly the same reasonably unstaged setup - Clarkson saying "how hard can it be" and then learning it the hard way.

Which I quite like, it's entertaining and feels quite real, seeing how stuff really works and not the usual TV romanticism about country life.

I can't take any of that stuff serious though as Clarkson is a multi millionaire. While it shows farming and different aspects of it which is interesting and entertaining its not true to real life farmers.

I would've loved JC to put his money and only his money in but obviously amazon are bank rolling it. So he won't ever lose out.
 

stefan92

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I can't take any of that stuff serious though as Clarkson is a multi millionaire. While it shows farming and different aspects of it which is interesting and entertaining its not true to real life farmers.

I would've loved JC to put his money and only his money in but obviously amazon are bank rolling it. So he won't ever lose out.
That's why I like that they showed the calculations in the end. Yes, Clarkson doesn't need that money and he himself acknowledges that. But him looking genuinely shocked about how little money his work made did add much value to the show. That five minutes of accounting are simply not existing in any other farming show I am aware of
 

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Binge watched all of the second season today.

Decent season, not as good as the first season I thought. A lot of time dragged out on some of the more side stories like the council elements. Interesting to see if it gets a third season.
 

Massive Spanner

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He’s a prick but it sure is good tv.

like how in the first episode of the new season they showed how much brexit fecked over farmers and as usual the tories didn’t make good on their promises.
 

Norris

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I liked this season as well. Maybe not as Clarkson-y as the first, but I did enjoy it so far.
 

stefan92

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I can't take any of that stuff serious though as Clarkson is a multi millionaire. While it shows farming and different aspects of it which is interesting and entertaining its not true to real life farmers.
This season contains a meeting with neighbouring farmers. Doesn't get more real to show how hard the economic situation is. So while Clarkson doesn't have to deal with that personally, the show does include this as well.