Can Jeremy Clarkson Farm? Ask Clarkson’s Farm’s Kaleb Cooper

Can Jeremy Clarkson actually farm? That’s the question Clarkson’s Farm fans have been wondering since the show launched in 2021. The Amazon series follows the former Top Gear host as he attempts to farm his 1000-acre land in England’s picturesque Cotswolds area, with the help of a few local heroes.

One of those is farmhand (now farm manager) Kaleb Cooper, unquestionably the show’s breakout star. Cooper, a 25-year-old local, was working on Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm for several years before learning the Grand Tour host would be trying to run the thing himself.

“I wouldn’t really say I’d watched any of his stuff,” Cooper told PEDESTRIAN.TV. “I don’t really have time to watch TV, I’m so busy.”

Cooper says Clarkson’s Farm producers were actually casting for his role when he was asked to meet Clarkson, unknowingly auditioning for the gig that would see his profile explode.

“It wasn’t until the last day when the director stopped me and said, ‘Can you please pop up and see Jeremy in the office?’ And that’s the first time you ever see me on Clarkson’s Farm, series one,” Cooper said.

“So I started talking to him, I wanted to try and read the room. I thought I’d ask him simple questions, like, ‘When do you drill wheat?’, and he’s going, ‘I don’t know’, and I thought, ‘God, this is going to be hard work, isn’t it?’”

As it turns out, Cooper was 100% right. “It’s the most difficult job I’ve ever had,” he said, half joking (but also definitely half not joking). “And I’ve had a lot of jobs, mind. I started farming at 12 years old.” He reckons he’s losing hair as a result of being on the show. “Honestly, my forehead’s gotten bigger and bigger because of the stress levels.”

Cooper’s natural comic timing and deep knowledge of farming play perfectly against Clarkson’s (often controversial) straight shooter presenting style and ‘fish out of water’ levels of experience. Their banter is the heart of the show, and videos dedicated to their “most iconic moments” rack up millions of views online.

“What I find really challenging is when [Clarkson] goes, ‘I’ve got an idea’,” Cooper says. “For example, he says, I’m going to farm the unfarmed’. And I go, well I wouldn’t do that because you’re going to have this problem or that problem. I hit him with the soft blow. And then he goes, ‘No, I’m going to do it’, so I get a little bit more aggressive and say no. And then he still goes, ‘No, I’m gonna do it’, so I go, for fuck’s sake, here we go. Your ideas are shit. We’re not doing it.” He laughed. “I don’t mean to be horrible all the time!”

But off-camera — and very occasionally on — their relationship is something close to family.

“Our relationship is really good, and I think hopefully, you ca see that,” Cooper said. “Of course, everyone can argue, but what makes a good relationship is if you’re arguing and then two minutes later you go, ‘Want a cup of tea, mate? What to go to the pub?’ And that is what we’re like.”

He adds: “Hopefully I’ve taught him a thing or two about farming, but at the same time, he’s taught me so much about the TV industry, and brought me into it, for which I’m very grateful. And I really enjoy it. So who knows what the future holds?”

Cooper’s fame exploded overnight, making the young farmer who’d let a relatively sheltered life a household name. He now has 2.3 million Instagram followers, has written a couple books, and even done a live tour — but remains very level-headed about his new era of celebrity.

“I think some celebrities wouldn’t cope with [the attention], but I think what I have is that I’m some still where I started,” Cooper said. “I jumped on a tractor this very day. I don’t get consumed with this stuff all around me, I can just go sit on a tractor for 18 hours and be by myself.”

The only audience he really cares about is the farming community. “I don’t care about what any tabloid says about me, I only care about what farmers say about me. They’re my audience, they’re the people I want to impress and help out.” He said the response from the farming community has been “amazing”, particularly given Clarkson’s Farm‘s habit of shining a light on the enormous pressures farmers are under, whether that’s the rapidly changing climate or disappearing subsidies.

“The average age of a farmer in England is 59,” Cooper said. “As a young person coming in, I think sometimes they can go, ‘No, I’m not gonna listen to you’. But I think I’ve proven that I know what I’m talking about. This is my livelihood. This is my passion. I don’t drink coffee, because farming is my coffee. If I drank any more coffee, I think my head would literally go boom.”

In Clarkson’s Farm season three, out May 3, Clarkson and Cooper hold a competition to see who can make the most money in a calendar year: Cooper with his “traditional farming” methods, or Clarkson as he tries to “farm the unfarmed”, using the unused 500 acres of his land to make some additional cash. It sees Clarkson give every scheme imaginable a crack, from mushroom growing and pig farming to jam making, and goat herding.

It seems like the series-old question of whether Jeremy Clarkson can actually farm is about to finally be answered.

The first four episodes of Clarkson’s Farm season 3 will be dropping on Amazon Prime on May 3, with episodes 5-8 to drop on May 10.