Jeremy Clarkson has warned that life as a farmer is much ‘dirtier and harder’ in real life, after his girlfriend Lisa Hogan revealed she could end up with a criminal record for selling non-local produce on their farm.
The couple will once again star in a third season of , which follows their lives on the Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire alongside Kaleb and Gerald Cooper.
Ahead of the new season, Clarkson said he was keen to show viewers ‘what real farming is’, with scenes of sows firing out their newborns ‘like machine guns’ being described as ‘not for the faint hearted’.
His partner Hogan also admitted she was involved in a ‘serious conversation’ over the produce they wanted to sell in their farm shop.
She learned through their land agent and advisor Charlie Ireland that the shop could only sell items produced within 16 miles of their farm and failure to comply would lead to a criminal record.
Hogan said: ‘Charlie had to have a serious conversation with me and say that I could end up with a criminal record if I didn’t comply.
‘It’s council regulations which I respect, especially after Charlie explained it to me in his clear and concise way.’
Clarkson warned that Life on his Diddly Squat farm was not for the squeamish, adding: ‘Farming on television has been portrayed as fresh straw, fluffy lambs, agreeable calves: a bit like Babe. I had it in my head that farming was much dirtier and harder, and I always wanted to show it like it actually is.
‘Farming doesn’t have many happy endings, as we’ve discovered. We want to show everybody what real farming is.’
Hogan also revealed that the couple’s restaurant does not appear in the new season, as it was forced to close down by the local council, but they have been allowed to keep their gourmet food van to ‘cook the meat from our animals’.
In another episode, a wedding proposal is mentioned, leading Hogan to reveal she has hopes of getting engaged to the former Top Gear presenter.
The pair met at a party in 2017, after being set up by mutual friends, and went public with their romance at the British GQ Awards that same year.
Clarkson has been married twice before, first to Alexandra James in 1989, but they split six months later.
He then became engaged to Frances Cain and they were together for more than two decades before separating in 2014.
In that time, they had three children together – daughters Emily and Katya and son Finlo.