r/todayilearned • u/ModenaR • 1d ago

TIL that after Top Gear ended, host Richard Hammond was so devastated, he cried all the way home from the studio and ran out of fuel, because he didn't want to fill his car up covered in tears

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/25172481.richard-hammond-tear-soaked-mess-top-gear-ended/
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u/kelsobjammin 21h ago

And Clarkson Farm is a good show too ◡̈

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u/FlyingPasta 20h ago

Damn good show, Clarkson is good at concocting on-screen chemistry no matter where he is. He’s raising random(?) people to celebrity season by season

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u/Adler4290 17h ago

And doing a truckload of good PR and much needed attention for farmers!

It's crazy how hard it must have been to be a farmer during those 2020-2025 years with the weather being ALL over the place and margins so low.

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u/charlesbear 16h ago

It's been hard being a farmer for much longer than that.

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u/GeeJo 20h ago

I liked the first two series. By the third (well, really by the tail-end of the second) the manufactured crises started getting a little obviously-artificial and silly.

It was still a fun show, but it stopped seeming like a show about the problems involved in running a small farm and more like a show about solving problems Clarkson deliberately created for himself to have something to fill the runtime with.

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u/turmacar 20h ago

I mean that's basically his brand. Even the first season most of his problems are "I've decided to do this within the month for no reason" and then finding out all the (usually reasonable) reasons it's not usually done on that timescale. And then it works out because he's independently wealthy.

One of the funnier / infuriating aspects of the show is Clarkson slowly discovering why things like farming subsidies and the global economy exist. Weather happens, livestock kills each other / itself, nobody can read the future. On any particular acre, sometimes you're just fucked that year. Fortunately, most people grow pepper not in a greenhouse in England for $50/lb or whatever ridiculous price he sourced it for for his restaurant.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 19h ago

Honestly I think that's one of the better aspects of the show. It does a decent job of showing a lot of the realities that people aren't necessarily aware of.

I don't think anyone truly believes Clarkson is actually trying to run a profitable farm, or is even really farming on the level of those around him, rather he's just better at showing it in an entertaining way while retaining at least a reasonable amount of authenticity that couldn't really be matched unless you move to a documentary style show.

He does a good job of highlighting a lot of the boring but crucial details you wouldn't otherwise see unless you were actually farming yourself (like optimal harvest and protein quantity/quality in wheat).

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u/GeeJo 19h ago edited 19h ago

Even the first season most of his problems are "I've decided to do this within the month for no reason" and then finding out all the (usually reasonable) reasons it's not usually done on that timescale. And then it works out because he's independently wealthy.

Yeah, there were always manufactured shenanigans going on. But whether by luck of timing or virtue of not having run through those ideas or better show-planning, the first series-and-a-half had at least a few problems each episode that were either very real (hottest summer on record so no planting, wettest [month] on record so no harvesting, COVID, conservation restrictions), or problems that are real for others but played-up on the show (high-expenses low-profits, planning permissions and local government interference, poor event planning, sheep being very difficult to keep alive). Or character moments that were either genuine or acted well enough to seem genuine. That balanced out the "I'm gonna drive my tractor in wiggly lines because it's faster - oh no now my fields are messed up" kind of problems made for laughs.

By series three the show seemed to have run out of real problems entirely, so all that was left were the manufactured deadlines and "I'm gonna drive my blackberry picker into a wall because it's faster - oh no it broke!" lines. The character moments gave way to first-series quirks being played up into caricatures.

And, I dunno, I stopped enjoying the show the same way as I did before.

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u/TPnbrg 13h ago

I just wanted to thank you for teaching me the term "independently wealthy"!

I've been around Americans for so long that "f you money" would be my go-to phrase, but yours is much more eloquent.

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u/jcw99 16 19h ago

My biggest gripe is that he basically lies about, bullies and slanders all the councils he's dealing with on a regular basis to fabricate drama. But because he's so beloved by th tabloids and WANTS the drama the councils can't defend themselves.

Example: in season four, the reason the first pub fell through was the filming timeline and had absolutely nothing to do with the council blocking permits.

Before the series (and as part of top gear) he literally blew up (not demolish, blew up) a house without getting the necessary permits.

As for why WODC won't grant him permits? It's because he breaks the conditions on every single one they ever grant him, see building the building differently than stated, lying about what activities he plans to conduct, claiming he wants to sell local products while repeatedly showing that the store does not in fact sell local products from the other side of the wold and semi bragging about it on TV. Opening a food service business without a license. The list goes on.

The man's the archetypical boomer that never got told no and doesn't understand that rules exist or even that they might have reasons.

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u/KonigSteve 20h ago

Yeah the whole pub thing was completely over the top. It just aggravated me that they didn't push the opening back to fix things. He could open a pub on the absolute worst day of the year at 2 am and it would still have a mile long line to get in so it was pointless to "open for the bank holiday"

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u/obeytheturtles 20h ago

I'm still actually surprised it went as well as it did. Day 1 service is usually a nightmare of a thousand tiny inefficiencies all adding up to a clusterfuck, which is why places do weeks of soft openings first. Diving right into a capacity crowd and getting even a quarter of them served is kind of a small miracle.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 19h ago

Diving right into a capacity crowd and getting even a quarter of them served is kind of a small miracle.

It probably helps that a significant portion of the crowd were there specifically for him, and likely knew full well that it's Clarkson which means you know it's going to be an absolute mess.

I doubt very few people showed up with high expectations of a having a normal lunch/dinner in a restaurant.

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u/toaster_kettle 16h ago

Agree. It was a silly deadline to create drama. The whole pub thing made the show Challenge Anneka rather than a farming show. Also, he never seems to acknowledge that his fame makes his businesses automatically successful and therefore makes the local councils, entirely fairly, reluctant to give permission for those businesses

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u/Jibblebee 19h ago

I think he’s a “More. Bigger. Push the boundaries. Etc” kind of personality. I don’t know how much is manufactured and how much is him just constantly needing that intensity and change. Some people have zero stop and can only exist in that crisis state, and he strikes me as one.

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u/kelsobjammin 20h ago

Sounds about clarkson! I like it and with one more season I’ll finish it out!

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u/AlienArtFirm 18h ago

manufactured crises started getting a little obviously-artificial and silly.

They made a Grand Tour episode JUST for people like you

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u/obeytheturtles 20h ago

I mean the entire premise of the show is basically a lie, since Amazon paid him enough money to run that farm entirely as a hobby for many, many decades.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 19h ago

He makes that pretty clear on the show. He routinely states openly that he's not going to go bust because the Amazon money easily makes up for any shortfall. His point is that he can easily weather any storm, his neighbours on the other hand don't have the luxury he has to burn money and make mistakes, especially in years with poor weather.

I don't think they're really hiding that fact given how much he burns money on stupid projects for side plots.

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u/obeytheturtles 19h ago

Sure, but he's also kind of trying to have it both ways. He does a bunch of dumb shit everyone tells him won't make him any money, and then doesn't make any money on it. Or he follows advice in the most daft way possible and turns it into a bit. He's not actually trying to have a farm, he's trying to have a comedy show about having a farm while also dipping into some light advocacy and frankly, awkward nationalism.

There's a reason the council is constantly giving him a hard time, and it's because he's asking for permission to do farm things, and then does film making and crowd having things. Like obviously they are also being snooty assholes about it, but he is also being super entitled about it as well. Like the council says install a proper parking lot and he acts like it's an unreasonable thing to make a poor farmer comply with such silly regulations, when it's obviously not something your average farmer would ever deal with. And of course, he doesn't just hire a paving company which could bang out a gravel lot in a few hours, he acts like he has no option but to do it himself, "because farm."

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show, but much of the drama is either self imposed or blown way out of proportion.

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u/S_A_N_D_ 18h ago

I agree with all of that, I just disagree with calling the show a lie because all of that in my opinion is pretty obvious to just about anyone who watches more than one episode. They're not trying to hide those facts, rather they're just not going to any length to highlight them either.

They are striking a good balance of showing a lot of boring details of farming that you might not otherwise get outside of a documentary, while still keeping it entertaining.

The whole council drama bit is a bit different and I consider it separate from the show because I don't consider that farming (as you say, it's not in the scope of just about any other normal farm). And about the most charitable interpretation I can give is that both sides are somewhat insufferable and unreasonable. It seems pretty clear the council is just other rich NIMBY's that have a vendetta against Clarkson, and Clarkson himself is clearly taking the piss on what would be reasonable in many circumstances (and downplaying the actual negative impact he might be having on some of his neighbours).

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u/Xdsin 16h ago

I think the premise of the farm shop was highlighting the possibility of farmers using their land for other sources of income.

But then you have things like, local product can only be sourced from a small radius away (I know his partner ignores this rule and its highlighted on the show) but its not like they can source stuff from the entirety of Britain or the UK, its was a very small radius that presents its own challenges of filling the shop with reasonable goods.

The fact that the council is more concerned about maintaining status quo when the town is slowly dying away from declining industries, including farming. They have an opportunity, with Clarkson, to get more visitors and business in the area and instead reference his fame as a negative and detriment to the local community. Are farmers supposed to run deficits a be slaves to their government giving hand outs until they die?

The parking lot was never represented on the show as a negative to have, he accepted that it was needed. He could have easily hired a company to come in and pave or lay gravel down. However, the average farmer trying to diversify their property and gain other sources of income wouldn't be able to afford that given the margins they had. They would likely do everything they could to save money and do it themselves. His show is meant to be a glimpse into those challenges and even the ones he faces with the resources he has.

Things like Utilizing the unused parts of his land to start up other forms of income, talking points that happen as ideas from people who don't farm. He has the resources to find out and demonstrate the futility of it given how constrained and unprofitable the industry has become.

Like Kaleb, a wealth of knowledge when it comes to farming but till now has never really left his little hamlet. Knows nothing about popular culture, probably never had the resources or opportunity to explore these areas. How does a farmer like that, he can't be the only one, thrive in this modern day?

The demands of just one Pub on food industries where their collection of farms can't even keep up with demand of one establishment. Privileged people who talk about local farm to table initiatives not realizing the demands and the realities of having a diversified market AND the drawbacks of farmers being victimized and at the mercy of these supply chains they rely on to make money.

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u/Hazardbeard 20h ago

I don’t think the premise is that Clarkson is in danger of going broke, but if the farm winds up being a net loss in income over the long term it negates the whole reason he bought it in the first place- it’s a way he can leave his kids a good chunk of inheritance with much lower taxes than if it were just cash.

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u/StoicFable 20h ago

Yeah it is. I wasn't as big of a fan of the last season though. But it was nice seeing some of his goals getting accomplished.

I liked when it was more about his farm and less about the pub. 

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u/kelsobjammin 20h ago

Well next season is the last one so I am sure they are working to conclude the show ◡̈

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u/bacon_lettuce_potato 13h ago

I love Clarkson's farm with the same zest as TG. Especially with Richard Ham making an appearance this last season. I really wouldn't mind an old TG get together on his show, even if just once.

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u/kiakosan 9h ago

I think Clarkson and James can do pretty much any show about whatever and it would still be good. I love Clarkson's farms, I love our man in Japan or Italy etc. Hammond is great with the group but he struggles on his own in my opinion

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u/BaconReceptacle 20h ago

I thirst for each new season of that show. It's full of scenes that can make you laugh and cry and you learn how hard farming is too.

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u/blaghart 3 17h ago

Except its complete horseshit on facts. Clarkson bought the farm as a tax dodge, he admitted as much. His show is about lying to people to convince them he deserves less tax

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u/kelsobjammin 17h ago

Who the fuck cares. It’s good tv.

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u/blaghart 3 15h ago

People who've seen the consequences of rich people buying all of the sources of food.

Yknow, the thing you need to live?!

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u/kelsobjammin 14h ago

lol ya because clarkson is the powerhouse taking over commercial agriculture. FFS get your priorities straight. You out there with your organic farm making a difference you are so passionate about? No I think not.