Jeremy Clarkson reveals cancer diagnosis

F or those who have devoted many decades to enthusiastically disliking Jeremy Clarkson , his emergence as a sympathetic figure on Prime Video‘s reality series Clarkson’s Farm has proved quite a turnabout. During his Top Gear years, Clarkson was the embodiment of boorish, middle-aged entitlement: he relished his role as the pantomime villain of petrolhead television and appeared to get a genuine kick out of punching down against targets, both obvious (cyclists) and random (Mexico).

That he was sacked by the BBC in 2015 for thumping his Dublin-born producer was seen as ultimate confirmation that he was, as the British would say, a bad ‘un. How we looked forward to never ever encountering him on television again: goodbye, Jeremy, and don’t let your McLaren gull-wing door hit you on the way out. As one Top Gear fan wrote on social media at the time, “We all knew he was a knob, but behaviour like that is just unacceptable”.

But now, following the final two episodes of series five of the blockbuster Clarkson’s Farm, even hard-core Clarkson-haters are in the uncomfortable place of feeling sorry for and perhaps even quietly admiring him. That is a consequence of this week’s bombshell that he has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer .

Ever the showman, he made the reveal on camera during a business meeting with his farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, and land agent, Charlie Ireland. “I’ve got cancer,” he said in a scene filmed last year. “I had a medical, remember, back in May? I disappeared off the other week, and I had a biopsy, and it is cancer, and it’s aggressive.”

Clarkson looked uncharacteristically deflated and every one of his 66 years – the bumptious bonhomie that is his on-screen signature nowhere to be seen. He was initially reluctant to go into detail – “where it is, is of no concern to anybody”- but later elaborated. “The prostate, 10 per cent of it’s dead,” he said. “The 10 per cent where the cancer is.”

You would obviously have to be made out of granite not to empathise with someone with cancer. Add to that the fact that Clarkson’s Farm could well do more to increase awareness about prostate cancer than any number of public information campaigns. Prostate Cancer UK made exactly that point, saying the episode would “raise vital awareness”.

Clarkson has, in fact, spoken about the topic previously, urging men to have their prostate checked. “I’ve had too many friends go down with prostate cancer, and all it takes to get on top of the situation early is a moment or two of being a bit cross-eyed,” he said. “You get the all-clear and the doc goes home happy. What’s not to like?”

The latest series ends with Clarkson’s health having taken a turn for the worse – a sobering conclusion to a season that began with the presenter being diagnosed with a heart condition. Shortly before the end credits, he says his farewells from a hospital bed.

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“We started season five with me in a hospital bed. Here we are at the end. I’m back in a hospital bed. Some of the treatment has gone awry… If this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six. If it isn’t… I won’t… take care everyone.”

The state of his health is currently unclear, but he has been filming new episodes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and has been seen back on Diddly Squat Farm. Whatever the future holds, the real shock is that even those who enthusiastically loathed Clarkson will find themselves in the novel position of wishing him the best. What an odyssey it has been for a presenter who for many years seemed to relish his role as the biggest rotter on the small screen. From Top Gear to top bloke, his redemption is complete.