Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in a deeply emotional scene from the final two episodes of Clarkson’s Farm, which were released overnight on Amazon Prime Video.
The 65-year-old broadcaster broke the news to his co-stars Kaleb Cooper and Charlie, who work with him at Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds, while the trio were discussing plans for the upcoming harvest. Visibly struggling to hold his composure, Clarkson leaned back in his chair and told the pair: “I’ve got cancer.” A disbelieving Kaleb immediately replied: “No, you haven’t. Where?” to which Clarkson responded: “Where it is of no concern of anybody. I’ve known since May.”
Clarkson went on to explain that the cancer was aggressive but had been caught early. “I had a medical, you remember back in May. I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy and it is cancer and it’s aggressive, but it’s really early so the treatment will be, you know. I was praying we could get the harvest done and then I could go and get some treatment but it’s going to be slap bang in the middle.” A tearful Kaleb told him: “Look after yourself, you go and do… if you need anything just ring.”
In a later scene filmed with his girlfriend Lisa Hogan and the rest of the farm team, Clarkson reflected on a year that had brought a series of serious health challenges. “So we started the year and I had coronary heart disease and ended it with me with cancer,” he said. “We can dwell as much as we like on all the bad things that have happened on the farm but I think it is better now at the end of the year to focus on things that have happened that are good.”
The show then moves to a hospital bed, where Clarkson delivers a message that will have alarmed viewers. “Some of the treatment has gone awry, let’s say, I’m going to be here for a little while. I’m nil by mouth, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says. “What I wanted to say was if this is all successful I’ll see you for season six and if it isn’t I won’t. Take care everyone.”
Clarkson had foreshadowed the difficult content on Instagram the day before, posting a clip warning viewers that the episodes would be “a difficult watch. They’re really, really difficult.” Prime Video had also previously hinted at the tone of the closing episodes in a press release, warning that “things turn dark as bad luck strikes from every direction.”
The diagnosis is the latest in a series of serious health setbacks for the former Top Gear and Grand Tour host. In 2024, he was rushed to hospital with chest pains and doctors discovered one of his arteries was “completely blocked,” with Clarkson later saying he had been “days from death.” Surgeons inserted a stent to restore blood flow, and Clarkson returned to the farm, telling Kaleb in an early episode of the fifth series: “I’m back and not dead. The grim reaper will have to wait. It was f***ing close, though.”
Despite the alarming scenes in the finale, Clarkson has remained active since filming wrapped. Production is currently under way on a new series of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which he hosts, and Amazon Prime Video has already commissioned a sixth series of Clarkson’s Farm. The show, which first aired in 2021, has become one of the streaming platform’s biggest hits.
