Jeremy Clarkson was spotted enjoying The 2023 Big Feastival on Saturday, held on Alex James’ Farm in the Cotswolds.
The former Top Gear host, 63, looked laidback as he sat on a balcony, chatting to a male friend. He stood out from the crowd in a bright orange raincoat, which he wore over a grid-patterned white shirt and a navy blue jumper.
Jeremy appeared to be enjoying a few glasses of wine as he listened to a host of music acts at the festival. Everything Everything and Katy B were among the line-up performing on Saturday with Tom Grennan headlining.
It comes after bosses at Amazon Studios have revealed why they didn’t drop Jeremy’s show Clarkson’s Farm in the wake of his controversial Meghan Markle column.
Jeremy sparked a backlash after fantasizing in a newspaper column about the Duchess of Sussex being paraded through the streets naked while people threw ‘excrement’ at her, in an apparent reference to a public shaming scene from the fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.
However, his popular Prime Video series, which documents the workings of Jeremy’s 1,000-acre holding in the Cotswolds, was renewed by the streamer as it said ‘there is so much more to the show’ than the presenter.
During a session of the Edinburgh TV Festival, panel host and journalist Scott Bryan asked representatives for Amazon why they continued with the show following the backlash, including numerous complaints to the press watchdog, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
Fozia Khan, unscripted lead, of UK Originals for Amazon Studios, said the team was ‘shocked and disappointed’ by what Jeremey wrote in The Sun, but ultimately made the decision to continue the show.
She added: ‘I mean, there’s lots of conversations going on. But I think the thing that I want to say is that the show is so much bigger than Clarkson. It’s a really good show.’
IPSO upheld a complaint that the column was sexist towards the Duchess of Sussex, describing some of the comments about her as ‘pejorative and prejudicial’.
The regulator found the article’s use of a comparison to Scotland’s former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and serial killer Rose West was because the three are female.
In the December 17 2022 article, Jeremy wrote: ‘I hate her (Meghan). Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.’
The former Top Gear presenter apologized for the piece, describing his language as ‘disgraceful’ and said he was ‘profoundly sorry’.
The Sun also apologized and said it regretted the publication of the column, which was removed online.
Dan Grabiner, head of originals for UK and Northern Europe, Amazon Studios, told the audience at the EICC: ‘I can’t tell you what a phenomenon the show itself is and the impact it has had on the agricultural community and farming.
‘We get messages from farmers around the world who just love the show and love Kaleb (Cooper) and Gerald (Cooper) and they relate to those characters, saying they have never really seen their world properly reflected on-screen before, which is amazing.
‘And, as Fozia said, it’s a hell of a lot bigger than Jeremy Clarkson.’
Ms. Khan also said that the show is ‘entertaining and joyful’, adding: ‘It addresses issues of climate change, the struggles of farming and Brexit.’
