Jeremy Clarkson has been left blindsided after being “forced” to pay Richard Hammond a hefty sum of money.
The TV personality recently cut professional ties with his Top Gear and Grand Tour co-stars Hammond and James May – but he recruited the assistance of Hammond in an episode of his successful solo series Clarkson’s Farm.
In the latest episode of the lifestyle show, which sees Clarkson attempting to run the now-famous, 1000-acre Diddly Squat farm, Clarkson continued in his efforts to open a new pub, which he called The Farmers Dog after making an unfortunate discovery about the surrounding area.
Clarkson reunited with Hammond for the first time onscreen since The Grand Tour ended last year.
He told viewers that he travelled “hundreds and hundreds of miles” away “from civilisation” to a Herefordshire village to visit Hammond, who runs a car restoration business.
In the episode, Clarkson reunited with Hammond for the first time onscreen since The Grand Tour ended last year.
Clarkson informed Hammond that he wanted to chrome and lighten the weight of a tractor in order to suspend it from the ceiling of the new pub – but Hammond told him it will cost him £20,000.
Acknowledging that the pub was a costly venture, he asked Hammond: “Are we talking hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?” Hammond replied: “Tens of thousands”.
Clarkson, shocked by the fee, then told his former co-star: “Why didn’t you tell me off before I set off that it was going to be more than the GDP of most European countries?”
Hammond cheekily told him: “Then you wouldn’t have come.”
When Clarkson asked if he would have charged “a normal farmer” £20,000 for the job, Hammond fired back: “What normal farmer would chrome his tractor?”
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Clarkson had no choice but to strike a deal with Hammond, telling viewers that “since we were only five weeks from opening”, he “was forced to agree” to his terms.
The TV personality has taken over the rural country pub The Windmill in Asthall – a “village boozer” situated on five acres of countryside near Burford.
Its an extension of his country empire, which started when Clarkson purchased the farm at the heart of the hit Prime Video show in 2009.
After the villager who ran the farm retired in 2019, Clarkson decided to see if he could run it himself and turned his journey into a globally succesful series.
Clarkson, Hammond and May started working together on BBC’s Top Gear in 2002 and moved over to Amazon for Prime Video series The Grand Tour in 2016.
Addressing the decision to end their professional partnership last year, Clarkson told The Sunday Times: ”After 36 years of talking about cars on television, I’m packing it in, because I’m too old and fat to get into the cars that I like and not interested in driving those I don’t.”
The Grand Tour is poised to return with a trio of new presenters, including YouTubers Thomas Holland and James Engelsman, best known for their motoring content, as well as social media star and train enthusiast Francis Bourgeois.
