Jeremy Clarkson’s farmers’ choir is set to audition on the latest instalment of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend.
The Top Gear star, 65, set up the group thinking the choir would be him and “two cows honking tunelessly through Kumbaya”. However, it has developed into a “glorious gathering of brilliant people and beautiful voices representing the beating heart of rural Britain”, he said.
One choir member, Katryna Shell, said she hoped that Clarkson would join them on the stage to perform in front of judges Alesha Dixon, KSI, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell’s stand-in Stacey Solomon on Saturday night (21 March), due to his surprisingly tuneful voice.
“We’d love something like that. He does actually sing as well, believe it or not. We have heard Jeremy sing. I won’t divulge further.
“I’ll leave that up to you as to the tone in his voice. Make of that what you will,” she told The Sun.
It comes after Clarkson featured the choir in an advert for his Diddly Squat Farm’s Hawkstone lager last summer, which was promptly banned from both TV and radio for being “not compliant”.
Clarkson recruited a group of 34 farmers to sing a rendition of “Flower Duet” from the tragic opera Lakmé, with pints of Hawkstone in their hands. However, instead of singing the traditional French lyrics penned by Léo Delibes, the vocalists belt out: “F*** me, it’s good.”
The farmers in Clarkson’s choir come from all parts of the UK but regularly meet at the presenter’s pub, The Farmer’s Dog, with another member, Ben Brooke, telling The Sun it’s like “a big family”.
“We’re not professional singers. We’re farmers — all of this is a bonus to us,” the singer said.
The group hope to raise awareness of the mental health struggles that farmers face, with Brooke commenting that the job can be “super isolating” and detrimental to personal wellbeing.
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There were a total of 44 suicides registered in England and Wales of those working in the farming and agricultural industry in 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
“If we can help even one person, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
A choir has never won Britain’s Got Talent before. A 700-person strong Northampton group, Northants Sings Out, reached the final in 2024 but came in ninth as singer Sydnie Christmas beat them to first place.
Britain’s Got Talent returns to ITV1 and ITVX on Saturday, 21 March at 6.45pm
