Clarkson's Farm

bloodiedathame said:
It's funny isn't it, I think that a lot of the people that hate Clarkson don't realise that they actually hate his camera personality. The bloke is probably an alright chap, I certainly got that impression when I watched Top Gear being filmed, and I think this show goes to prove that somewhat. An airhead yes, but a very principled person who can get on with just about anyone, is happy to have the mick taken out of him, is happy to be proven wrong, and isn't afraid to try new things. They're really good personality traits.
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exactly this, i think he has been great for tv.
i hope there is another season with him and kaleb.
 
Finished the series.

Really enjoyed it. Very funny and very informative.

I will reiterate the uncomfortable feeling i got when he was faux worrying about the money. I realise he was trying to show how hard farming is and how if you get unlucky with the weather, your profits will be hit hard. However, even at the end he only acknowledged his Who Wants To Be a Millionaire income, and completely ignored the fact that Amazon no doubt footed a lot of the bill for all this and that he would have been paid handsomely by Amazon for doing it. For example he said something like "Would i do this for another year at the equivalent of £1.40 a day", and i was just thinking...well you didnt do it for one year for that. You probably made hundreds of thousands, if not millions from the series.

I like Clarkson and i understand the drama is less effective if there are no money worries, but i wish he was a bit more honest and down to earth about the finances of it all.
 
Jono8 said:
Finished the series.

Really enjoyed it. Very funny and very informative.

I will reiterate the uncomfortable feeling i got when he was faux worrying about the money. I realise he was trying to show how hard farming is and how if you get unlucky with the weather, your profits will be hit hard. However, even at the end he only acknowledged his Who Wants To Be a Millionaire income, and completely ignored the fact that Amazon no doubt footed a lot of the bill for all this and that he would have been paid handsomely by Amazon for doing it. For example he said something like "Would i do this for another year at the equivalent of £1.40 a day", and i was just thinking...well you didnt do it for one year for that. You probably made hundreds of thousands, if not millions from the series.

I like Clarkson and i understand the drama is less effective if there are no money worries, but i wish he was a bit more honest and down to earth about the finances of it all.
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I think anyone smart enough would realise that this being an Amazon show, the budget from Amazon and his contract would mean there is no way he would be in debt by doing a TV show. The £144 profit is pure illustration of taking all that out of the equation. He is famous enough that everyone knows he isn't short of money. There is no risk of his farm going under at all during all this, however, it does illustrate the difficulty others faces.

I don't see any dishonesty, its not like we don't know who he is.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I think anyone smart enough would realise that this being an Amazon show, the budget from Amazon and his contract would mean there is no way he would be in debt by doing a TV show. The £144 profit is pure illustration of taking all that out of the equation. He is famous enough that everyone knows he isn't short of money. There is no risk of his farm going under at all during all this, however, it does illustrate the difficulty others faces.

I don't see any dishonesty, its not like we don't know who he is.
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Yes, but why not just be open about it? Why mention he only has the WWTBAM money when we know he is likely getting millions from Amazon?

I just found this part of it slightly awkward, and the program seemed to skirt around the fact that Amazon were likely funding a lot of it.

i do realise the show needed drama and wanted to raise awareness of what farming is like in the real world, but i think it Clarkson should have acknowledged just how incredibly wealthy he is, instead of insinuating that he would have be on the breadline due to the farm if he hadn't hosted WWTBAM
 
Jono8 said:
Yes, but why not just be open about it? Why mention he only has the WWTBAM money when we know he is likely getting millions from Amazon?

I just found this part of it slightly awkward, and the program seemed to skirt around the fact that Amazon were likely funding a lot of it.
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Because we know he gets paid by Amazon, it's a show on Amazon, that is like saying he gets paid to do a job. It's a TV show, which is obvious.

Unless we need everything spelt out? The point in the end is how difficult farming is, as not everyone has the Amazon paycheque or his other income. There is no point, say another farmer, watch that and be clouded with all the numbers Amazon paid to him. Let's say his accounts shows all the income Amazon paid, what good does that do? Nothing. The accounts is for the farm, the account isn't to Jeremy Clarkson.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Because we know he gets paid by Amazon, it's a show on Amazon, that is like saying he gets paid to do a job. It's a TV show, which is obvious.

Unless we need everything spelt out? The point in the end is how difficult farming is, as not everyone has the Amazon paycheque or his other income. There is no point, say another farmer, watch that and be clouded with all the numbers Amazon paid to him. Let's say his accounts shows all the income Amazon paid, what good does that do? Nothing. The accounts is for the farm, the account isn't to Jeremy Clarkson.
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I think you are missing the point. The very fact that we do know how wealthy he is and that it was done by Amazon is the reason that it felt uncomfortable!

It was the sort of faux worry about money for him personally. That was unnecessary in my opinion.



i just think this could have been approached with a bit more tact.
 
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Jono8 said:
I think you are missing the point. The very fact that we do know how wealthy he is and that it was done by Amazon is the reason that it felt uncomfortable!

It was the sort of faux worry about money for him personally. That was unnecessary in my opinion.

i just think this could have been approached with a bit more tact.
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I know what you mean but I just don't see it as a problem. Also, regardless the fact that he is rich, he does know the value of money so losing thousands to the weather being crap or losing thousands to beetle eating all the seeds is still losing thousands of pounds. One can be rich and still be upset about losing money, or even the idea of losing all that profit.

And then it's a TV show, there is an element of acting, and performing to the camera. He did that on all his years on Top Gear, acting surprised. That part isn't new. So I took it at what it is, entertaining, learning about farming, laughing. It's part of TV.
 
bloodiedathame said:
It was fairly clear in my mind that he was making the point that; if he was solely a farmer, he'd wonder why the hell he was doing it.
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That was clear to me as well. There were just certain points where i think it could have been done with a bit more grace/acknowledgment of what a privileged position he is in.

In spite of his meagre on paper profits for that year, the reality is that he is probably going to make a fortune from it over the years, especially selling his (very personalised :p) scented candles from his online farm shop - https://diddlysquatfarmshop.com/

To sort of make out that what he did for that season was non stop work for almost nothing was a little crass.
 
I mean he could say every 5 mins...(in a Clarkson accent)...Turns at camera "You know, i am making millions out of all this, and my contract states that i will not be out of pocket, so i am acting upset for making no money is just for the camera"

Goes to tend to his sheep and then say "You know, it doesn't matter these 3 sheeps died, I just made more money from selling my books", then goes drives the tractor and then goes "You know, even if the farm loses £100,000, I make more from this episode."

Do we need that? It's obvious what this show is, I don't want his absolution and confession, it distracts from the working and functions of the farm, which is the point. If he did any of that it feels like he is rubbing it in. There is no crass here, I think it's just in your head.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I mean he could say every 5 mins...(in a Clarkson accent)...Turns at camera "You know, i am making millions out of all this, and my contract states that i will not be out of pocket, so i am acting upset for making no money is just for the camera"

Goes to tend to his sheep and then say "You know, it doesn't matter these 3 sheeps died, I just made more money from selling my books", then goes drives the tractor and then goes "You know, even if the farm loses £100,000, I make more from this episode."

Do we need that? It's obvious what this show is, I don't want his absolution and confession, it distracts from the working and functions of the farm, which is the point. If he did any of that it feels like he is rubbing it in. There is no crass here, I think it's just in your head.
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This is just silly.

You know that is not what i am expecting. I just would have appreciated a little more tact, that is all.
 
If the farm fails he can always just turn it into his own racetrack or something and get andy to film him messsing around and self produce his own show called i dunno, a idiot with his own racetrack. :D
 
watercooledman said:
next time around though if he makes another season he should make profit now he owns most of the machinery.
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You know, when that accountant guy was reading out the numbers, I didn't hear the machinery being mentioned at all. Plus they are down as capital, not expenses in the ledger, so you don't write it off in a single year.
 
watercooledman said:
oh hmmmm the £144 is very very tragic then.
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I would guess, I am no accountant, the depreciation and running cost side would be written into the profit and loss, but the bulk of the value of the machine itself, he owns. Think of it as like his original capital that he has, but instead of in the bank, it's in a lump of metal. In theory he can sell it and get that back, so it's not "loss" in the P&L.
 
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