h, to be in charge at Prime Video. Imagine spending $465m on a Lord of the Rings remake that hardly anyone appeared to actually enjoy, when it turns out that sticking a few cameras on a tractor while a famous curmudgeon tries to explain the impossibilities of farming in Britain today will give you the biggest show on the platform. That is, in the UK, at least. We’ll have none of your explosive charismatic movie star Mr and Mrs Smith remakes, thank you very much.
But that is one of the many reasons this series has been so wildly popular. It gives the layperson a straight-talking account of what farming in Britain is like. Clarkson butts heads with his adviser Charlie Ireland, who knows enough about bureaucracy and red tape to tether Clarkson’s loftier ideas. Want to make jam and sell it? There are rules for that. Want to repair an old dam? There are definitely rules for that. The general pattern is familiar to anyone who has seen the previous two series.