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Jeremy Clarkson tells Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland he has cancer
Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer during filming of the fifth series of his documentary series Clarkson’s Farm.
On the show, Clarkson, 66, is seen telling visibly shocked co-stars Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland the news.
The former Top Gear presenter did not initially reveal what form of cancer he had been diagnosed with, but said it had been caught early.
However, later in the episode, the TV presenter went on to say: “The prostate, 10% of it’s dead, the 10% where the cancer is.”
“I was praying we could get the harvest done and then I could go and get some treatment, but it’s going to be slap bang in the middle.”
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He told them he had known “since May”, although it is not clear what year this was.
“I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy, and it is cancer, and it’s aggressive, but it’s really early”, he said.
“I promise I’ll be fine,” he told the two men, adding that he would be out of action “for a little while”.
Later in the episode, he was seen in a hospital bed waiting for surgery. He told Cooper and Ireland: “I won’t know whether it’s worked or not until November probably…”
Speaking from a hospital bed at the end of the season finale, Clarkson revealed he had experienced complications during treatment.
Land agent Charlie Ireland and farm manager Kaleb Cooper looked visibly shocked at Clarkson’s news. Credit: Amazon Prime
“We started season five with me in a hospital bed and here we are at the end of season five and I’m back in a hospital bed,” he said.
The 66-year-old reflected on the future of the show.
“What I wanted to say was if this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six, and if it isn’t, I won’t,” he said.
“Take care, everyone.”
Several hours before the release of the final two episodes, Clarkson posted an Instagram video warning fans that they would be a “really, really difficult watch”.
He said: “Sombre news, Clarkson’s Farm, ordinarily we try to keep the show bucolic and charming, and cheerful, but two episodes which drop in the middle of the night tonight are, they’re none of those things really.
“They’re a difficult watch, they’re really, really difficult.”
The fifth series of the Prime Video show began filming in 2024 at his Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire.
Clarkson revealed in his column in The Sunday Times that he had a stent fitted at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford after experiencing a “sudden deterioration” in his health after returning from holiday in October 2024.
Clarkson’s Farm follows the long-time television presenter and his crew as they navigate the challenges of running Diddly Squat Farm near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Since deciding to run his farm in 2019 and subsequently launching his popular reality series, Clarkson has become a vocal supporter of farmers and attended a protest in London against the Government’s move to introduce inheritance tax on farmland in November 2024.
The sixth series of the show is due to air in 2027.
How common is aggressive prostate cancer?
There are numerous different types of prostate cancer, although the vast majority of people who get prostate cancer get adenocarcinomas, which develop in gland cells.
The most common type is acinar adenocarcinomas of the prostate, which develop in the gland cells that line the prostate. According to the US-based Mayo Clinic, it makes up for more than 90% of all prostate cancer diagnoses and can vary in aggressiveness.
The other types of prostate cancer are far rarer and are usually very aggressive.
In the UK, cancers are usually graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the most aggressive. A study carried out in Italy found that between 2000 and 2020, around a quarter of all prostate cancers were aggressive grade four or five.
Jeremy Clarkson has been a familiar face on British TV screens for decades Credit: Ian West/PA
What are the prostate cancer warning signs?
According to the NHS, prostate cancer often has no symptoms at first, but problems with urinating, whether too often or not enough is the most common sign.
Because it can often be symptomless, the NHS offers men over the age of 50 a prostate-specific antigen blood test every one to two years.
The NHS recently said it would begin offering screening to the men most at risk of prostate cancer.
Men with BRCA2 genetic mutations – which puts them at far higher risk of prostate cancer – will be tested every two years between the ages of 45 and 61 if they have a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic or prostate cancers.
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