Jeremy Clarkson has evolved into a noticeably more relaxed figure since trading in globe-trotting motoring escapades for countryside living, according to his longtime colleague and Clarkson's Farm executive producer Andy Wilman. Wilman, who collaborated with Clarkson for decades on Top Gear and The Grand Tour before reuniting with him on the smash-hit Amazon series Clarkson's Farm, revealed the presenter is currently in "the sweetest spot" of his career.
The reality television programme chronicles Clarkson, 66, and his team as they tackle the day-to-day trials of managing his Diddly Squat Farm near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Wilman was asked by host Jake Humphrey whether the Jeremy Clarkson audiences witness on Clarkson's Farm mirrors the personality who helmed Top Gear.
He said: "Same skills as we've discussed. Different? Yes, he is. You see a calmer man, I see the rushes," reports the Mirror.
Wilman explained that while Clarkson still elevates his energy when cameras are rolling, there's a pronounced transformation in the presenter once filming wraps.
He said: "I see a calmer man. When the camera goes on, obviously, he goes up a notch to perform and talk, but you see a calmer man. He's constantly talking about [the love of the farm] with the film crew. He's absolutely in the sweetest spot, so it is a different Jeremy, short answer."
According to Wilman, Clarkson's enthusiasm for farming has helped reveal that aspect of his character. Wilman added: "The farm has kind of brought it out more. It's enhanced it. I think Top Gear Jeremy was mental, mental, then nothing. Grand Tour, then nothing. I think you'd get an agitated Jeremy, right, because he's programmed to work. He's programmed to do."
The producer indicated that farming provides Clarkson with the sense of purpose he desires without the pressures and constant travel linked to his earlier television ventures.
"And the farm is the best green run, ski slope descent into calmness that you could ever have because it's still work," he said.
"It still requires a lot of effort and brain power, but all he's got to do is step out of his front door and he's at work without having to get on the plane and go to Mauritania, and have a crew of eight million and all that stuff. That gets wearing, that kind of thing."
Wilman explained that numerous crew members on Clarkson's Farm previously worked on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, but the rhythm of life is markedly different.
He said: "He's got veterans from Top Gear and Grand Tour. And their days are they'll film a scene, like, let's say, move goats or cow birth or something, and then after that's done, they're going to have a cup of coffee and sometimes they go, 'what should we do next?'"
For Clarkson, he suggested, that more relaxed tempo combined with purposeful work has proved the perfect formula.
"They're going to do something, but then they have to have a think about it, and it's like. That's just joy for somebody who wants to work. But he's not got like a newspaper deadline or the weight of the world's expectations on him," he added.
