Fans of Clarkson's Farm have clashed over the future of the show as the countdown to season four continues.
First released in 2021, the Amazon Prime Video documentary series has followed Jeremy Clarkson's journey from car nut to growing food to be put on dinner tables across the country.
Clarkson has been directly running Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds since 2019, having owned the 1,000-acre plot since 2008.
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There have been many ups and downs, with the show's true stars being the local farmers Jezza has teamed up with, mainly Kaleb Cooper and Gerald Cooper (no relation despite being namesakes).
With three seasons under our belts already, all eyes are on what the future holds for Clarkson's Farm.
Last month Clarkson said: "I think we’ll probably finish filming season four in a couple of weeks, edit that and translate it, get it out maybe in May, and then we’ll start filming season five pretty soon."
But some fans are worried about what season four might bring us given more recent exploits by the former Top Gear man.
It comes after The Grand Tour frontman recently bought a pub for just shy of a £1 million. Renaming it The Farmer's Dog, he opened it for the first time over the August bank holiday weekend and it has been packed out on weekends since.
Starting a new thread on the Clarkson's Farm subreddit, one fan wrote about their concerns when it came to the pub and eating away too much screen time on the show.
They wrote: "I'm worried season four is going to fall into the trap season two did with too much of its focus on the farm shop and restaurant and not as much on the farming side and I think that's why seasons one and three were as good as they were.
"My thought is it's going to focus too much on the pub - which makes sense as it's only recently opened - and leave the farm behind like they did with season two, as that's Jeremy's big project. What are everyone's thoughts on what we may see?"
Some fans echoed the sentiment about the pub, with one saying: "It's going to be all about the pub isn't it?"
Another said they 'agreed' that focus should be on what brought viewers to the show in the first place.
"More farming less commercial shop and restaurant," they said.
But others were asking fans to see the bigger picture of what the show is actually about.
One viewer replied: "The reality is that modern farmers must create their own sales avenues in order to keep farming profitable. You can no longer sustainably sell most produce to supermarkets or wholesalers at the scale of a farm like Clarkson has and keep the doors open.
"The power that supermarkets have to set the market price is a crime that we've allowed to occur by letting them get too powerful. It's the same reason why so few farmers are dairy farmers any more, and no small farms are dairy farms."
They added: "So, Clarkson is kind of obligated to set up other sales avenues as an existential requirement. Hence why so much of the show is focused on the farm shop, restaurant, and manufacturing and packaging of products.
"Because without it none of his endeavours would be profitable as the margins would be razor thin. Bearing in mind also, how often he makes no profit at all, even with these sales avenues under his limited control."
Others also thought the split would be pretty even, saying: "I think the pub will feature heavily, but I am confident that there will be episodes where it is mainly about the farm, especially as I believe Jeremy bought a new tractor there's no way they would skip over that if it happened during filming."
And another posted: "I really don't think so. The filming of the last few seasons has run from October to October (or thereabouts).
"The pub has only come into the picture in the last couple of months and it seems like it was a pretty smooth purchase.
"If I was a betting man, we could see a split release again where the first four episodes are general farming, and the last four introduce the pub."
I think that last viewer might be on to something. Who's asking them for the Lottery numbers?
Topics: Amazon Prime, Business, Clarkson's Farm, Documentaries, Food And Drink, Jeremy Clarkson, Pubs, TV, Kaleb Cooper, The Grand Tour, Reddit
Tom Earnshaw