What it's really like down on Clarkson's farm

Vicky Jessop spent the day talking to Jeremy Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper about chaos, controversy... and why the Diddly Squat farm shop almost landed Clarkson’s girlfriend Lisa Hogan in jail

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CHAOS follows Jeremy Clarkson. So maybe it's no surprise to learn that filming the most recent season of his hit show Clarkson's Farm almost put his girlfriend, Lisa Hogan, in jail. "My neighbour said she would bring me cigarettes - I don't smoke but I would start - and rosé in prison if I took one for the team," she says from behind the Diddly Squat farm shop counter, where I meet her on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. "I was like, 'Actually I wouldn't mind a bit of time out. It's quite busy""

Dressed in a knitted white jumper adorned with sheep, her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, the 51-year-old is confident, chatty and easygoing-a good match for Clarkson's brand of provocative contrarianism. And yet, despite Clarkson's ability to pick fights seemingly out of thin air, she was the one in trouble.

Why? Turns out, it's all to do with that same farm shop, which Hogan runs and which functions as the nexus of the drama in the latest season of the show in which she stars alongside Clarkson.

Hogan was told off by a member of the local council and warned that she faced a criminal record if she didn't remove all items in the shop that hadn't been produced within a 16-mile radius. They also threatened to close the shop. She eventually complied, but is still irritated. "I was going to take one for the team. Because you pay so much in business rates and taxes and you give it to the council, and they use it to fight to close you down," she says. "It seemed strange, their behaviour. I understand that there are certain rules, and they've done me a favour actually because I wouldn't have found half of my suppliers unless I really had to search for them within 16 miles, so I'm really grateful to them for that. But I just think they overreacted a bit."