TOP beer

ACROSS three series of a TV show following his efforts at farming, former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has shown the world just how difficult a business it can be.

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Hours of exhausting labour often goes unrewarded when the harvest comes in, with the TV star frequently barely breaking even on his crops, livestock, and side hustles.

Yet, instead of playing safe with his next Diddly Squat farm venture, he's opted to dip his toe in another struggling industry.

That's right: Jeremy has only gone and opened a pub.

"There are so many things that you discover about opening and running a pub that you wouldn't even consider," says the 65-year-old motoring presenter.

"When you and I go in a pub, you ask for a pint, you get a pint, you sit down, maybe have some pork scratchings or something, and it doesn't look that difficult. But there's an enormous amount of regulation on food hygiene and safety.

"And then you've got staffing. You've got to try and find chefs, you've got to find waitresses, and that's all very complicated."

It can't have been much of a surprise to Jeremy that running a pub - especially one that adheres to his 'Farm to Fork' beliefs - wasn't going to be easy.

In 2024, the year in which Jeremy bought and opened The Farmer's Dog in Oxfordshire, more than 400 pubs called 'last orders' for the final time and shut their doors for good, citing rising costs and customers' reduced spending power.