BROADCASTER Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he narrowly escaped losing his leg in an accident on his farm.

The television presenter stars in Clarkson’s Farm, which sees him grow crops and look after livestock on land he owns in the Cotswolds.

Speaking on the Jonathan Ross show about his new book Diddly Squat: A Year On The Farm, he said there are “more accidents in farming than all the other industries put together”.

Explaining his own experience, Clarkson, 61, said: “I got this thing called a telehandler, it’s like a JCB thing. I thought ‘I’ll just use its front to push the post in.’ “It got halfway into the ground and the fence was leaning on it and it flicked back. How it didn’t take my leg off… I didn’t walk properly for a week. This was a quarter of a tonne of fence post.”

Clarkson bought the farm in 2008 and it was run by a villager, but when he retired in 2019 Clarkson decided to see if he could run it himself.

Speaking about how his documentary series came about, Jeremy said: “It was an accident. I was contractually obliged – I had to make a programme on my own. I thought ‘I’m slightly bored of Terminal 5. I’ll film at home on the farm.’ “I thought what a lovely programme it would be to try and learn to be a farmer. I genuinely love it out there.”

Telling Ross about the show’s standout star, Kaleb Cooper, The Grand Tour presenter added: “He’s entrepreneurial, that’s how I’d describe him.

“The [farm] shop is a huge success and consequently we’ve had to mow a field near it so people can park there and it’s really a mud bath. Kaleb now goes up and charges people £15 to tow their cars out.”