28 May—The third season of “Clarkson’s Farm” is now playing on Amazon Prime. For those readers who may not be aware of the series, it’s well worth watching—from the very first episode. The Clarkson of the farm is Jeremy Clarkson, a highly successful, delightfully controversial, and therefore very wealthy TV personality. (Well, these days he’d be considered only moderately wealthy, with a net worth estimated to be something under nine figures in U.S. dollars and an annual income said to be only about $20 million.)

Clarkson bought his thousand-acre farm near Chipping Norton, a fashionable town in the Cotswolds about as far from Oxford as Litchfield is from New Milford, in 2008 for the sterling equivalent of something approaching $10 million. Probably because he could afford it and it feels good to own land. Certainly not to subdivide and otherwise develop.

But Clarkson evidently named it Diddly Squat Farm because of its lack of productivity. Maybe that’s why he got it so cheap?

Several years later, perhaps as a way of using a hobby as a tax loss, Clarkson decided to become a gentleman farmer. But then, as a clever accountant might reason, why not go further and use the tax loss as a profit center? Thus was born “Clarkson’s Farm.” A good thing, too.

“Clarkson’s Farm” is what appears to be the largely genuine “reality TV” saga of a man who knows absolutely nothing about farming and rural life learning the hard way. The story development is so perfect that you may have doubts about its reality. There certainly must be some scripting involved, if only minimally. On the other hand, it all may well be the product of excellent editing as well as the vicissitudes of farming and the engaging dramatis personae.

You might wonder why a millionaire wannabe shit-kicker who spends a wad on a Lamborghini tractor (because Clarkson made his first fortune on a car show and car-show people like fast cars—and who knew that Lamborghini made heavy equipment?) and other toys would quibble over a few hundred quid here and there. But why niggle? “Clarkson’s Farm” is superior entertainment.

And it’s educational in the bargain. In rural Litchfield County we well know that a farmer’s life is not an easy one, that farming takes skill, fortitude, hard work, patience, and lots of luck. “Clarkson’s Farm” effectively and brilliantly reinforces that reality.

Jeremy Clarkson’s problems and interactions with local and HMG (national) authorities with regard to Diddly Squat Farm (and who knows what else?) also demonstrate how bloody-minded, unreasonable, inflexible, and just plain petty British bureaucracy at all levels can be. The officious British bureaucrats—including the local volunteers—make the Borough of Litchfield’s Historic District Commission look like a bunch of laissez-faire rank amateurs.

(British academics are every bit as bloody-minded and petty by the way.—Ed.)

“Clarkson’s Farm” is a must-watch. So don’t miss it . . .