Kaleb Cooper fought against Jeremy Clarkson over fears he'd 'ruin the farm'

Kaleb Cooper has dished on the explosive start to his working relationship with Jeremy Clarkson, admitting he didn’t mince words when the former Top Gear host decided to take over the farm. In a chat with JK and Amanda Holden on Heart FM, Kaleb revealed he flat-out told Clarkson’s team he would “ruin” the farm.

Recalling the moment, JK asked: “What was the first meeting, when did you very first meet him? How did it come about?”

Kaleb explained: “Jeremy bought the farm in 2008. I was actually working there from 2016... I was working for the other farmer who used to farm the farm, and Jeremy was filming The Grand Tour... As I was working for a person called Howard, who was the contractor then, he left.”

Kaleb, always passionate about farming, saw an opportunity. He went to Clarkson’s right-hand man, Cheerful Charlie, and pitched himself for the job.

He said: "I went to Cheerful Charlie and said, ‘Look, Charlie, I’m the man for this job. I may be young, but I’ve got this.'”

But things didn’t go as smoothly as planned when Kaleb learned that Clarkson himself would be taking over the farm.

“He said, ‘Right, well Jeremy is going to take the farm on and film it, and farm it himself.’ I said, ‘No, he’s not. That’s not going to work.’ He said, ‘Well no, he is.’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘No, it’s his farm, Kaleb.’ I said, ‘I don’t care, I don’t want him to do it, it’ll just ruin the farm.’”

Despite Kaleb’s concerns, Clarkson pressed forward, but not before Kaleb was given a chance to show what he could do. “Charlie said, ‘Kaleb, I’ll give you a two-month contract before Jeremy gets back,’ and I was like, ‘Brilliant!’” Kaleb was determined to prove himself: “I’ve got to impress now, I’ve got to show that I can do this job.”

However, Kaleb soon found out they were auditioning other farmers to take his spot. “They were interviewing other farmers to play my role on Clarkson’s Farm,” Kaleb said, but that didn’t discourage him.

Amanda chimed in: “How dare they!” as Kaleb added: “What I really wanted was of course the farming; I wanted to be able to farm behind the scenes.”

His big break came on the very last day of his contract. Kaleb recalled the moment he was called to meet Clarkson: “I’ll never forget this... Gavin, the director, stopped me at the bottom of the drive in the tractor and went, ‘Kaleb, could you just pop up and see Jeremy in the office?’”

That meeting ended up being filmed for the first season of Clarkson’s Farm: “Literally, a mic went on and that was it,” Kaleb said, marking the start of what has now become one of the most talked-about partnerships in farming TV history.