What a difference a few months can make. A little less than a year after being “cancelled” over a published attack on Meghan Markle, Jeremy Clarkson has agreed to sign a new Megabucks deal with Amazon.
Thanks to Top Gear, Clarkson was the country’s preeminent motoring journalist for decades, but most of all he was at sea trying his hand at farming on Clarkson’s Farm.
The show, which began in 2021, was a huge global success as viewers loved watching him swear, fight and mostly fail at Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
The second series, which began streaming in February, was by far Prime Video’s most-watched original show in the UK. It clearly beat the very expensive drama “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”.
Now I’m told that Amazon wants three more series – and Clarkson and his team want to continue producing them.
Nothing has been signed yet. However, a deal – which, like the previous one, is likely to be worth at least $250 million – is expected to be announced when the third season begins streaming in March or April next year.
Thanks to Top Gear, Clarkson was the country’s preeminent motoring journalist for decades, but most of all he was at sea trying his hand at farming on Clarkson’s Farm
The upcoming series is all about pigs. Kaleb Cooper (right), the young contractor-turned-star, recently said Clarkson was “annoyingly” good as a pig farmer
At this point, it’s not clear whether Clarkson will continue with The Grand Tour, also on Prime Video, or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for ITV.
Friends of the presenter say they wouldn’t be surprised if, at 63, he decides to focus exclusively on Clarkson’s Farm from now on. Filming lasts from March to October.
The upcoming series is all about pigs. Kaleb Cooper, the young contractor-turned-star, recently said that Clarkson is “shockingly” good as a pig farmer: “I can’t say too much because I’ll get called names, but Jeremy bought a few pigs this year .” . And annoyingly, he’s a really good pig farmer.”
Clarkson’s latest book – Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly – was released last month and was an instant bestseller.
But last December he got himself into trouble with a newspaper column about the Duchess of Sussex in which he declared he hated her “on a cellular level” and said he had dreamed of her being paraded naked during a Crowds threw excrement at them – a reference to a scene from the TV series Game Of Thrones.
Clarkson’s latest book – Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly – was released last month and was an instant bestseller
He issued a lengthy apology on Instagram, saying he had “completely screwed up” the article, which was the most complained about article in the history of press watchdog IPSO. He also sent an email to Prince Harry to deeply apologize.
Clarkson filmed a final Grand Tour special in Botswana this summer with James May and Richard Hammond, due out next year.
Spirited TV presenter Claudia Winkleman says the secret to her success is the ability to take a nap anywhere.
She told the How To Fail podcast: “I’m a sleep fanatic, I nap all the time.” In fact, my whole family was at my place for lunch and took a nap while they were all in the room – and there were ten of us.
“I just thought, ‘Guys, I need to close my eyes for a bit.’ Lying on the sofa, sleeping for a bit.”
Di Star’s “beautiful” ghost scenes
Actress Elizabeth Debicki – Princess Diana in The Crown – has spoken for the first time about the experience of portraying her as a “ghost” who appears to both Prince Charles and the Queen.
Debicki describes the scenes between her and Dominic West, who plays Prince Charles, as “beautiful.” She said: “We didn’t do a rehearsal.” We just opened our hearts because it’s so easy to understand what the character Charles is feeling, because for anyone who has lost someone you know, that’s the only thing the second you lose them you would give anything to talk to them again.
Actress Elizabeth Debicki – Princess Diana in The Crown – has spoken for the first time about the experience of portraying her as a “ghost.”
“I think the beauty is that it’s an imaginary Diana who has the freedom to say the things she always wanted to say to Charles, which was, ‘I loved you so much.’ I’m really glad that I could say that in this character.”
Author Peter Morgan has said that the Diana in these scenes is not a ghost, but a visualization in her family’s head.
Mathematician Hannah Fry will try to keep Ian Hislop and Paul Merton under control in Have I Got News For You next Friday. She has been on the podium five times and remarks dryly: “When I studied mathematics at university, it wasn’t what I had imagined.”
She was part of a revival of Tomorrow’s World in 2017, but says it will never come back due to the planet’s dire future – climate change and AI.
“There was a point where everyone was excited about what was coming, but now I think people are afraid of what’s ahead.”
Janelle Monae says she dreamed of having tea with legendary Jazz Age dancer Josephine Baker – after taking magic mushrooms. “It was incredible,” she explains.
And no wonder Baker is on everyone’s mind, because a hot TV biopic about the dancer called De La Resistance is now on everyone’s lips now that the writers’ and actors’ strikes have been lifted and Monae is playing Baker.
Janelle Monae (pictured) says she dreamed of having tea with legendary Jazz Age dancer Josephine Baker – after taking magic mushrooms
Studio A24 is backing the series, which will focus on Baker’s role as a spy for the French Resistance during World War II. The film is produced by Monae’s company Wondaland. It is based on the book “The Flame Of Resistance”, which was published in 2022. You know Monae from the films “Hidden Figures”, “Moonlight” and “Knives Out 2”.
Non-binary Monae, who goes by “she” or “she,” has an android alter ego that she draws on in her music career. Her 2023 album The Age Of Pleasure was just nominated for a Grammy.
She has been nominated for ten Grammys since the release of her first album in 2003, but she has not had such success in the UK since her No. 1 single We Are Young in 2012. The Age Of Pleasure only spent a week on the charts at number 49 and their last successful single reached number 74… in 2018.
Uh-oh… Get ready for a horror show
Dozens of behind-the-scenes and on-screen This Morning staff have now been interviewed by lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC, who is doing a report for ITV into the show’s alleged “toxic culture”.
Late presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have spoken to her, as has Eamonn Holmes, who once sat on the sofa on a Friday and is now an outspoken critic of the show.
“Person X,” the young colleague with whom Schofield had an “unwise but not illegal” relationship, is also said to have cooperated.
Late presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have spoken to lawyer Jane Mulcahy KC, who is doing a report for ITV about the show’s alleged “toxic culture”.
I’m told Mulcahy has shown interest in two subjects in particular.
One of these is the ‘Holly bubble’, where presenters Holly and Phil (pictured) had very little to do with the crew or staff and were therefore unaware of the issues facing the base.
The other topic is the so-called “Cult of Frizell”.
This refers to the current boss Martin Frizell, under whose leadership Schofield was untouchable and unchallenged. Frizell, a former screen talent himself, currently faces the difficult task of supporting his wife, former TV presenter Fiona Phillips, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at just 62.
In September, managing director Vivek Sharma was hired to work on the show as Frizell’s deputy. It came from Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4, which has since defunct.
Those reading the tea leaves say the report will be a “horror show” for ITV and there are claims some of those who were there before will be “relieved” not to be there.
Holly quit last month after an alleged plot to kidnap her was uncovered. An ITV spokesman declined to comment and sources close to Holly say her decision to leave the company had nothing to do with the report.
It is expected to be released shortly before Christmas.
Vanessa Kirby is considered the best thing about Ridley Scott’s long and uneven film Napoleon – and she got the job after first choice for Josephine, Jodie Comer, dropped out to star in the play Prima Facie.
Now Kirby has been substituted again after Alicia Vikander dropped out of the survival thriller “Eden”, which is being filmed in Australia with lead actor Jude Law.
The film is a story of lust and madness on the Galapagos Islands and is directed by Ron Howard.
“Never Forget”: Dame Helen’s Holocaust Plea
Helen Mirren, who played Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in last month’s film “Golda,” has reflected on her deep connection to Israel following the terror attacks and war in the country.
Mirren’s portrayal caused controversy. Part of this revolved around the rather obvious use of prosthetics to enhance her physical resemblance to Meir, who ruled the country during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Helen Mirren, who played Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in last month’s film “Golda,” has reflected on her deep connection to Israel following the terror attacks and war in the country
Mirren said: “I haven’t had a deep understanding of Israel historically, but I’ve always had a connection to Israel. “I don’t know, I’ve always had a kind of instinctive feeling for Israel.”
She added that she remembered Meir’s election as a “very important moment” as it was the first time she had met a woman at the head of a country.
And she said: “One of the reasons I have always supported Israel and felt for Israel is the Holocaust and my growing awareness – as a child growing up in London, post-war England – of what had actually happened.”
“It was so devastating and I still can’t fully understand it, you know, it’s unbelievable.” And the fact that it was very shortly before I was born – while my parents were alive.
“It was so monstrous, so unimaginably inhumane, that I always felt that we must never forget it.”
Director Guy Nattiv said: “When I woke up on October 7th and saw exactly what happened to us in 1973 – ten times – I was devastated like everyone else on our crew.” When we were researching this film, we met every single general the year 1973. And all the people who wrote books. Everyone told us, “Look, it was a debacle, but it will never happen again.”
“And there it happened again, even worse. “I feel like this movie…now has a double meaning.”
After more than 100 days of strike, actors are now unleashed, meaning awards season campaigning in the run-up to the Oscars is suddenly in full swing.
This week, Annette Bening and Jodie Foster beat the drum for Nyad, Leonardo DiCaprio broke his hectic party schedule to promote “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan premiered the Bernstein biopic “Maestro” and the Trumpet premieres of four major films: The Color Purple, Saltburn, Napoleon and May-December. Plus, Oppenheimer’s Chris Nolan did interviews and Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White made the rounds for the wrestling movie The Iron Claw.
Some projects have now been completed very quickly after the strike. A priority for Netflix is the second season of Tim Burton’s Wednesday, a breakout hit last year.
The film will be shot in Ireland (last time in Romania) from April and is expected to offer more horror than the first season. There will also be more about the relationship between Wednesday Addams, played by Jenna Ortega, and her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones).