Chris Packham's Clarkson's Farm remarks spark backlash
Chris Packham sparked a fierce farming backlash after criticising Clarkson's Farm's animated opening on Celebrity Gogglebox, calling most farms chemical-sprayed monocultures that keep animals in dark crates. Jeremy Clarkson branded him "endlessly angry" in The Sun, while farmers and countryside voices rejected his claims as misleading.
Key Takeaways
- Chris Packham attacked the illustrated opening of Clarkson's Farm while watching on Celebrity Gogglebox.
- Jeremy Clarkson replied in The Sun, calling Packham "endlessly angry" and stressing the sequence is "a drawing".
- Farmers and countryside groups accused Packham of misrepresenting modern British agriculture.
- Vernon Kay later hailed Packham as "one of the best" while discussing his BBC Two series Evolution on Radio 2.
- An i Paper column argued Clarkson's retort showed his "nice-farmer" image slipping.
What did Chris Packham actually say about Clarkson's Farm?
Appearing on Celebrity Gogglebox, Chris Packham watched the Amazon Prime hit and took aim at its animated opening sequence. "That's not what a farm looks like," he said, according to Farmers Weekly.
He went further on intensive farming: most farms, he claimed, are "horrible monocultures which have been sprayed with deadly chemicals," with ground "pumped full of fertiliser" and animals kept "indoors, in crates, being crushed and kept in the dark."
The i Paper noted Packham said little specifically about Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm itself. His critique focused on what he cast as an unreal, idealised picture of modern agriculture.
How did Jeremy Clarkson and farmers respond?
Clarkson hit back in his Sun column, branding Packham "endlessly angry" and pointing out the disputed titles are "a drawing." He recalled Packham visiting Diddly Squat in 2012 for birdwatching and foraging, adding that crushed animals in crates would surely have drawn a complaint then.
He also dismissed the broader claims as nonsense that might play well at "a vegan activist meeting in Hackney," but not on mainstream TV.
On Instagram, farming voices pushed back hard. One account, @therural_rebel, accused Packham of "spreading [a] hateful agenda," insisting most farms are not monocultures and rejecting his livestock claims. Countryside Alliance's Mo Metcalf-Fisher praised Clarkson's Farm for showing how farmers produce food while caring for the countryside. Agricultural commentator @agrispec_tom argued Packham ignored decades of progress in welfare, environment and efficiency.
Why does the Chris Packham row still matter?
The clash sits at the heart of a louder fight over how British farming is portrayed on screen. Packham framed Clarkson's Farm as idealistic; Clarkson and many farmers say the series has helped the public understand real pressures on the land.
Days later, Radio 2's Vernon Kay offered a contrasting note, calling Packham "one of the best" while discussing Evolution with Celebrity Gogglebox co-star Paddy McGuinness. Packham had not publicly answered Clarkson's column in the reports cited here.
For more viral public rows and contested narratives, see BlasterPost's True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries coverage.
The i Paper's view was sharper still: that Clarkson's broadside let his cultivated "nice-farmer" mask slip, echoing earlier controversial columns. Whatever side viewers take, the Packham–Clarkson exchange has turned a title-sequence critique into a national argument about farming, media and trust.