The moment Jeremy Clarkson won me over with personal kindness

On the basis of that alone, I wasn’t a fan.

However my young son was so I swallowed my pride and walked up to him with my story and a paper napkin for him to sign. He smiled, hunkered down over it so I couldn’t see what he’d written then popped it in my jacket pocket. Back at my table I checked the contents, fearing the worst.

It said “Your dad is brilliant and his show is so much better than mine”. This patently wasn’t true but it was the nicest thing one father could do to another.

I was genuinely sad to hear of his cancer news this week. He revealed it in his usual blunt way telling viewers he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. No frills, no niceties, just the bold unvarnished truth.

On Top Gear he delighted in causing trouble, offending cyclists, electric car manufactures and the whole of Argentina along the way. It was slapstick entertainment but it was also about the vagaries of male friendship where laughing when someone drops a tray of drinks is part of the group hug.

He then did something wrong and stupid and was sacked by the BBC but since then he has flourished.. Clarkson’s Farm follows his attempts to turn a profit from the thousand acre farm he runs in Oxfordshire. After twelve months of solid work in hail, wind, rain and a storm of restrictions and bureaucracy, in the first year that amounted to a meagre £144.

At that moment, a penny dropped for many people. Farmers are really struggling right now and without them, we have no supermarkets, no restaurants and no food in the cupboard.

Clarkson’s Farm delivers a reality check to a vast audience of people on streaming services who wouldn’t dream of watching Countryfile or reading Farmers Weekly but who will go on a journey with him to discover how climate change is impacting what we grow and why paperwork is hampering our food producers at every level.

Most farmers I know think Jeremy Clarkson has done more for their industry than every Agriculture Minister put together. As a nation we now finally get how hard it is and that is thanks to him.

I suspect he’s about to do the same thing for prostate cancer. Too many men still leave it far too late to have symptoms checked despite early detection greatly improving outcomes.

Health is the most personal thing and the decision to go public with a cancer diagnosis isn’t easy or straightforward. He could have kept it private and concentrated on the tractors, crop yields and drainage problems in the lower field but that is not the man. Instead I suspect he will share every indignity and struggle because by doing that he will help educate and inform other people.

Overweight, balding, middle aged and politically incorrect he is a TV executive’s nightmare right now but he’s also one of the most bankable properties in entertainment with a huge audience for his blunt honesty.

The least we can do is wish him well.