Jeremy Clarkson teams up with Queen rock legend for TV show

In recent years, the 66-year-old Clarkson’s Farm frontman has immersed himself in rural affairs thanks to the hugely popular Amazon Prime TV series.

Centred around his 1,000 acre farm between Chadlington and Chipping Norton, Clarkson’s Farm touches on issues facing farmers.

One of them includes tuberculosis (TB), which last year a case had broken out among his herd of cows putting Diddly Squat into lockdown.

Mr Clarkson has often cited badgers are being the cause of this.

Brian May performs during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations

Queen guitarist Mr May has spent many years trying to understand the crisis caused by bovine tuberculosis and his opposition to the controversial badger cull, implemented to curb the spread of the disease in cattle.

In his recent car review for the Sunday Times, testing a “pistachio” coloured Fiat Panda, Mr Clarkson revealed he visited Mr May to learn more.

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He wrote: “At the moment I am spending a great deal of time driving around the country, talking to vets, scientists, politicians, farmers and even Brian May out of Queen to try to increase my understanding of bovine tuberculosis and what might be done to rid the nation of this awful plague.

“As this endeavour may well form part of a television programme I have to travel with a film crew, and it’s very difficult to fit one of those in a Valhalla [an Aston Martin also on test].”

(Image: File picture)

He said the film crew, including three men, all fitted in the Fiat with the journalist.

Writing about the pistachio colour of the car, he added: “If you go for red you are helping to cure tuberculosis.

“I’m not actually making that up. Fiat supports a charity called Red that deals with global health issues, and because TB kills 1.2 million people a year, that’s one of the biggies.

“Strange. I accidentally spent all week researching TB while driving a car made by a company helping to cure it.”

Efforts to control the disease cost taxpayers an estimated £100 million a year, while hundreds of thousands of badgers and cows have been compulsorily slaughtered to stem its spread, prompting fierce criticism from wildlife campaigners.

A leading group of scientists last year warned that there is only a “small chance” of achieving bovine TB-free status by 2038 unless the issue is treated with a similar urgency seen during the Covid pandemic.

Oxford University’s Professor Sir Charles Godfray said: “We need a step change… in the urgency in which we treat this disease, and the resources devoted to eradication.”