Jeremy Clarkson has taken up a new hobby as he tries to keep his health in tip-top shape after issues with his heart. The Clarkson’s Farm star confessed he’s “desperate not to die” as he’s determined to cherish more moments with his granddaughters, after undergoing heart surgery last year.

Writing for The Sunday Times, Jeremy shared: “I’m not going to dwell on the joys of being a grandparent because what can be said about it has already been said.

“But I have decided it’s so wonderful I want it to go on for as long as is humanly possible. Which means I must do everything in my power to not die. (But) I dislike discomfort, loathe bicycles and find gyms and everyone in them weird. I decided I’d give Pilates a bash.”

Last year, Jeremy faced an emergency heart operation due to a “sudden deterioration” in his wellness, which doctors warned could have given him “maybe” just days left. The ex-Top Gear luminary detailed feeling extraordinarily weak during a holiday – struggling immensely just to swim or ascend stairs.

He recalled: “It wasn’t far, maybe the length of two swimming pools. But when I finally reached the beach, there was more water in my lungs than there is in Lake Superior, and I was mostly dead… I’m not exaggerating. These problems all manifested themselves in one day.”

Once back in Britain, unsettling sensations in his arm and a “tightness” across his chest whilst toiling on his Cotswolds farm prompted swift medical intervention to unclog his arteries.

He elaborated: “It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way.

“So he [the doctor] made a hole in my wrist, inserted his Dyno-Rod equipment and went in for a closer look.

“The question was this. Were the arteries so ruined that I’d need an emergency heart bypass?

“Or could he use his Dyno-Rods and some ultrasonic battering rams to loosen them up before inserting a stent?”

Detailing the medical intervention, he said: “It took two hours and at one point it felt like he’d put a vacuum pipe up my arm, along with a pile driver, and was busy inside my heart with a B and Q chisel and hammer gift set. It wasn’t especially painful. Just odd.”