Farmers from across the UK recently gathered for Britain’s Fittest Farmer – an annual competition designed to spotlight both physical and mental wellbeing in agriculture. This year’s edition of the event, first launched in 2018 by Farmer’s Weekly, had a familiar face at the helm, with Jeremy Clarkson stepping in to host at his own pub, the Farmer’s Dog, in Burford, Oxfordshire.

Clarkson, however, made it clear he would not be taking part in the gruelling challenges, joking to the magazine that he would qualify as “Britain’s fattest farmer instead.”

His comment comes just months after a serious health scare placed his wellbeing under the spotlight.

In 2024, Clarkson was rushed to hospital after suffering alarming symptoms – clamminess, chest tightness and pins and needles down his left arm – that revealed two dangerously blocked arteries. Doctors quickly performed a procedure to fit two stents, restoring blood flow and averting what he later admitted could have been a fatal heart attack.

The 64-year-old described himself as being “days away from death” before the operation and has since spoken openly about how the near-miss forced him to reassess his lifestyle.

It was not the first time Clarkson had faced a major health crisis: back in 2017, while on holiday, he was hospitalised with pneumonia – another episode he later acknowledged could have ended far more severely.

Since his heart surgery, Clarkson has made visible efforts to change course.

Under advice from his doctors and a dietician, he has worked to cut out ultra-processed foods, adopted the weight-loss medication Mounjaro, and started reformer pilates – an exercise he admits he never expected to take up but has found manageable.

The former Top Gear host has spoken about his determination to be around for his grandchildren, acknowledging that his health is now “an ongoing battle.”

Comparing himself to being in “sniper’s alley,” Clarkson has admitted the risks remain ever-present, but he is committed to doing what he can to stay out of danger.