London, United Kingdom. British television presenter Jeremy Clarkson said he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, a disclosure made during episodes of his Amazon documentary show “Clarkson’s Farm” broadcast on Wednesday. He said the disease was detected early and that he had undergone surgery to remove 10% of his prostate.
Disclosure in latest episodes
Clarkson, 66, made the disclosure in scenes filmed last year for “Clarkson’s Farm”, speaking to two of the show’s other main characters.
“I’ve got cancer,” Clarkson says in the episode. “I had a medical, remember, back in May? I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy and it is cancer, and it’s aggressive.”
Early diagnosis and treatment
Clarkson said the disease had been caught “really early” and that he had since had an operation.
“If I hadn’t have got myself checked out and they hadn’t caught the problem early, this could well have been my last harvest,” he said. “It’s only because they did catch it early, there’s every hope that I’ll be harvesting this farm for many, many years to come.”
Message before broadcast
Ahead of the episodes’ broadcast, Clarkson posted a video on Instagram on Tuesday describing the final two episodes as “a difficult watch”.
“Ordinarily, we try to keep the show bucolic, charming, and cheerful,” he said. “But the final two episodes, which drop in the middle of the night tonight, are … they’re none of those things, really. They’re a difficult watch.”
Career background
Clarkson is one of Britain’s most high-profile television figures and is best known for hosting the BBC motoring show “Top Gear”. He lost that role in 2015 after punching a member of the production team.
He later moved to Amazon, where he made a new car show with former co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May, and subsequently began making “Clarkson’s Farm”, which follows his attempts to run the farm he owns in central England.
Closing remarks in the series
At the end of the latest series, Clarkson speaks from a hospital bed about the uncertainty surrounding his condition.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. But look, what I wanted to say was: if this is all successful, I’ll see you for season six,” he says. “And if it isn’t, I won’t. Take care, everyone.”