GB News star Martin Daubney has lavished Jeremy Clarkson with praise after the Top Gear star announced his latest venture.
The 64-year-old has revealed plans to open a “British produce” Cotswolds pub near his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm and Hawkestone Lager brewery.
According to Daubney, the move could see Clarkson becoming a force for good in the hospitality sector as he heralded his role in the promotion of British farming.
“Clarkson’s Farm started out as a bit of a lark and actually got into the nuts and bolts of how hard it [farming] is”, he said.
Jeremy Clarkson has been praised by Martin Daubney
GB NEWS / PA
“It really made people aware. The bureaucracy, the tough living. Hospitality suffered during lockdowns and he’s going to become the ambassador for boozers.”
Showbiz journalist Stephanie Takyi waded in on the GB News discussion to praise the Grand Tour star for undergoing a “U-turn” that she claims has pushed his career to new heights.
“He’s had a lot of controversy over the years, but now he’s got the backing of locals to buy a pub called The Windmill”, she said.
“It’s going to be five acres of land in the Cotswolds and locals seem very happy to actually have it restored.
“He has really done a U-turn with his career. He had all the controversy before from Top Gear and now he’s really settled at home in the Cotswolds.
“Pubs are dying out, I think it’s quite good that he can invest in this if they do a behind the scenes reality show like they did for the farm.”
Stephanie Takyi praised Clarkson's 'U-turn'
GB NEWS
Clarkson revealed at the weekend that he paid “less than £1 million” for The Windmill.
He will sell his own lager as well as produced reared on his Diddly Squat Farm.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, TV chef Tom Kerridge said he is hopeful Clarkson will be able to shine a light on the struggles of the hospitality sector.
He said: “It’s very, very difficult operating a pub. Even if it’s busy and packed on a Saturday night, the profit margin is very, very small, particularly when you’re a wet-led (drink-led) pubs.
Jeremy ClarksonINSTAGRAM/JEREMY CLARKSON“You need to be busy on Monday and Tuesday lunchtime, not just a weekend, and the pressures that come into that business are absolutely huge.
“Revenues look like they may be busy, you turn up on a Sunday lunch and it is packed, that doesn’t necessarily mean to say it’s making money.
“It’s going to be very difficult. I’m very pleased that Jeremy’s taken that on because what he did for British farming, he showed actually how difficult it was and how hard it was to make it work.
“This will be another opportunity for us and the rest of the UK to see how difficult is it to run a pub because he will come up against the issues and the problems that there are and talk about it and use his voice for good reason.”