Readers of a certain age will recall businessman Victor Kiam saying of the Remington shaver: ‘I liked it so much, I bought the company.’
Well, Jeremy Clarkson seems to have had a comparable moment when it comes to beer.
The petrolhead-turned-TV farmer was seen in season two of the Prime Video show Clarkson’s Farm asking a local brewer, Rick Keene, to make a lager using some of his barley. The resulting Hawkstone lager was a hit and followed by a number of other beers and cider.
It’s now stocked at pubs all over the UK and sold directly to the public via its website.
Meanwhile the brewery which makes it — The Cotswold Brewing Company in Bourton-on-the-Water — has opened the onsite Hawkstone bar to keep up with visitor demand, such is Clarkson’s following and his Midas touch when it comes to knowing what his public craves.
Jeremy Clarkson posing with a pint of his new beer, brewed by a local brewer, Rick Keene, to make a lager using some of Clarkson’s own barley
The success of Clarkson’s Farm has meant that the beer is now stocked at pubs all over the UK and sold directly to the public via its website
Clarkson’s Farm is Prime Video’s biggest UK hit and amassed 10.7 million viewers in 48 hours when it was released this month
There is even a Hawkstonian membership scheme which sends you a discounted monthly case of beers and a newsletter from the Hawkstonian High Priest. Guess who.
Business is booming. Accounts filed at Companies House suggest that retained earnings at The Cotswold Brewing Company have rocketed from £20,000 to £604,000 in a year.
Records also reveal that Keene and his wife Emma have now left the firm which they set up in 2002 — leaving Clarkson as one of four remaining directors.
In a statement, the Keenes said they were ‘incredibly proud of all that has been achieved over the years’, but it was a good time to step back ‘as Hawkstone continues on the next steps of its evolution to become a national brand, supporting hard-working farmers’.
Also still on the board is Hugh van Cutsem, childhood bestie of Princes William and Harry.
Perhaps he and Clarkson became friends through the brewery — Van Cutsem was seen teaching Clarkson how to stalk deer in the third series, which raised eyebrows, given the presenter’s infamous outburst about how much he dislikes Harry’s wife Meghan. He had to apologise after that and even wrote to Prince Harry personally to say sorry.
Clarkson’s Farm is Prime Video’s biggest UK hit. The new series amassed 10.7 million viewers in 48 hours when it was released this month. As revealed in this column, Amazon ignored the backlash over Clarkson’s Meghan outburst to offer him a deal for season four.
The show has made Clarkson a bigger star globally than Top Gear — and has also made stars of his Diddly Squat colleagues, most notably farm manager Kaleb Cooper.
Eamonn’s relatives are Ruth-less
Sad news about the end of Eamonn Holmes’ marriage to Ruth Langsford. I hear that tears are not being shed in Belfast — apparently some of his family never took to her, partly out of loyalty to his first wife Gabrielle.
Says a pal: ‘Eamonn’s Catholic family didn’t really see eye-to-eye with Ruth, but he was totally bowled over by her.’
Given Holmes’ comments about Ruth flatly refusing to entertain the idea of a move back to Northern Ireland, it sounds as if the feeling might have been mutual.
Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford’s marriage of 14 years has ended in divorce but his fmaily may not be too upset about it
Ruth was spotted out and about earlier this week still wearing her wedding rings amid the shock split form her husband and fellow TV presenter
Italian beauty Valeria Golino — Tom Cruise’s girlfriend in Rain Man — no longer likes to see herself on screen.
The 58-year-old actress, who has just directed a mini series called L’Arte Della Gioia (The Art Of Joy), said in Cannes: ‘I’m liking more and more directing, as I like less and less looking at myself in a movie.’ I think she’s never looked more beautiful.
She’s not entirely on board with the #MeToo movement, either; which has rather belatedly arrived in French and Italian showbiz. ‘I feel that we are correcting a way of behaviour that was so instilled in our culture,’ she said carefully.
Valeria Golino who starred as Tom Cruise’s girlfriend in Rain Man (pictured) no longer likes to see herself on screen
The 58-year-old actress, who has just directed a mini series called L’Arte Della Gioia (The Art Of Joy), said in Cannes she is much more comfortable behind the camera these days
‘But right now, it’s far too far to my thinking. I think it’s important, but I don’t like it when it’s taken to a degree where humanity is not considered any more. Error is not plausible any more.’
She added that making mistakes is part of being human, and the right to be wrong is a vital part of free speech.
Revisiting Aspects Of Love was a b****-up says Michael
Michael Ball has candidly described the ‘big flop’ of his revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects Of Love last year — and said that he was ‘mad’ to do it.
Speaking in Bath to launch his autobiography, Different Aspects, Ball said he should have thought twice about returning to the show 34 years after its premiere.
Critics found the age-gap romances ‘skin-crawling’ and it closed three months early, amid poor ticket sales and terrible reviews (though our critic Patrick Marmion’s view was that ‘the years have been kinder to Ball than they have been to Aspects’).
Ball, pictured in the show, said: ‘I was mad to do it! It was a real gamble. Initially I said: ‘I think we can do a really nice three-month run in the West End.’ But they said: ‘No, we want six months.’ And I said: ‘Well it’s your money.’
Michael Ball and Ann Crumb in the original Aspect of Love musical in 1989 at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London
Ball with Danielle de Niese and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber on the opening night of the revival of Aspects of Love
‘Sometimes you can walk into things with the best of intentions, do a production that you are really proud of, make these great friendships, and sometimes it just doesn’t attract an audience. Aspects was always a tricky subject.
‘Still, I love the show. It’s so different from any of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s others. I was really proud of what we did and had a lovely time doing it. I just wish we had run a little bit longer, but that’s showbiz.
‘You live and die by the number of people who come and see it, and if they like it. I have been really lucky. I have never really been in a big flop, things have always worked.
‘So this was kind of different, and a really good lesson.’
Perhaps Lloyd Webber was steered in the wrong direction by his own process — hosting try-outs in his garden at Sydmonton Court.
Ball is about to take over BBC Radio 2’s Love Songs slot from the late Steve Wright (pictured in the studio)
Michael Ball at the 2024 Olivier Awards at the Royal Albert Hall
Ball recalled: ‘He always wanted to see how Joe Public reacted to the shows, before they went to the West End or Broadway. I’d look into the audience, and it’d be friends of his like Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock — that’s Andrew’s Joe Public. He really does live in a different universe.’
Ball is about to take over BBC Radio 2’s Love Songs slot from the late Steve Wright. He said: ‘Steve was the master and my show is going to be rubbish by comparison. I’ll just do my best.’
He’s a Hollywood veteran — and famously rather scary — but it turns out that Succession star Brian Cox loves a bit of daytime telly.
Specifically, low-brow quiz show Tipping Point, which involves Ben Shephard and a giant coin push machine.
‘I watch the programme avidly,’ he admitted. ‘It’s got to the point where I will seek out episodes I haven’t seen on different TV channels across the schedules. I’m addicted!’
The notoriously intimidating Brian Cox has revealed he loves a bit of daytime telly, especially the quiz show Tipping Point
Genius idea for a quiz goes global
All hail The 1% Club — an idea hatched over a lunchtime sandwich which is consuming the world. The quiz show, hosted by comic Lee Mack, is a smash on ITV where it averages 5.8 million viewers and has been sold to 12 territories globally including the U.S., where it just came out on Prime Video, fronted by Patton Oswalt. It starts on June 3 on Fox.
Producer Dean Nabarro tells me: ‘The inspiration was from those newspaper puzzles of spotting a bear in the woods and they would always have headlines like, ‘You have to have an IQ of 150 or over to answer this!’, which fascinated us.’
Lee Mack is the host of the smash ITV quiz show which averages 5.8 million viewers and has been sold to 12 territories globally
Mack and the production team behind the hit show which won at the Nation Television Awards in September last year
And so the idea was born to have a quiz that rewarded lateral thinking and mental agility rather than general knowledge.
One of the things which is getting TV execs excited about the format is that there is a strong play-at-home element, which lends itself to the show’s app and Facebook page.
Nabarro, who originated the show for his small, UK-based production company Magnum, admits that he is ‘obsessed’ with another quiz… The New York Times’s Wordle.
Owlish author Bill Bryson was famously played by Robert Redford in the 2015 film A Walk In The Woods.
However, the glamour is being dialled down for a UK theatre tour of another Bryson book, Notes From A Small Island — versatile comedian and actor Les Dennis is to take the role in the production, which opens in January.
Film director Paul Schrader speaks highly of rising star Jacob Elordi, who plays the younger version of Richard Gere in the forthcoming film Oh, Canada!
Of Elordi, whose credits include Euphoria, Saltburn and Priscilla, he remarks: ‘He has no idea where this rocket is taking him. That’s probably a good thing.’
Film director Paul Schrader has praised rising star Jacob Elordi, whose credits include Euphoria, Saltburn and Priscilla
Garfield messes up Max
Consternation in Hollywood over the relatively weak performance of Mad Max: Furiosa, which got five-star reviews (including here) but didn’t set the box office alight.
It only narrowly beat The Garfield Movie in the US, taking $31 million over the Memorial Day long weekend — well below the projected $45 million take and a big disappointment, given its $168 million budget.
While older men returned for this fifth (prequel) instalment, research indicates that it didn’t entice teenage boys to the multiplex.
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