Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed new details about a dangerous 2014 incident where a dinner party with his co-hosts in Myanmar descended into sporadic gunfire.
A Night in a Conflict Zone
Clarkson, alongside fellow presenters Richard Hammond and James May, was filming a Top Gear special in Myanmar's Shan state in 2014. The region was, and remains, embroiled in one of the world's longest-running civil wars. The trio were guests at a welcome party thrown by various local military factions.
In a recent article for The Times, Clarkson described noticing 'increasing nerves' from their film crew as tensions began to rise. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, the three presenters performed a rendition of Frank Zappa's 'Bobby Brown', an act Clarkson admitted went against all advice.
'By 11pm, even I could sense that the factions were getting argumentative,' Clarkson wrote. 'So to distract them we decided to move from table to table, raising endless toasts with the Hankey Bannister and it sort of worked.'
Gunfire and a Narrow Escape
The evening's conclusion was far from peaceful. Clarkson recounted that as the party broke up, there was 'a bit of sporadic gunfire'. He confirmed he went to sleep in the back of his lorry without any gunshot wounds, stating plainly: 'none of it went in me.'
Reflecting the next morning, he drove away thinking he'd spent the night in a 'tinderbox' that would one day end in tears. Clarkson also suggested the volatile atmosphere may have been exacerbated by some attendees consuming a substance called yaba, which he claims made users 'extremely angry'.
This incident fits a pattern Clarkson noted of finding himself in countries on the brink of conflict, having also been in Kyiv before the 2014 Maidan riots and Damascus before the Arab Spring.
Clarkson's Fight for British Farmers
Separately, the Clarkson's Farm star has turned his attention to domestic policy, campaigning vigorously for British farmers' rights. Following the Labour government's inheritance tax reversal, Clarkson argues that half of UK farms will still be impacted by a revised higher tax limit.
Writing in The Sun, the Diddly Squat Farm owner cautioned that many farms will still have to be sold upon the farmer's death. 'So the new higher tax threshold will still destroy the countryside,' he warned. 'It'll affect the country's ability to feed itself.'
He highlighted the stress on thousands of farming families who fear they cannot pass their livelihood on to their children. While acknowledging Labour's policy change will ease pressure for some, Clarkson declared the battle 'goes on' to secure the necessary support for farmers during tough financial times.
