Jeremy Clarkson did not initially want viewers to see him going through prostate cancer treatment. When Lisa Hogan filmed him in the hospital, he told her: “Please don’t.”
Hogan says longtime producer Andy Wilman eventually persuaded Clarkson to let the footage become part of Clarkson’s Farm. The argument was that showing what he was going through could do more than document a difficult period in his own life.
What happened after the diagnosis aired gave Hogan a number to point to. Prostate Cancer UK recorded 16,749 completions of its online risk checker on the day Clarkson’s diagnosis became public, up 1,284% from the previous Wednesday. More than 43,000 unique visitors went to the charity’s website that day.
Clarkson, 66, has since said he is in remission after treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that was caught early. Hogan is now glad he changed his mind about allowing the cameras to follow that part of the story.
Clarkson Initially Asked Hogan to Stop Filming
Hogan described the hospital footage while speaking about Clarkson’s decision to discuss his cancer publicly. “When I was filming him in hospital at first, he said, ‘Please don’t’,” she told PA. She said she was proud that he eventually agreed to include the experience in the series.
Clarkson learned he had prostate cancer after a medical examination in May 2025 led to further testing and a biopsy. In the final episodes of Clarkson’s Farm Season 5, he told Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland that the cancer was aggressive but had been found “really early.” He later chose high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, which uses focused sound energy to heat and destroy targeted tissue.
The series also followed Clarkson into the hospital as treatment became more complicated than he had hoped. By the time those scenes were filmed, there was no guarantee about what his next update would be. From his hospital bed, he told viewers he hoped he would be back for another season if everything worked.
Andy Wilman Convinced Him to Leave the Cancer Story in the Show
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Hogan credits Wilman with changing Clarkson’s mind. “It was Andy Wilman who convinced him to do it, to help everybody else,” she said. Wilman has worked with Clarkson since their Top Gear years and later produced The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm.
Clarkson did not hide how uncomfortable the finished episodes were for him. Before they were released, he warned followers that the last two would be a “really, really difficult watch.” They included his diagnosis, treatment and the uncertainty that followed rather than keeping those events outside a series normally built around farming problems and arguments at Diddly Squat.
A few days after the episodes arrived, Clarkson had better news. He said a follow-up PSA test had shown no indication of cancer and that he was officially in remission. Speaking about the diagnosis afterward, he repeatedly returned to the fact that it had been discovered before the disease had spread.
16,749 Risk Checks Were Completed the Day His Diagnosis Became Public
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Hogan remembered Prostate Cancer UK’s website receiving roughly 30,000 visits after the show came out. Data later released by the charity through PA Media put the traffic even higher.
More than 43,000 unique visitors accessed the site on the day Clarkson’s diagnosis became public, 105% above the charity’s typical Wednesday traffic. Its online prostate cancer risk checker was completed 16,749 times, an increase of 1,284% compared with the previous Wednesday.
People continued using it after the first burst of coverage. More than 52,000 risk checks were completed during the following week, the highest weekly figure recorded by Prostate Cancer UK since February 2025. The charity has since pointed to Clarkson, along with former Prime Minister David Cameron, when discussing how public figures talking about prostate cancer can send people looking for information about their own risk.
Clarkson made the same argument himself after revealing he was in remission. In a video shared with followers, he said doctors had caught his cancer early because he had been tested and urged other men to do the same. He later told The Times that getting checked was neither uncomfortable nor undignified and said his own testing was the reason he was still able to talk about the experience 11 months later.
Hogan Also Pushed Clarkson to Talk to Friends Who Had Been Through It
The cameras were not the only thing Clarkson initially resisted. Hogan said she encouraged him to talk to friends who had already dealt with prostate cancer, something he was reluctant to do at first. “He’s got lots of friends who’ve been through the same thing,” she told PA, adding that those conversations appeared to help him.
Clarkson later revealed that some of those conversations became regular lunches with Cameron, food writer Giles Coren and several others who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Rather than speaking only in general terms, the group compared their PSA results, Stockholm3 results and Gleason scores. Clarkson joked that he sometimes became confused about which numbers were his.
He also recalled Cameron telling him about strangers who said they sought testing only after hearing about the former prime minister’s diagnosis. Clarkson began receiving similar evidence after his own disclosure, this time backed by the surge recorded by Prostate Cancer UK.
Clarkson Says He Is Now in Remission
Clarkson confirmed in June that a follow-up PSA test taken two months earlier showed no indication of cancer. “I’m not just not dead, I’m perfectly fine,” he said while discussing his recovery, according to Sky News.
He has continued having blood tests and talking publicly about early detection. In September, Clarkson was able to joke about the future again, telling The Times that he intended to stay alive for at least another seven years.