It's safe to say that to co-star with Jeremy Clarkson, you'd have to have a pretty big character. Amazon Prime's Clarkson's Farm documents the former Top Gear presenter's efforts to become a fully-fledged farmer, and plenty of characters have become stars in their own right in the process, Oxfordshire Live reports.
Charlie Ireland, better known as 'Cheerful Charlie', is one of them.
Charlie is Clarkson's land agent and advisor, and was hired in 2019 after Jeremy set his heart on running his own farm. His job is to advise Clarkson on how to run his farm, ranging from telling him where to plant certain crops to what the financial budget looks like for the year.
Charlie appears to be omnipotent on matter of farming, and holds the grim reaper role of telling Clarkson where he has messed up. Indeed, the nickname 'Cheerful Charlie' is one of irony, as he rarely brings good news.
Towards the end of the first season, Charlie bears probably the worst news of all (spoiler ahead), which is that the total profit made by Diddly Squat Farm is a measly £100.
In an interview with BT.com, about Clarkson, Charlie admitted that "you’ve got to let him work it out for himself sometimes". He said: "So, there are good reasons sometimes why we do things a certain way. It was just about trying to explain that. There were times he’d say, 'How do I do this quickly' and I had to say, 'You can't'."
Charlie gained his knowledge through an agriculture degree at the University of Nottingham, and thus has skills both in that area and in business and real estate development. His current LinkedIn profile says he is a Managing Partner with Ceres Rural, and previously worked as an Agricultural Consultant with Strutt & Parker for 20 years.
Most recently, Charlie has been helping Clarkson with his turbulent restaurant plans, and was even sat next to the former Top Gear presenter during the grim council meeting that sealed the fate for a Diddly Squat restaurant.
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'Cheerful Charlie' most recently appeared on the show in season two, and with series three teased already by Clarkson himself, we can expect a lot more helpful tips and tricks that help Jeremy on his farming journey again soon.
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