Clarkson’s Farm breaks viewing records despite backlash over Meghan Markle comments

The second series of Clarkson’s Farm has been watched by more than 4 million people despite the star of the show being pilloried for comments he made about Meghan Markle.

Jeremy Clarkson, 62, was forced to apologise after he wrote in his Sun column that he dreamed of the Duchess of Sussex being paraded through British towns and publicly shamed.

The piece became the press regulator’s most complained about article after 25,100 people objected to it.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said Clarkson’s apology wasn’t good enough and accused him of “a long-standing pattern of writing articles that spreading hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny”.

But despite the public backlash, almost 4.3 million people tuned into the season two premiere of Clarkson’s Farm, according to figures published by Deadline.

This beats the highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which premiered last September with 3.2 million viewers.

The publication also noted that Clarkson’s Farm became the 16th most-watched show in the UK in its premiere week, even topping Love Island.

Popularity ran through to the second and third episodes of Clarkson’s Farm too, with 3.8million and 3.3million watchers recorded respectively.

This comes after Clarkson confirmed that there will be a season 3 of Clarkson’s Farm.