Gerald Cooper, 76, sparks Clarkson’s Farm debate as fans distracted by glaring change to Jeremy Clarkson’s pal
Gerald Cooper has delighted Clarkson’s Farm fans after reuniting with Jeremy Clarkson and the rest of the Diddly Squat family in the fourth season of the hit Amazon show.
The Chadlington local has become a fan-favourite with viewers thanks to his upbeat attitude and hilarious – often incoherent – back-and-forths with Clarkson, who’s spent the past few seasons struggling to decipher the Cotswold native’s thick accent.
Cooper has also overcome prostate cancer since he began filming the show, something he and his co-stars candidly and bravely addressed in season three of Clarkson’s Farm.
Now recovered, Clarkson’s “head of security” returned to Diddly Squat for the fourth season of the show, but this time around, the show’s fandom has found themselves rather distracted by a key feature of the star.
Several have pointed out that the fourth season appears to have eased off the running gag that Clarkson can’t understand the 76-year-old whenever they cross paths.
In the first six episodes of the latest series, fans have seen him interact with newcomer Harriet Cowan, tease Kaleb Cooper about his weight, show off his new haircut to Clarkson and builder Alan Townsend, and get stuck into mending the walls at Clarkson’s new pub.
Of course, the show has kept in much of Cooper’s jumbled dialogue and a few puzzled looks from Clarkson, Cowan, and co, but the majority of his time on-screen appears to be in fully coherent conversation.
As a result, some fans have found themselves debating whether or not Cooper’s speech has improved or if there could be another reason for the sudden change.
“Did Gerald’s speech massively improve in season 4?” one Clarkson’s Farm fan posed on Reddit. “In the previous seasons, I couldn’t understand almost anything, and now he speaks very clearly.”
Before long, fellow Redditors took to the thread to share their verdict, with one replying: “They were editing him so his speech wasn’t coherent, chopping up sentences.”
“His speech wasn’t really all that unintelligible in the first place; they just play it for laughs,” a second echoed.
While a third similarly said: “They completely jumbled up his sentences in earlier seasons, whenever there’s a multi-cam Gerald shot it’s almost always just gibberish, no way to understand it because it literally doesn’t form a sentence. They still do it, but not nearly as much this season.”
LATEST CLARKSON’S FARM NEWS:
James May, 62, issues warning to Jeremy Clarkson over Clarkson’s Farm pub purchase after own ordealRichard Hammond, 55, issues savage Jeremy Clarkson statement after Clarkson’s Farm debutHarriet Cowan, 24, issues 15-word plea to Clarkson’s Farm fans as she addresses backlash amid exit
Did Gerald’s speech massively improve in season 4?
byu/nimbledoor inClarksonsFarm
A fourth highlighted one scene, in particular that caught their eye: “I noticed with the wall repair at the pub this season that whenever he’s facing the camera, he’s perfectly understandable, but as soon as the camera flips to Clarkson, he becomes unintelligible again (because you can no longer see his lips, and they wouldn’t match if you could).”
And a fifth had a different suggestion: “Maybe you’ve just watched so much Gerald that you’ve steadily become fluent in his speech and didn’t realize it.” (sic)
Cooper wasn’t the only key member of the Clarkson’s Farm crew to make a comeback in season four, with the likes of Lisa Hogan, Charlie Ireland, Kaleb, and more all back to help Clarkson on his venture to buy his own pub.
One of the biggest talking points of the series, however, was the introduction of news farmhand Cowan, who headed to Diddly Squat to fill the void left by farm manager Kaleb while he embarked on a nationwide tour.
Cowan helped Clarkson keep things running in the first few episodes of the series until Clarkson’s farm manager returned in episode three.
However, Kaleb managed to create one of the show’s most contentious debates when he returned, facing “axe” calls from furious fans for his “spoilt” reaction to seeing Cowan on the farm.
Clarkson eventually put Kaleb in his place, telling him he’d developed “c*** flu” after being pandered to on tour.
And in recent days, Cowan has confirmed she and Kaleb are indeed good friends, rubbishing any suggestion Kaleb’s first interaction harmed their friendship.
Cowan made a brief return to the show in episode six after being sent home to Derbyshire upon Kaleb’s return to Diddly Squat.
Sadly, a permanent return isn’t something Clarkson can guarantee, although the former Top Gear star has insisted that she’d be his first port of call if he’s ever in need of assistance again.
“It’s a reality show. We don’t just bring characters in because the TV show needs it. You bring them in because you really need them,” Clarkson explained ahead of series four’s launch.
“But the truth is, we’ve got Kaleb, and he might go off and do Celebrity Love Island or something, and if I can’t manage, I’ll call Harriet in a heartbeat,” he added to The Sun.