Jeremy Clarkson sets record straight on disastrous pub opening as he issues plea to fans

Jeremy Clarkson has opened up about the problems he faced ahead of opening The Farmer's Dog. The doors to his new pub, located in Oxfordshire, opened on August 23, with punters queuing for hours to get inside.

The former Top Gear presenter, 64, has faced extensive backlash since opening the establishment, with floods of complaints coming in from angry fans about queue times and the quality of the food.

Earlier in the week, a punter stormed out of The Farmer's Dog in frustration, declaring he would "never go back". The furious visitor had travelled for hours and waited more than 30 minutes in a queue before learning the kitchen was closed.

Jeremy has addressed the fan fury in his latest column for The Times, explaining the number of issues that come with opening a pub. The Grand Tour star shared his desire to own a pub, and despite knowing that more than two close down every day and profitability is a "pipe dream", he ignored the logic and reason and went ahead with opening one anyways.

The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host vowed to serve up British-only produce, even if that meant banning ketchup and coca-cola. Jeremy King, an experienced restaurateur in London, warned the TV star that it would be impossible, but his concerns were shut down.

However, it wasn't long before he realised that Jeremy had a valid point. He explained: "Imported black pepper is about £10 a kilogram, whereas the home-grown alternative is ten times more. There are other issues too.

"If I butcher one of my own pigs and turn it into sausages, each one of those sausages will arrive at the pub costing 74p. If I buy imported pig meat then the cost of a sausage is 18p. It was the same story everywhere."

Jeremy continued: "Now a business-minded person would look at these costs and realise that with British-only rules in place a hotdog was going to be priced at about £45. But I'm not a business-minded person. So I just filled my heart with hope."

The Clarkson's Farm star revealed that because of this, he could be losing around £10 for every customer who walks into the pub. And the problems don't stop there.

Electricity was the next hurdle as Jeremy wrote: "We don't ever bother thinking about it. Until you turn everything on in your new pub and the giant extractor fan above the ovens shuts down, which, for safety reasons, causes the gas supply to go off as well. This made cooking tricky. 'No, not tricky,' said the chef we'd hired. 'It's impossible.'"

Needing more electricity, the pub needed to install a three-phase system which Jeremy revealed cost a staggering £350,000.

He continued: "So, we were opening in three days' time and we had iffy power and a menu that would bankrupt us in a matter of hours. And there was no time to worry about either thing because of the much bigger problems we were having with water."

The water was filled with pestilence and plague, meaning it had to be shut down. This also affected a nearby farm as it turned off their supply from the mains.

The supply wasn't connected until two days before the opening, while Jeremy the water would have to be tested by the council's environmental health team which would take three days.

The presenter was also probed about whether he would have a defibrillator behind the bar. "The obvious answer is no," he confessed. However, potentially living with the guilt of someone having a heart attack was enough for Jeremy to change his mind, "despite the enormous expense".

Jeremy also detailed the many little problems they had, including offering discounts to people travelling on buses and an upstairs bar for farmers only.

He went on: "The water had run out, the power was on the blink again and cooking had stopped. It was our opening day and it wasn't an opening day at all.

"The next day, when we opened for real, the water issue was so dire that we had to close the lavatories and use plastic glasses that didn't need washing up. And even then we only served food for four hours."

Issuing a plea to his punters, Jeremy signed off: "We are getting better now, but I do ask, if you drop by, to remember this. Your lunch, if it arrives at all, is costing us a lot more than it's costing you. So please be kind?"