Britain’s Got Talent viewers fume over Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘banned’ choir golden buzzer

Jeremy Clarkson has a choir – yes, really – and they auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent (Picture: ITV)

Britain’s Got Talent viewers were left in a state of shock after Jeremy Clarkson’s choir rocked up in the latest episode.

Yes, a choir of farmers associated with the Clarkson’s Farm star himself.

Tonight’s episode saw the Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir audition for Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon, KSI, and guest judge Stacey Solomon, who stood in for Simon Cowell due to illness.

Clarkson, 65, put the group together after scouring the country to find singing farmers to appear in an advert for his Hawkstone beer range.

But it seems they had so much fun that they decided to remain together and become a fully-fledged choir, now under the directorship of Simon Gwilliam and Lizzy Dean.

Stepping out onto the BGT stage in flat caps and fleeces, choir member Katrina began by explaining: ‘Jeremy Clarkson did a thing, and that thing is the Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir.

The Hawkstone Farmers’ Choir brought the house down with their vocals (Picture: ITV)

‘Jeremy brought us together to sing, and it’s just really been amazing for us all.

‘Every single one of us is in agriculture in some way or another. This isn’t our day job, we’re usually out in the fields.’

Asked by Amanda why they all decided to appear on the show, Katrina added: ‘We work by ourselves, day in, day out, sometimes 16, 17 hours a day, and this has brought us together.

‘We’re not singers by nature – some of us are much better than others – but we’ve got one thing that unites us, and that is farming.

‘We love what we do, but it can be incredibly hard, really lonely, very isolating, so to do this all together has meant the world to us.’

The group then sang an uplifting rendition of Elbow’s One Day Like This, belting out every note as the audience rose to their feet.

They performed an uplifting rendition of One Day Like This (Picture: ITV) The room filled with applause and cheers (Picture: ITV)

Clapping along, Amanda also soon burst into tears and was keen to let the choir know just how much she loved it, leaping towards the coveted Golden Buzzer and sending them straight through to the semi-finals.

As confetti rained down on the stage, the farmers grew emotional, even Ant and Dec, plus fellow judge KSI, shocked at what had happened.

‘Can’t even hear myself… so loud,’ said the YouTuber-turned-boxer as the auditorium filled with applause.

Choked up, Amanda then sat down and said: ‘Do you know, as soon as you started, I completely welled up. I felt so much power. I love the whole community. I love how you’ve all got together, and you work your a***s off.

‘You work so hard every single day. You absolutely smashed it, and I can’t wait to see what you’re gonna do in the semi-finals.’

Stacey chimed in, saying she felt ‘so grateful’ that she ‘got to experience’ the performance in person, while Alesha called the performance ‘beautiful’.

Amanda Holden’s Golden Buzzer sent them straight through to the live shows (Picture: ITV) …and she barely kept it together (Picture: ITV)

‘Talk about multi-talented – farming and then singing!’, quipped KSI.

But despite the panel’s heavy praise, it seems viewers at home weren’t singing from the same hymn sheet.

Taking to X during the episode, many raged over them receiving the Golden Buzzer, claiming earlier acts such as a magician who ‘teleported’ audience members and a young boy who covered Defying Gravity were ‘way better’.

@TheManc36 called it a ‘waste’ of the special buzzer, even though they ‘knew it was coming’, while @ItsCloeMoe claimed it’s become ‘stereotypical’ for choirs to have the golden moment.

‘They sound like any other choir nothing special or unique’, wrote @SamFarmer2.

It wasn’t all negative, though, as @RyanSoapKing25 said it is ‘long overdue’ for a choir to win the competition, adding: ‘I love a good choir and this one is warming my heart so much.’

Will we see Clarkson himself on stage with the choir soon? (Picture: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock)

‘Yayyy Gold buzzer for the farming choir they were fun uplifting I loved it and great song choice’, echoed @blue_laur11.

Speaking ahead of their BGT audition, Clarkson told The Sun how proud he is: ‘When I had the idea for this choir, I worried it would come to nothing more than me, Kaleb and two cows honking tunelessly through Kumbaya.

‘I never imagined it would actually become a glorious gathering of brilliant people and beautiful voices representing the beating heart of rural Britain.’

Choir member Katryna Shell is also championing the former Top Gear host to join them on stage: ‘We’d love something like that. He does actually sing as well, believe it or not. We have heard Jeremy sing.

‘I won’t divulge further. I’ll leave that up to you as to the tone in his voice.’

You might have seen the farmers’ choir in the press once before, as their original advert caused some disruption.

Released last summer, the 34-strong choirs’ ad saw them cover an opera tune about his Diddly Squat Farm’s lager.

At the beginning of his advert, Clarkson was heard saying: ‘It’s difficult to put into the spoken word how hard it is to make Hawkstone’s lager. So instead, I’ve put it into a song for some farmers to sing.’

The farmers then changed some of the lyrics to say, ‘F**k me, it’s good.’

As you’d expect, this didn’t go down so well with TV and radio bosses, who effectively ‘banned’ the commercial due to it not being compliant with broadcasting regulations.

In response, Clarkson hit out at the ‘fun police’, ranting to The Sun: ‘It’s a cock-up, as usual. I’ve made my biggest, most heartfelt, and frankly, most expensive advert ever, and it’s been banned.

‘The fun police in their beige offices have decided that the public can’t be trusted to watch it.

‘It’s been kicked off the telly, silenced on the radio, and barred from the cinema.

‘Apparently, it’s “not compliant.” With what, I have no idea. Common sense?’

Britain’s Got Talent continues on ITV1 and ITVX on Saturday.

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