Jeremy Clarkson's Bout Of Pneumonia Nearly Killed Him

Behind all the jokes about “bangles” and James May, Jeremy Clarkson’s recent hospitalisation for pneumonia was actually incredibly serious.

In his latest Sunday Times column, he revealed that he went to hospital while on holiday in Mallorca “after three nights spent spasming in my bed.” Following a series of tests, a doctor told him “A healthy person’s CRP [C-reactive protein, the levels of which rise during infection] should be five…Yours is 337. If you don’t do as I say, you will die.”

“My right lung was more than half full of mucus,” Clarkson also said, adding, “I was running one hell of a fever. I had almost no breath at all and even less energy.”

The 57-year-old went on to talk about the extreme boredom he experienced during his stay, plus the virtues of the many different drugs pumped into his system. The Grand Tour Host noted that he now faces two months of recovery.

With fellow presenter Richard Hammond also out of action due to the fractured knee he sustained in his recent Rimac crash, that leaves James May as the sole functioning Grand Tour host during filming for the show’s second series.

It’s unclear if all this will delay the anticipated October/November debut of the Amazon Prime programme’s second outing - Clarkson previously revealed that May had already taken on some of the features that Hammond was due to film. Nothing has been announced by TGT, but the show has referenced May’s status as ‘last man standing’ with a cheeky update to its social media header images. And by coating the man in bubble wrap, just to be safe…