Jeremy Clarkson has been reflecting on his cancer diagnosis and whether he should become a kinder, more tolerant person — admitting he regrets calling Chris Packham's criticism of Clarkson's Farm 'b******s'

After announcing his cancer diagnosis, Jeremy Clarkson has admitted his huge surprise at the public reaction, describing how “Boxes and boxes of letters and cards arrived from well-wishers all over the world.”

Admitting that, throughout most of his 66 years, he has worked hard at being controversial, Jeremy concedes he was both surprised and pleased to discover that he is regarded – by some at least – as a national treasure.

"Here's what I found strange," he writes in The Sunday Times, "I liked it. Being seen as a nice person rather than a troublemaker was just so... relaxing. I didn't have to wake up every morning wondering if the Mirror had run some terrible story about me."

Consequently, Jeremy reveals he has been contemplating whether he ought to make the effort to become a gentler, more accepting individual.

"And that," he says, "brings me on to Chris Packham."

Noting that the Springwatch host and environmental activist had condemned the opening credits of Clarkson's Farm, claiming they were "in no way representative of modern-day agricultural practices", Jeremy acknowledges that after hearing Chris's criticisms, he acted on impulse.

"I was very incensed by this and immediately wrote in The Sun that he was talking b******s. But in the new age of tolerance and respect, I shouldn't have done that. I should have kept schtum."

Pointing to Gary Lineker as another illustration of the new, more considered and tactful sort of individual he'd aspire to become, Jeremy detailed some of the alterations in his conduct he'd need to implement, including addressing people and locations by their own preferred names.

"So," he quipped, "when I next go to Berlin, I must say that I'm going to 'Germany or Deutschland,' and when I next visit the Uffizi, I must say I'm visiting 'Florence or Firenze', having crossed the English Channel, or La Manche, and used the motorway or autoroute.

"Sounds like being Gary could well be very time consuming," he added.

Acknowledging that he simply lacked the patience to match Gary's saintly demeanour, Jeremy confessed that being more thoughtful would prove far too "exhausting" for him:

"If I don't want to cause offence to anyone, ever, I must consider the food I eat, the shoes I wear, the holidays I take, the newspapers I read, the expressions I use, the political views I hold, the friends I keep, the car I drive, the actors I admire and the views I may or may not hold on Gaza and Hamas."

He would also, he claims, need to adopt a more tolerant attitude towards the amateur pilots who disrupt filming of Clarkson's Farm with the racket from their light aircraft.

And that, he concedes, would demand a level of patience that's simply not in his nature:

"I was out there last week, in the sunshine, and we were having to stop all the time and I was consumed with a need to find out where the pilots lived so that I could go round to their houses that night and set fire to them.

"Yes, I'd lose my national treasure status," he adds, "but at least I could get some work done."