New documentary follows TV tough guy Vinnie Jones as he renovates Petworth farm

It’s called Vinne Jones In The Country, and takes clear inspiration from the markedly similar Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm; except this time helmed by the former Leeds United and Sheffield United footballer.

The show started streaming on Discovery+ yesterday (November 20) and two episodes are already available on the service. Despite the similarities to Clarkson’s show, early reviews are promising. Guardian reviewer Stuart Heritage called the show “enormously endearing,” and a Telegraph reviewer said it was “far more poignant” than Clarkson’s efforts.

Vinnie Jones is perhaps best known for playing hard men, gunslingers and gangsters in a Hollywood career spanning over 20 years. Characters like Bullet Tooth Tony in ‘Snatch', Big Chris in ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and Johnny Doyle in ‘Johnny Was’ are all swaggering cockney tough-guys reflective of Jones’ broader public persona.

He is also famous for his volatile behaviour on and off the football pitch. Playing since he was 19, he was sent off 12 times as a professional player, and holds the record for the fastest ever booking in a game, having been sent off just five seconds into a game against Chelsea for fouling opposition player Dane Whitehouse. He’s proven similarly controversial in the civilian world. In 2003 he was convicted for assault and threatening behaviour after he slapped a fellow aeroplane passenger in the face and threatened to murder the cabin crew.

But Vinnie Jones In The Country promises to show viewers a different side of the ex-footballer. Four years after the death of his wife Tanya, the show gives us a contemplative Jones coming to terms with loss and reconnecting with the natural world as he faces down this new, rural challenge.

"I took on this 400 year old farm and steamed into it,” he told The One Show earlier this month. “It's very very different from Clarkson’s Farm, we don't grow anything, we don’t have any animals – the only animals are the ones that work for me – (but) you’ll see some great characters in it.”