Lisa

JEREMY Clarkson’s partner, Lisa Hogan, is “proud” of his decision to go public with his cancer diagnosis, saying it has helped thousands of people.

The former Top Gear presenter is in remission after revealing on the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm that he had been diagnosed with “aggressive” prostate cancer.

Lisa says The Sun columnist was initially reluctant to share his diagnosis with the public.

Speaking to the Daily Star, she said: “I’m really happy he caught his prostate cancer early and I’m really proud of him for putting it on the show, because that was a really big decision.

“When I was filming him in hospital, at first he said please don’t.

“It was (producer) Andy Wilman who convinced him to do it, to help everybody else.

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“When the show came out, Prostate Cancer UK had 30,000 people going on to their website in one day.”

The charity confirmed that in the 24 hours after Jezza, 66, dropped the bombshell news, some 16,749 men took their online risk checker.

That was the highest figure since former Prime Minister David Cameron, 59, revealed last year that he’d also had prostate cancer.

The organisation also had 43,543 visitors to its website – the highest of the year so far and double the number they’d normally receive.

Hogan says Clarkson has also benefited from opening up to those around him.

“Yes, of course it was a terrible worry,” she added. “But what I did encourage him to do was to talk to his friends.

“He didn’t want to initially, but he’s got lots of friends who’ve been through the same thing and he’s been talking to them about it. I think that’s really helped.”

Clarkson revealed in June that he is in remission.

Recently speaking with The Times, Jeremy said of his health: “I am well. I am not unwell.

“I mean, I was unwell, but only for a very short period of time.”

He also revealed in June lifestyle changes after his cancer battle as he admitted “I want to see my grandchildren grow up”.

Jeremy said to The Sunday Times: “I really like seeing my grandchildren. I want to watch them grow up.

“I drive much more slowly. I’m a bit of a dawdler. I go for walks a lot. I have vegetarian food.”

He shares three children – Emily, Finlo and Katya – with his ex-wife Frances Cain.

His eldest, Emily Clarkson, has two children with her husband Alex Andrew.

The NHS has also revealed a new study which will see thousands more men have access to the prostate cancer test used to diagnose Jeremy.

The Stockholm 3 blood check is said to be more accurate at spotting aggressive tumours than the prostate-specific antigen test currently used by the NHS.

The test will be offered to up to 10,000 men aged 45 to 74 at a discounted £99 and given free on the NHS to 2,000 more on lower incomes.

It would typically cost £500 at a private clinic.

We’d have to say the most challenging thing about us writing “The Comeback” was coming back from the dead after the show was canceled following its first season way back in 2005. Talk about a hiatus.

There are always nerves when you return to do the next season of a series, but when the hiatus lasts 10 years between Season 1 and Season 2, and then another 10 years between the second and this third, final season — that’s a whole other level of “When we last left Valerie …”

But, gratefully, when we get together to write Valerie Cherish and her world again, it’s somehow more exciting than daunting. The nerves fade and the fun starts. The fun along with — of course — the doubts, the surprises, the deadlines, the page count. The comedy and the tragedy (see page count again). We improvise dialogue so much in the writing room that our notes tend to reach into hundreds and hundreds of pages — per episode. That’s a joke … kind of. And on top of all that, this season and this script that we’ve been nominated for writing had a particular challenge.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Between the second and third seasons, one of our most beloved cast members, Robert Michael Morris, died. Robert played the beloved, significant, audience-favorite character Mickey, Valerie’s hairdresser. At first, we couldn’t imagine doing a season without this important person and character … but when we decided to go forward with this season’s story, which deals with the TV industry’s fear of an AI takeover, we knew we had to find a way to deal with Mickey’s absence. We decided that since Robert Michael’s death happened during that second 10-year hiatus, we had to find a way to incorporate that history into the Valerie and Mickey storyline. And because it had never been dealt with by the show on camera, we decided that maybe Valerie hadn’t fully dealt with it as well. That way, the viewers wouldn’t feel like they missed a significant turn in Valerie’s journey. We decided if we could create a story where Valerie hadn’t really grieved Mickey’s passing and had to face it in the episode, then she and (hopefully) the viewers could share the sadness and the love together. And together, they could find a way to accept and release him with respect for the actor and the character and with a bit of triumph for all he meant to Valerie and to all of us on our series.

So, we created a character named Tommy Tomlin — another hairdresser and longtime friend of Mickey’s who Valerie hires to step in and take Mickey’s place and be the hairdresser on her new AI-written sitcom. Well, Tommy can do her hair but, by design, can never replace Mickey, and that conflict between Valerie and Tommy underlines her loss and her denial of Mickey’s passing. Tommy’s presence helps push Valerie to acknowledge Mickey’s absence and moves her to gently face it, finally scatter his ashes and let him go.

It was an emotional story to write and even more emotional to film. Lisa was standing on top of a Warner Bros. soundstage ready to open the box of prop ashes, to allow them to float over “Old Hollywood,” a lure that Mickey loved. But we were filming this scene at sunset, and what comes with the light at that picturesque time of day in Burbank is a strong wind from the surrounding mountains that gets trapped in an impromptu kind of wind tunnel between the soundstages. If Lisa opened the box at the wrong moment, the ashes would fly right back into her face — and in this moment, we were not going for comedy.

I was directing from down on the ground, and I looked up to the heavens and said to Robert Michael Morris, “This is your big moment — please quiet the wind so it can be beautiful and touching and an appropriate goodbye to you and your character.” And — I swear — the wind died down. I called “Action!” and on top of the soundstage, Lisa said her goodbye as Valerie, opened the box and the ashes lifted out, almost magically, and floated out and away into the sunset over the Warner Bros. Studio back lot — just as we imagined in the writing room all those months earlier.