PHILLIPA Sage's life was once filled with luxury as she hobnobbed with the rich and famous while dating Jeremy Clarkson.

Here, to mark the release of her new book, The Wonderful World of Jeremy Clarkson – My Life on the Road with Jeremy, she shares a second exclusive extract from her life on the road with the ex-Top Gear host with The Sun.

DEEP down, Jeremy Clarkson is a man of simple pleasures.

When his reign on the BBC’s Top Gear ended he was set on selling his beloved Mercedes C63 AMG Black and buying a simple Golf GTI.

He often said: "You only need one watch."

We even discussed moving away from his 1,000-acre Cotswold farm and having just a regular-sized country house.

READ MORE IN SHOWBIZ

Strictly star Gemma Atkinson lifts lid on what it’s REALLY like to date Ronaldo

Soap stars who went off the rails including Enders legend jailed for murder

For a nanosecond in the workaholic’s high-speed life, he seriously
considered life in the slow lane and a less-is-more approach to life.

But as we all know, he got straight back in the fast lane, as only an
adrenaline junkie would.

After the end of Top Gear, Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James
May and their producer Andy Wilman had, by their own
admission, to grow up.

The fab four’s new-found business acumen served them well and
we all know the rest of the story.

More on Jeremy Clarkson

They actually had a lot of fun setting up their own production company called W. Chump & Sons Ltd.

W for Wilman, C for Clarkson, H for Hammond, U for und – the
German word for ‘and’ – M for May and P for production.

They also invested in company cars, three Reliant Robins branded
with their new company name.

All those cars did was cause traffic jams in London as they kept breaking down.

Treated like a god

Once the big deal with Amazon had been signed and sealed it wasn’t long before the retail giant started making the most of their new signing.

Jeremy was asked to go out to Amazon’s HQ in Seattle to film an
advert for the new drones which were going to start delivering
books, shoes or that ‘essential household gadget’ right to your
door, or just outside it, in record time.

Clarkson is known for never wanting to be on his own, so as part
of the deal I was to be flown out with him first class, and looked
after as well, for the duration of the trip.

It was a pleasure to go on yet another extraordinary adventure.

The Amazon people treated Jezza like some kind of god, which was
a bit disconcerting as, to be honest, that’s the last thing he needed.

Because Jeremy was promoting Amazon’s drone delivery service,
we were taken for an exclusive visit to their top-secret drone-
development centre. And I mean top secret.

For a nanosecond in the workaholic’s high-speed life, Jeremy seriously considered life in the slow lane and a less-is-more approach to life

It even had a false entrance, which just looked like a typical
industrial unit door, but a further secret inner door was revealed
with top security. We had to have special clearance and be
accompanied by senior management.

Inside it was like being in Q’s laboratory in a James Bond movie,
where dozens of brainy IT geeks were beavering away amongst
gadgets and high tech.

In the centre of the building were two huge pens like large squash
courts, with floor-to-roof-height, see-through walls.

These huge, empty pens turned out to be testing areas for the
drones. It wasn’t long before Jeremy got his hands on the remote
controls.

Impractical

I’d imagined the drones to be a similar size to camera drones,
about one or two feet across, but these were the length of a small
car, looking like a cross between a biplane and a hydrofoil.

The technology was certainly very impressive. The idea was that if
you subscribed to super-fast drone delivery, you would have a gadget that you placed on your front lawn or driveway that sent a signal to the drone directing it to the correct location.

This may well work in America in the suburbs, where there are large open spaces between each house and hardly any high fences or walls, but can you imagine drones ducking and diving through streets of terraced houses, with little or no gardens?

Did Amazon imagine customers would lean out of their high-rise flat windows with the receiving gadget and wait to catch their order?

Sadly, the Amazon drones service failed to get off the ground, unlike Jeremy Clarkson and his two right-hand men on their Grand Tour.

Drinks with royalty… and Bono

I was employed to help look after the boys on location during their
first big film for Amazon. I had to follow them around with a bag of
things they might just want or need.

Arriving in Jordan, we ended up at a palace for a late-night gathering where an ordinary chap in a polo shirt appeared, said, ‘Good evening,’ and offered us drinks.

Naturally he asked me, the only lady, first. ‘I’ll have a gin and tonic, please. Thank you.’

When he turned away to get pouring, Jeremy nudged me and whispered, ‘That’s the king.’

OMFG, you really couldn’t make it up, especially when Bono from
U2 joined us.

An ordinary chap in a polo shirt offered us drinks. I said, 'I'll have a gin and tonic please.' When he turned away to get pouring, Jeremy nudged me and
whispered, ‘That’s the king.’

Part of the discussion that night was about the location for next
day’s filming – the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training
Center for the elite forces to perfect their skills against terrorists.

The king also offered his butler’s number to me in case we needed
anything.

One of the crew had raided the army surplus and got three of
everything and spares to kit out the boys.

There was little acting required when it came to the men enjoying
being soldiers for the day and pretending to shoot each other.

Trickiest challenge

They were long and hard days in searing heat.

Jeremy would lose his patience with James and Richard would get
fed up with being ridiculed for being short. James would be slow
and stubborn. Situation normal.

I was asked by one of the producers to see if I could get Jeremy to
be a bit more tolerant of James.

That was one of the ridiculous and tricky challenges I faced in my
bizarre job.

Jeremy is a perfectionist when it comes to filming and he pushes
everyone and everything to the limit, including himself.

Jeremy would lose his patience with James and Richard would get fed up with being ridiculed for being short

In this epic episode he actually descends from a Chinook helicopter by abseiling, not one of his usual pastimes.

As he kept reminding us, it was a very brave one at that. Or stupid – you decide.

He also forced himself through a window way too small for him to fit through and had his testicles shot at.

Jeremy defies medical science, fuelled by alcohol and fags rather
than fruit and veg. I do not know how he is still functioning.

There was a lot of shouting, moaning and laughter, but the pressure was full-on, the background crew working harder than anyone.

I should have got a credit as I was involved in the spontaneous make-up team, creating a blown-up version of Jeremy Clarkson, smearing theatrical blood and charcoal all over his face, hair and chest.

Also I helped James’s hair look the part after he had supposedly been electrocuted while trying to hotwire a lorry. 

One of Jeremy’s pet hates was getting to airports too early and hanging around where he couldn’t smoke and would undoubtedly be harassed by fans.

The night before departure after another late finish, Clarkson, Hammond and May were in the bar starting to wind down and I informed them that we would leave around 6.30am.

Jeremy defies medical science, fuelled by alcohol and fags rather than fruit and veg

They all moaned, especially the big man, who queried the distance to the airport and flight time before deciding that we didn’t need to leave till 7am at the earliest.

Eventually, we set off. There was no traffic on the road, all was perfect.

But when we arrived at the relatively small airport it was deserted. Worryingly so. There was not a soul to be seen.

I ran back to the entrance security and spoke my finest, slowest English, hoping they would understand. The clock was ticking, the fuse was shortening on Mr Clarkson. I couldn’t find anyone who knew what was going on.

Tempers were frayed. I was terrified we were going to miss our flight, which was looking more and more likely.

Jordan’s airport, it turned out, has a policy of a much earlier closing time at the check-in desk, different from any other airport in the world.

The first foreign trip managing Amazon’s budget and I had messed up big time. In my defence, the mistake was at least partly because the big man always knows best and had to have the last word.

Richard went off to book five more flights with his new business credit card and managed to get us all on the next flight out.

He was feeling quite pleased with himself for having been able to
solve a problem without the help of the kind of full entourage he was so used to with Top Gear Live and the BBC.

I suddenly remembered that the king had given me the number of one of his key staff who I could call if I needed anything.

Jeremy did not want to calm his life down. He seemed to want to party and enjoy the high life even more than ever

With the help of the king’s butler I manged to secure VVIP treatment and we were whisked through to the royal departure lounge before finally returning home. Mission complete.

Jeremy did not want to calm his life down. He seemed to want to party and enjoy the high life even more than ever.

We finally closed the door on our relationship in 2017.

I’d had the most amazing time on this crazy roller-coaster existence but I couldn’t keep up with Mr Clarkson in the fast lane of his extraordinary life.

Read More on The Sun

As Deborah James dies of bowel cancer – the 5 symptoms she wanted you to know

Must-know iPhone hack saves you from HUGE embarrassment – learn it now

Jezza, thanks for the ride.

Extracted from The Wonderful World of Jeremy Clarkson: My Life on the Road with Jeremy, by Phillipa Sage, published by Ad Lib on July 21, price £8.99.

Source: Read Full Article