Jeremy Clarkson details the bizarre reason he was arrested and thrown in prison

Jeremy Clarkson has hilariously recounted the time he ended up in a French jail, clarifying it wasn't due to overindulgence but rather an outrageous mix-up involving a slug.

The ordeal took place some 40 years ago, which Jeremy recently narrated to his audience in an episode of his Prime Video hit show Clarkson's Farm.

He quipped, "I once had to go to prison in France because of a slug. True story. I went to a restaurant called La Pomme d'Amour, and there was a slug in my lettuce."

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Following the unappetising find, "The man was so apologetic. He said: 'You can drink as much as you like on the house.'"

Seeing a golden opportunity, a young Jeremy embraced the offer: "I was only 19, so I thought: 'I will then!' And I did," reports .

The Grand Tour star's night took a bewildering turn: "I was arrested a bit later because I was a bit wobbly. I was trying to explain to the policeman that I'd eaten a slug and the man had given me a lot of drink."

Yet language barriers added to the confusion, as he admitted: "But I couldn't think what the French for slug was. I said: 'Je mange un escargot sans maison.'"

This poorly chosen phrase – meaning "snail without a house" – caused a massive lost-in-translation moment, much to his current amusement, since "limace" is the correct term for slug.

Jeremy summarised his misadventure, "They just thought: 'This man is definitely paralytic'. I got thrown into prison because I didn't know the French for slug."

He took to social media to set the record straight: "To be clear, the slug incident that got me a night in the Cannes can was exactly 40 years ago this weekend. Not last week or anything."

In 2024, Jeremy was embroiled in what appeared to be a farcical arrest scene at his in the Cotswolds, with a clip showing him being "arrested" going viral.

The ruckus turned out to be a well-orchestrated joke for ITV's Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, where protestors feigning to advocate for "rights of soil" pelted his car with earth.

When quizzed by a follower about the veracity of his arrest, Jeremy wasted no time clarifying on : "Pretty sure I wasn't. It's the kind of thing you notice."

Clarkson's Farm is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.