Jeremy Clarkson reveals he was on "death's door" in hospital with pneumonia

Writing in his Sunday Times column, the former Top Gear presenter explained that he had spent "three nights spasming" in his bed before seeking out medical attention – at which point he was told that he would have to be admitted to the hospital for at least a week with pneumonia.

"If you don't do as I say, you will die," the doctor told him.

Last weekend, a spokesperson for the Amazon show said that the star had been admitted to hospital after he had posted an Instagram photo of his arm, attached to a drip with hospital wrist bands, alongside the caption: "Not the sort of bangles I usually choose on holiday."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXaeBN4nPyI/

"I was in a room with nothing on the walls except wallpaper, and most of that was coming off. And I was in there for an hour, on my own, with absolutely nothing to do," Clarkson wrote of his experience in the Spanish hospital. "The boredom was so bad I thought often about killing myself."

His boredom was not alleviated by a £27 day-pass for TV, which offered only golf, "in Spanish".

Clarkson has left hospital, but faces up to two months on the sidelines; unthinkable to a man who claims to have never been ill in all his adult life.

Taking to Drivetribe, he said: "Thanks for all the good wishes. And to keep you up to date, I'll be out of action for quite some time apparently. It's really really annoying because I've never had one day off work since I started in 1978."