TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed a frightening brush with death – or at least serious ill health.

The 64-year-old Clarkson’s Farm presenter has had an urgent heart procedure after a “sudden deterioration” in his health.

Clarkson wrote in a column in Britain’s Sunday Times that his health scare began while he was on holiday. He struggled to swim from a boat to the shore and then to climb the stairs in his holiday accommodation.

“It wasn’t far, maybe the length of two swimming pools. But when I finally reached the beach, there was more water in my lungs than there is in Lake Superior, and I was mostly dead,” he wrote.

Clarkson said the problems emerged in a single day, “which made the rest of my holiday extremely relaxing because all I did was sit in a chair drinking wine and eating cheese”.

“Back at home, though, the sudden deterioration began to gather pace. I woke on Wednesday morning not feeling too good. I was clammy and there was a tightness in my chest,” he wrote.

Clarkson said he felt “clammy”, and had “pins and needles in my left arm”.

The sudden death of former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond spurred the former Top Gear host to act on his symptoms. Salmond died earlier in October at the age of 69.

Clarkson went to an Oxford hospital, where he was told he was only “days away” from becoming seriously ill.

“I certainly wasn’t having a heart attack. But if it hadn’t looked that way, I never would have been sent to hospital,” he wrote.

After tests, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) ruled out a heart attack, Clarkson had a stent fitted in a two-hour operation.

“It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way,” he said.

The stent will improve blood flow to the heart and possibly prevent a future heart attack.

Clarkson said the episode left him realising “crikey, that was close”.

He was also looking at other ways to improve his health, joking that he was “wondering what water tastes like and if it’s possible to make celery interesting”.

Clarkson has three adult children – daughters Emily and Katya, and son Finlo – with ex-wife Frances Cain.

In 2017, he spent several days in intensive care after contracting a severe case of pneumonia while on holiday in Majorca.

He has also previously talked about his hearing issues, which he acted on only after learning of a link between hearing loss and dementia. He now wears hearing aids.