Jeremy Clarkson is highlighting another British industry in peril

There’s some evidence that the wider pub industry may have recently turned a corner and is, if not thriving, figuring out how to survive.

It helps that consumer confidence appears to be recovering and leisure spending is bouncing back: Barclaycard says there was a 5.9pc increase in spending in pubs, bars and clubs last year while spending in restaurants fell by 6.7pc, suggesting customers are opting for a more affordable casual dining experience.

In an increasingly cost-conscious world, the best pubs have found their niche is a step up from ultra-cheap fast food joints, better value than top-end restaurants and vastly more characterful than the private-equity-owned identi-kit chains that have homogenised the UK’s high streets.

Last month, Young’s and Fuller’s both announced strong results. Young’s, which owns more than 280 pubs, posted a 9pc rise in annual adjusted pre-tax profits to a record £49.4m. At Fuller’s, which has around 400 managed and tenanted pubs, pre-tax profits rose by 40pc to £14.4m. In May, JD Wetherspoon said it was shooting for annual profits at the top end of market expectations.

The challenges are clearly different for independent operators and the big pub groups and so are their tactics. Last year, Stonegate Group, the UK’s biggest pub operator and owner of the Slug & Lettuce brand, announced the introduction of “dynamic pricing” for drinks in 800 of its 4,000 locations. I imagine this would go down like a pint of cold sick in the Cotswolds and is probably best avoided by Clarkson.