I personally find the man to be a complete d***

Well sadly for you that top gear makes loads of money for the BBC and I guess with it likely that top gear will be scapped your license fee will go up.

So more east enders i guess!

Top Gear should be scrapped and replaced by a more intelligent motoring programme that puts the subject matter centre-stage rather than the presenters.

Well until somebody has the guts to put their name to the story and name their source (sources close to... isn't good enough) then I'll personally ignore it because speculation bores me.

Even if it is true then I still think he'll continue but the producer would get a very healthy compensation package to resign 'to pursue other projects' and keep quiet.

Miserable detractors here will say TG isn't 'intelligent' but what you really want is boring. Honest John is a useful website but you couldn't make a worldwide smash hit TV show out of it because only four blokes and a dog would watch it. I'd rather watch the 'Hammond stranded' feature than a road test of a French diesel hatchback. That nonsense is for the practical real world, stuff you look up because you have to not because you want to. Who the hell wants that on a Sunday night!?

If there is any demand for this 'intelligent motoring show' then someone would be broadcasting it but they're not. What does that tell you?

Fact is Top Gear is too big for the BBC to handle. It makes them too much money to risk losing it and Clarkson has more ownership rights than they do, which puts them over a barrel. They've never liked that dynamic and they did retake control of the production firm but they still can't risk losing the show. It'll be back on next week, maybe with a new producer, most likely with a comic feature laughing it off.

Compared to any game show - or reality show like Big Brother - TG appeals to the intelligensia only. You need some IQ to understand and appreciate it...

BBC getting its PC knickers in a twist...

PS : I stopped watching TG a decade ago as it was too highbrow :-)

"... physical violence doesn't seem part of what he does."

I should correct myself. Clarkson does have form in this. Apparently he punched Piers Morgan in 2004.

A bit like stamping on vermin, maybe, but nonetheless legally an assault.

Some "sources" are saying that in this latest hoo-ha Clarkson did not physically assault anyone.

Edited by FP on 11/03/2015 at 10:32

I'd second that. Sabine is excellent, and what a driver.

He's a 54-yr old father who thinks it necessary to punch a BBC employee due to lack of hot food on a (free) catering wagon. Good riddance. Although its depressing that 650000 people can sign a peition of support for that kind of behaviour.

Not much support from his co-presenters though is there....

Clarkson has never, ever worked for a commercial broadcaster. Sure the show is repeated on Dave, but ad breaks ruin its flow, because its not devised for a commerical tv

His ego could never stoop to editing 3 min ad breaks into his productions, once every 13mins 29 sec. He'd rather eat his own excrement that have a new TG bumpered with advertising, or worse, sponsored by Halfords.

BBC should call his bluff and say begone with the show, take it to commercial broadcasters, we dont want to know anymor

Edited by Sulphur Man on 12/03/2015 at 12:01

Taken from The Guardian.

Jeremy Clarkson, voice of the people/mega-sized tool (delete as appropriate to you, dear reader) has, you might have heard, got himself into a spot of trouble – again! The wee scamp. He’s such a rebel, you know. It’s really great to have Jeremy fighting in our corner for that under-represented demographic, the self-entitled, middle-aged white man who just wants to beat up on those in a less privileged position than him – from ethnic minorities to a producer who, we are now told, failed to provide Jezza’s din-dins on demand.

The blogger Guido Fawkes, a true revolutionary firebrand if there ever was one, has already started a petition to bring back Clarkson, and I personally could not applaud this more. I think we in Britain can all feel a little bit of pride in the fact that, at the time of writing, about half a million people have signed a petition demanding the reinstatement of an insanely wealthy man who is alleged to have physically assaulted a junior colleague.

Sure, the world might have laughed at Christian Bale when he lost his temper to a hilarious extent at a director of photography in 2009. But when a towering mega-talent such as Clarkson gets suspended for throwing a punch at a producer when he doesn’t get fed, well, I think we all have to stand back and say, “Political correctness has just gone too far in this country!”

As many commenters have already pointed out on the Times website – a website where they have to pay to leave such words of wisdom, remember – Top Gear is literally the only show on television for men. The only one! Honestly, the rest of the TV schedule is just overrun with middle-aged women talking about feminism and vaginas, 24/7. To get rid of Jeremy is just part and parcel of the feminazi thought-police tactics that are strangling this country, and it’s unacceptable.

I think what Jeremy’s detractors (which probably means you, you pinko Guardian readers) are missing when they run him down is that the man is, in fact, a genius. Granted, he does not talk, act or look like one, but let’s look at this in detail. I once assumed that, like tripe and the appeal of the Gallagher brothers, Clarkson was something that appealed only to British people. Like most airy assumptions I make about the human race, I soon learned that this one was based purely on my own narcissistic naivety.

But the deeply lucrative global popularity of Top Gear is not our subject today. Rather, Clarkson’s genius lies in his skill at styling himself as the maverick, the unfairly maligned, say-it-like-it-is outsider, when the only way he could be more inside is if he gave himself a proctology exam. He is the Nigel Farage of TV presenters: just as Farage (public-school educated former banker married to a German) presents himself as the man of the European Union-loathing people, so Clarkson styles himself as the decent geezer who has the terrible misfortune to work for the Thought Police – I mean the BBC – who keep trying to tamp him down.

And yet I really am struggling to think of anyone else who has repeatedly used racial slurs on international TV and still brought home an estimated £3m annual earnings. It is absolutely in character that Clarkson is, judging from his larky Twitter feed, absolutely revelling in his suspension, because it feeds into this pose of his, just as media attacks on Ukip feed into that of Nigel Farage.

At least in the US, when you come across a self-styled outsider politician he is genuinely out there, like Ron Paul

I don’t know if this insider-as-faux-outsider is a uniquely British trick, but it is one that is remarkably effective here (see also Russell Brand). At least in the US, when you come across a self-styled outsider politician he is, for better or worse, genuinely out there, like the loopy libertarian Ron Paul, with his belief that heroin should be decriminalised – not an old Etonian and Oxbridge graduate like Boris Johnson.

Just as a quick reminder– think of this as the York Notes to Jeremy Clarkson, media studies students – Jeremy Clarkson is the highest paid presenter at the BBC, not a corporation known for stinting on the salaries of its star presenters (producers expected to provide food for such well-remunerated presenters get, one suspects, slightly smaller pay cheques). When the BBC bought out Clarkson’s stake in the production company specifically set up to make more money out of Top Gear’s endless commercial opportunities, he was given so much cash he probably could have built a car out of £100 notes. And, you know, it would have driven better than a Japanese car – amirite, Jezza?! The only surprising element to this latest development in the story that I call The Picaresque Adventures of Jeremy is that the BBC finally found the gumption to actually suspend him, its deeply valued cash cow. Still, at least the Clarkson saga has taught us where the BBC draws its line in the sand: racism, OK; physical violence, not OK.

And then there are Jeremy’s friends. It must be a source of sadness to Hieronymus Bosch that he died too soon to include in his www.pinterest.com%252Fjuancarlosconto%252Fhieronym...5" target="_blank">15th century painting Hell the true image of damnation: a 2010 Chipping Norton dinner party with darling David and Samantha Cameron, hilairz Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, fabulous Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud, crazy Alex James and a block of cheese, and Jeremy Clarkson. Just imagine the banter!

David: So I was on the phone yesterday with my good mate Barry Obama –

Jeremy: Rebekah, do you think the Sun would have a recording? I’d love to listen to it with Elisabeth’s father.

Everyone: Oh Jeremy! Hahaha!

Charlie: More fizz, anybody?

Alex: Has anyone tried my cheese yet? It’s made from the milk of French cows –

Jeremy: Yes, and like all things French it’s limpwristed and useless. If a German was here it would immediately surrender itself.

Everyone: Oh, Jeremy! Hahaha!

Jeremy: Seriously, that cheese is about as effective as a Citroën. If the Third Reich took over Chipping Norton … [continues and repeats joke forever].

So, I come here not to bury Jeremy Clarkson – the endeavour would be impossible, for the man is like Piers Morgan in his Teflon tendencies. Rather, I come to celebrate him and his lucrative talent at playing the outsider on the inside. Do not weep for his departure, Britain. With his political nous, not to mention his circle of friends, he’ll probably be the new MP for Kensington and Chelsea. Keep it real, Jeremy!

Some say, as Jeremy would start in descibing The Stig, that it was just a scuffle. You do wonder if it has been blown out of proportion. Apparently JC is intensely relaxed about the situation.

Anybody who seriously believes Jeremy Clarkson will be 'sacked' is mad. The talent always comes out on top. World class footballers can bite three people then get a £200,000 a week deal at Barcelona.

If the BBC do let Top Gear go, it'll be one of the most expensive decisions ever made by BBC bosses and I don't even think the BBC are stupid enough to do it.

Stupid? No

Politically Correct enough? Yes.

And Clarkson is a Tory. So that's unacceptable. Tories are evil...

Paedophiles are warm and fluffy compared to Tories.

(Edit: someone's reported this as offensive, but I think it was meant as a tongue-in-cheek dig at the impression given by some parts of the BBC, rather than an actual comment. This forum is apolitical.)

Edited by Avant on 13/03/2015 at 14:41

It's from 2011 but Mr Coogan nails it for me:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/05/top-g...n

Ths Stig delivers petition to the BBC

Further evidence that this is all a big PR stunt dreamt up by Clarkson and possibly the BBC.

Edited by brum on 20/03/2015 at 13:10

Apparently going to be sacked today. Time for a new team, while J, J and R move elsewhere.

Still the press won't provide an answer to the crucial question - WHY didn't the producer arrange for a hot meal at the end of what was doubtless a long and stressful day recording.

For feks sake. Are televison personalities so far removed from the real world that they are unable to arrange a hot meal for themselves. In the real world after a stressful day I have always had to arrange my own food.

They were probably helicoptered in with no means of personal transport and no knowledge of the area, late at night, after a long day's work, with more work the next day. Were they supposed to order a taxi, and try and get to a local restaurant, if there was one with space they could get to before closing? I can understand Clarkson being angry.

If that were the case they would have been booked into a Hotel and they would have been transported there at the end of the day (unless they were driving the test cars). Hotels have restaurants, you simply walk from your room and ask for a table. You may have to wait if they are busy.

Alternatively you use your phone to book a table at a nearby restaurant. If you have no transport you either walk or use a Taxi.

Its the way most of the real world operates.

If its true that Clarkson got angry just because he had to book himself a table he deserves public ridicule.

From what I have read they arrived at 10pm, and the hotel chef had left, so there was only cold food left. So they would have had to obtain a list of local restaurants, phone round to find one that a) would be open by the time they arrived and b) have a table free (this was Friday evening). The restaurant was in the countryside, so probably walking was not an option. As for taxi, well on a Friday evening it would take time to arrive, and get them to the destination, assuming they could find a suitable restaurant.

Okay, I checked, they were at the Simonstone Hall which is in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, many miles from any large connurbation. There were some hotels nearby, but presumably they would have stopped serving hot food too

Basically you are saying its OK to punch someone in the above circumstances.

Reality check required.

There's a big difference between Have I Got News For You and Top Gear though. News for You was never all about Angus Deayton anyway, it didn't hinge on the central presenter. If Hislop and Merton stop doing it, the show will finish shortly after - I believe Hislop has done every episode since 1990.

Top Gear is basically the Jeremy Clarkson show. Absolutely everything about it is a reflection of him. The entire programme is reflective of Clarkson's world view. Everything they do, they do it because he wants it to happen.

In that way Clarkson has been incredibly lucky. He's had 25 years being paid vast sums to express his world view to millions and have incredible fun doing so. Almost nobody gets to do that in life.

My point was merely that if the producer had done his job properly (either arranging a late meal with the hotel or choosing another hotel which could do late meals), this whole thing would never have happened.

The acount suggested the producer did exactly that. A hot meal was planned for 20:00, after filming was finished for the day.

Clarkson et al then stayed in pub for two hours, keeping the helicopter and its pilot waiting. It's probable that during that period the producer phoned Cl and told him deadline for meal was approaching.

The producer then did best he could in circs and secured cold platters. What was he supposed to do? Commit a vast sum of 'licence payer's money' to keep kitch staff on overtime on off chance that Jezza wanted a steak?

It's good to see Clarkson urging people to leave the producer alone. It's easy to target the producer because nobody knew who he was until last week and all those millions of fans would take Clarkson over the producer any day of the week.

Fact is though, the producer never actually made a formal complaint to the BBC. He didn't call the Police. He didn't report Clarkson for the incident, probably because he knew there'd be no Top Gear to work on if he did and he really loves his job.

The BBC have failed both Clarkson and Tymon really. The BBC haven't done this to show their support for their employees, because Tymon didn't even raise a complaint and I know of no work place where the victim wouldn't have to even make the briefest statement of complaint to get somebody sacked.

It's another example of the BBC going out of their way to look like they're doing the right and proper thing. Appeasing a point of view almost nobody has and protecting something which isn't there.

The current Viz magazine has at least three features taking a view on Clarkson, depending on your sense of humour, some are quite funny.