Top Gear‘s Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended, in what could be the last straw for the BBC.
In a brief statement the broadcaster said, “Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation. No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday. The BBC will be making no further comment at this time.”
Clarkson was called before BBC bosses last year after a British newspaper reported he had been heard using the word “n*****r” as he recited an old version of the rhyme “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” to choose between cars in filming two years earlier.
The 54-year old presenter later apologised for any offence caused by the reports about the use of the word.
He wrote in his Sun newspaper column in May that he had been told by the BBC that if he made “one more offensive remark, anywhere at any time, I will be sacked”.
Updated: According to reports in the UK, Clarkson, 54, allegedly threw a punch at the show’s assistant producer Oisin Tymon when he discovered there was no food prepared for a day of filming.
I am not going to watch this Top Gear because of him. Too much bias and no respect.
No food for the shoot seems like such a petty thing to come to blows over, I’m sure there is more too it.
Some 135,000 fans have signed an online petition calling for him to be reinstated.
No Top Gear this week?
Please don’t punish the rest of us for Clarkson getting in a playground fight, BBC!
Looks like it, the studio parts of the show are taped during the week before it airs, including the SIARPC segment.
So maybe things will be worked out for next week but as the BBC has already canceled this weeks airing it’s unlikely to air Monday morning our time.
It seems strange to me that Jeremy seems to be the one always blamed for the controversial things in the show. Surely it’s down to the producers/editors to watching out for the correct tone for the show?
…and I am sure the BBC management will view it before it is broadcast….there are plenty of folk who could tone it down if they wished…..unlike the AFL Footy Show we have which if I am correct is still live to air??….now that can be really edgy at times
I think some of his and the shows previous controversies have been completely over blown and the BBC have been implicit in airing them, after all the show is recorded. Just gotta wait for the details and then the outcome on this one. The current series has been on top form and both the BBC and JC will lose out should it end. Plus there will be huge disappointment amongst its massive fanbase.
@bettestreep2008 I think it is a bit harsh to vilify JC and apply so many adverse tags to him. He is humourous, self deprecating, opinionated and does get a fair amount of stick from his fellow presenters being referred to as an ape or an imbecile amongst many other things. He is a big part of what makes the show so watchable
But what did he do apart from piss off a producer?
So for now the 3 remaining shows in series 22 remain up in the air.
This is going to cost the BBC big time, and what about the up and coming visit to Sydney?
It’s being reported elsewhere that he hit the producer. He was already on his final warning from the BBC so it stands to reason that he should be suspended at the very least.
So agree with you Sairy . What’s wrong with a few petrol heads enjoying racist, homophobic and sexist remarks from a multi-millionaire who thinks he is God’s gift to mankind.
He shouldn’t have been suspended – he should have been given a pay increase and a knighthood.
LOL – Sooo agree with you bettstreep2008. It’s time for the old misogynist, racist dinosaurs to shut up or be booted off.
or alternatively just don’t watch the show if it upsets you so much
BBC knew what he was like……part of the appeal of the show.
That doesn’t make what he says acceptable. Such a ridiculously lame excuse.
He hasn’t said anything this time as far as we know, it is a ‘fracas’ with a producer. All his comments that are made within the show are recorded, so while he is the fall guy, the editors, producers and the BBC are actively allowing the comments to go to air. The asian comment was entirely scripted, they built a dodgy bridge in the middle of nowhere and obviously got or paid someone to walk over it and then recorded the “joke”….and until it all blew up, it was something I had never heard used in that context. I thought they were on about the angle of the bridge. It just gets a bit crazy peoples over the top reaction these days
I’m Sad about this. I love Top Gear and i think people have been sooooooo uptight about some of the jokes made on it.
Sorry, but racism is something people need to be way more uptight about, especially when it’s used for supposed comedy or entertainment.
The problem is the show isn’t racist. It makes taboo jokes, sometimes.
This is a distinction and some people don’t get the joke. Don’t watch the show. If they were going around actively being racist. Hell our politicans are actively racist. They keep their job. Someone tries to make a taboo, joke, where the punchline is not place on the racial minority. The punchline is how shocking it is. All hell breaks lose.
Archie Bunker said all sorts of racist things, but the joke was on him. Not promoting racist ideals.
Well said Dayman and jezza the first original one. Many people don’t fully understand what racism is, but still love to label anyone they can with the word, which only diminishes its true meaning and puts the cause back.
But the use of context is crucial. What Archie Bunker said in the 1970s is no longer acceptable, even if it showed him up rather than the target of his abuse. This was recently raised when Seven was criticised for replaying Love Thy Neighbour. Clarkson’s context of a remark in Vietnam was at the expense of an Asian man. It is unacceptable. You don’t justify it by saying people don’t understand racism. Context is everything.
I agree David context is relevant as is intention. Top Gear is a show that does like to push boundaries there is no question, but I don’t believe the intention of the show is to vilify others. I was one of the many that watched the original airing on BBC Knowledge of the Burma special and never picked up the so called joke. Yes there was someone walking in the background, but I never noticed he was Asian (he was at a good distance away from Jeremy and Richard from what I recall) and therefore I didn’t connect that Jeremy might be calling him a s****, I genuinely thought he was referring to their crap workmanship and laughed. Let’s face it, that’s the ongoing joke with these guys. From what I recall there were very few complaints made to the BBC at the time too and it has a very large viewership. If it was done intentionally then yes I agree it is racist, but if not then its…
coincidence. I suspect those that watch the show regularly would have similar feelings about that episode as I. Those that don’t and watched the clip in isolation would conclude it to be racist.
I remember one of the chaser guys giving an Andrew Ollie lecture about the second audience that only hears bits taken out of context. Only played to them in the context of, ‘this will offend you’ and this is where their complaints tended to come from.
That is what happens with Top Gear.
The Burma Bridge joke was a play on words, with a double meaning. It was not at the expense of anyone.
The N word thing is a beat up. If he was really racist is that the only thing they could find?