A row over a steak and a luvvie BBC boss who wants Clarkson out
JEREMY Clarkson is on the brink of leaving the BBC as witnesses revealed he was suspended after a ridiculous row over a steak.
The Top Gear presenter is being investigated after an apparent ‘dust-up’ with one of his producers, Oisin Tymon, over being offered only a ‘cold platter’ for dinner at a luxury hotel.
According to a witness, Clarkson demanded steak after a long day of filming and became furious when he was told that the hotel’s chef had gone home.
More than 450,000 fans have signed an online petition demanding the presenter be reinstated, and Prime Minister David Cameron has waded into the row, saying he hoped it could be ‘sorted out’ without the BBC sacking him.
But last night sources at the BBC suggested that its director of TV, Danny Cohen, has seized on the incident as the reason he needs to oust the controversial figure.
Clarkson has admitted there was ‘handbags and pushing’ over the incident, which took place at Simonstone Hall Hotel in North Yorkshire, but denies claims that he punched Mr Tymon. The production team had been scheduled to take a helicopter to their next location after filming, and return to the hotel at 8pm last Wednesday.
However, Clarkson kept the helicopter waiting for three hours while he sat in a pub, Channel 4 reported. The dinner service was cancelled by kitchen staff because the crew were two hours late. Clarkson is then understood to have become embroiled in a row about the dinner with Mr Tymon, whom he blamed for the mix-up.
The BBC launched an investigation into the incident on Tuesday, and pulled the last three episodes of this series of Top Gear off air.
Director general Lord Hall said yesterday that he will have personal oversight of the investigation, and will decide what to do with Clarkson ‘based on the facts’. He said: ‘I am a fan of Jeremy Clarkson but this is a serious thing that is alleged to have taken place.’
Mr Cameron said yesterday: ‘Because he is such a huge talent and he amuses and entertains so many people, including my children, who’d be heartbroken if Top Gear was taken off air, I hope this can be sorted out.’
It is little wonder that Mr Cameron chipped in. They are friends, part of the Chipping Norton set, who all live near each other in the Prime Minister’s Oxfordshire constituency. They have shared Christmas dinner together and Mr Cameron attended Mr Clarkson’s 50th birthday party dressed as The Stig, Top Gear’s anonymous test driver.
The presenter’s daughter Em Clarkson tweeted: ‘Oh God, BBC please take him back. He’s started cooking.’
Clarkson did not appear to be taking the incident very seriously. He joked that he was ‘off to the Job Centre’ as he left his London home. When asked by The Daily Mirror last night about the prospect of getting the sack, Clarkson said: ‘Well, it’s coming, isn’t it? Honestly, it’s very soon.’
Last night he watched Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge, apparently in high spirits and enjoying the game.
He can well afford to walk away – he was paid £8.4million for his stake in a joint venture with BBC Worldwide which exploits Top Gear’s global brand, on top of a £4.86million dividend payment.
The BBC’s rivals would be eager to have him. ITV is in urgent need of a major new entertainment show while Sky and Netflix have also been tipped as potential new homes.
The BBC has given him a number of warnings over his behaviour. Last year, he was forced to apologise after he was filmed allegedly using the N-word in the nursery rhyme ‘Eeny, meeny, miny, moe’. Then, the host and his crew had to flee Argentina when locals objected to a Porsche on the show with the number plate H982 FKL, taken to refer to the 1982 Falklands War.
The Corporation is expected to axe him if the investigation finds him guilty of assaulting Mr Tymon.
Mr Cohen, director of TV, has been desperate to get rid of him for some time and will be happy that he now has ‘the excuse’, insiders claimed.
Sources close to Clarkson told the Radio Times that his relationship with key BBC executives has become so bad that he is considering quitting even if he is cleared.
At the heart of the issue is the fact that Clarkson and his best friend from his Repton schooldays Andy Wilman have been in charge of the show since 2002, and it has been created in their own bloke- ish image. Wilman, executive producer of the show, said in January: ‘They don’t trust us at heart.’
This state of semi- detachment between the BBC and those who make one of its most popular shows naturally means that it is more likely that Clarkson will go.
A senior executive claimed: ‘Everyone is convinced he will now go. Clarkson is widely despised and there are a lot of people who would be thrilled. He is viewed as, well, someone called him a “complete tool”. He has always been his own worst enemy. He is incredibly arrogant – he delights in going too far. The show has been so powerful that he didn’t have to care about what anyone else thought. His popularity has allowed him to hold the BBC to ransom for years.’ Another source said: ‘Andy Wilman is very clear that he’s told off too much by the BBC, and when he says the BBC, I think he means Cohen.’
Cerebral, metropolitan and painfully right-on, Mr Cohen has previously tried to take disciplinary action against Clarkson after the presenter apparently used the racist term ‘slope’ on its Burma special last year, but was overruled by Lord Hall.
The director general will be acutely aware of the impact of losing Clarkson. Top Gear brings in around £50million every year. The name is owned by the BBC, but it is so linked to Clarkson that insiders are unsure how useful it would be without him. Lord Hall must weigh that against the BBC’s editorial reputation.
‘ It’s looking terminal for the
‘His own worst enemy’
show,’ added another source. ‘ It’s entirely a management issue. Or non-management.
The BBC has no strong managers so Clarkson and Wilman were left to do what they wanted.’
a TV executive, who is close to both Cohen and Hall, said of Danny Cohen: If he wants something, he usually gets it.’
Maria Miller, the former culture secretary, said the BBC needed to get better at managing ‘larger than life’ characters. She called Clarkson a ‘legend’.
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