The BBC? It’s for 7 people in Islington blasts Clarkson
JEREMY Clarkson has launched a bitter tirade against the BBC, claiming it is ‘up itself’ and ‘suffocating everything’ with its need to be politically correct.
The presenter was dropped by the broadcaster in 2015 after he launched an ‘unprovoked physical attack’ on a Top Gear producer.
He claimed that men ‘just don’t get jobs’ at the BBC now and described himself as a ‘big old dinosaur’. ‘If I ran the BBC, it would be better,’ he said. ‘I’d make programmes for everybody, not just seven people in Islington.
‘It’s become so up itself, suffocating the life out of everything with its nonsense need to be politically correct.’
Clarkson, 58, added: ‘If they’d let everyone relax, and made a show that’s entertaining or interesting or informative or any of the things that the BBC is supposed to be, then we’d be having a different debate about the future of television. I had a very happy time at the BBC and I care very much about it. I’d be sad if it got knackered by a few unwise Corbynites.
‘I may be wrong. Maybe I’m just a big old dinosaur. Of course I am. The world isn’t mine any more, it belongs to people my children’s age [daughters Emily, 24, and Katya, 20, and son Finlo, 22]. They live in a secret world, on their phones and social media. I listen to them talking and think, “This is an alien planet. I’m William Shatner and I’ve just beamed down somewhere”.’
The broadcaster presented Top Gear for 13 years. He has since moved in a £160million deal to Amazon, where he has released three series of The Grand Tour with his co-stars Richard Hammond, 49, and James May, 55. ‘I still care about Top Gear very much,’ he told Radio Times. ‘I dreamt it up, and everything on it is something I came up with. I haven’t watched it [since his 2015 departure]. I can’t bear to look. It would be like going to visit your baby after it’s been adopted by someone else, and pressing your face up at the window. Anyway, The Grand Tour is the latest incarnation of what would have been Top Gear.’
Speaking about the upcoming series of Top Gear, which will see Freddie Flintoff and Paddy McGuinness as hosts, he said: ‘If I was in charge of Top Gear now, I’d send the new presenters away to a desert island for a year so they could get to know one another really, really well, to get the same dynamic we have.’
Clarkson also claimed that the scales have ‘completely tipped’ in favour of women at the BBC. He said: ‘Men now just don’t get jobs [at the broadcaster] at all. They have completely tipped. Honesty, poor old Nick Robinson going for an interview for Question Time. What a waste of petrol that was. No chance he’s going to get it...
‘They just aren’t giving jobs to men at the moment. There is an argument that it’s been all-men for a long time, so what’s wrong with it being allwomen for some time? I get that. That’s fine. We just, as men, have to accept we’ve had it. Let’s just go down the bar.’ Clarkson confirmed that there will be a fourth series of The Grand Tour, and the third will air on Amazon Prime Video on January 18.
Grand Tour co-star Richard Hammond claims more female presenters are carrying on in the TV industry as they age. Hammond said it was a ‘tragedy’ that it was ‘still easier’ for men to age publicly, adding: ‘If you look there are more female actresses and presenters who are carrying on and people aren’t commenting that you have lost your rosy fresh youthful looks.’
‘Maybe I’m just a big old dinosaur’