Clarkson is forever hammering away

ONE of my fondest memories of Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear on the BBC is the three presenters building a kit car from scratch, against the clock (allegedly). James May and Richard Hammond diligently go about the task, but Clarkson wanders about with a hammer to get things to fit. It’s funny.

Well blow me, one of my current favourite programmes is Bangers and Cash on Yesterday TV, where classic old cars, tractors, steam rollers – all sorts of vehicles, equipment and memorabilia

– are sold at auction. Often the auctioneers have to recover barn finds and cars that have been kept for years and when towed the brakes have seized. “Dave fetches his precision tool,” says the narrator – and Dave brings a hammer and hammers away at the wheels. Nine times out of 10 this works. It’s funny.

Back with Clarkson and the brouhaha over his lawful if offensive remarks about the Duchess of Sussex (“Clarkson didn’t just cross the line, he obliterated it”, Carol Vorderman, Western Mail, December 21):

The challenge with Clarkson’s exaggerated and outrageous – albeit often entertaining – style of writing and presentation, is that he uses a humorous hammer to make his points (successfully, nine times out of 10), but he has to hammer more violently at every twist and turn to ensure folk still gather and dance and worship at his totem pole.

Mind you, I am surprised that his radar didn’t pick up the rather obvious ambush as he entered the Meghan and Harry pass.

I am one of the 50 million or so Brits aged 16 and over who watch neither The Crown nor the H&M docuseries. However, there is no escaping the headlines and cartoons. Time, methinks, for our filmmakers to whip off the dustsheets and bring us a Carry On

Harry special.

Our best scriptwriters must have the talent to come up with a sparkling script and a memorable line or two to match “Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!”. Huw Beynon Llandeilo