This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is facing new controversy after making more offensive comments about the prime minister, Gordon Brown, two weeks running in front of the hit BBC2 show's studio audience, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

Clarkson, who previously had to apologise to the prime minister in February after calling him "a one-eyed Scottish idiot", is understood to have described Brown as a "cunt" in not-for-broadcast comments to the studio audience during the recording of this week's Top Gear programme on Wednesday night.

At the filming of the previous week's Top Gear, on Wednesday 15 July, Clarkson also called Brown a "cunt" as part of a joke he made in front of the studio audience, one person present told MediaGuardian.co.uk. This remark was not included in the transmitted version of the show on Sunday, 19 July.

The BBC2 controller, Janice Hadlow, was present at the second recording this Wednesday and is said to have confronted Clarkson about the remark.

A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that the pair had a "conversation", but said the issue was now over. "There was a discussion about the programme," she said. "It is certainly not an ongoing issue."

It is understood that Hadlow did not ask Clarkson to apologise for the incident.

In a further statement, the BBC said: "Janice went to watch a recording of Top Gear as it is BBC2's top-rated programme, and as controller of BBC2, she holds both the programme and Jeremy in high regard. After the recording, she and Jeremy had a discussion about the programme as controllers and presenters often do."

Downing Street declined to comment.

Clarkson is currently in Belfast, where he is filming for Top Gear in the city's new sewer system. His manager had not returned calls before publication.

This week's episode of Top Gear, which airs on BBC2 on Sunday at 8pm, features AC/DC singer Brian Johnson as the star in a reasonably priced car.

Clarkson and his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May will also be attempting to buy a pre-1982 car at auction with a budget of £3,000 each and taking part in a classic car rally in Majorca.

During a press conference in February in Australia, Clarkson compared Brown to Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, after Rudd had just addressed the country on the global financial crisis.

"It's the first time I've ever seen a world leader [Rudd] admit we really are in deep shit," Clarkson was reported as saying in the Australian newspaper.

"He genuinely looked terrified. Poor man, he's actually seen the books. We have this one-eyed Scottish idiot who keeps telling us everything's fine and he's saved the world, and we know he's lying but he's smooth at telling us."

Clarkson, whose Sunday Times columns are syndicated in the Weekend Australian, was referring to Brown, who lost his sight in one eye in an accident playing rugby as a teenager.

Clarkson was forced to apologise after a barrage of criticism from politicians and disability groups.

In a statement, he said: "In the heat of the moment I made a remark about the prime minister's personal appearance for which, upon reflection, I apologise."

Clarkson is no stranger to controversy. In November last year he opened the latest series of Top Gear by suggesting that truck drivers only cared about fuel prices and murdering prostitutes, drawing hundreds of complaints.

The presenter and his Top Gear co-hosts were also condemned by the BBC Trust in July for "glamourising the misuse of alcohol" by drinking at the wheel during a Polar special.

The BBC Trust's editorial complaints unit said a special edition of the motoring show, aired in July 2007, in which Clarkson and May attempted to drive a pickup truck to the magnetic north pole, broke its guidelines.

In the programme, Clarkson and May were shown drinking gin and tonics as they raced Hammond, who was using a sled pulled by a team of dogs, to reach the pole.

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