Top Gear presenter launches verbal attack on BBC executives and hints that he expects to be sacked over ‘fracas’ with producer

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Jeremy Clarkson has launched into an expletive-laden tirade against BBC bosses, labelling them “fucking bastards” following his suspension from Top Gear.

Clarkson hinted that he expected to be sacked as a result of the internal investigation into an alleged fracas with a programme producer which will report next week.

“The BBC have fucked themselves,” Clarkson told a charity auction in north London on Thursday.

“It was a great show and they fucked it up.”

Jeremy Clarkson: report on Top Gear 'fracas' due next week Read more

Clarkson auctioned a lap around the Top Gear track for £100,000 at the charity event at the Roundhouse in Camden.

Clarkson told the audience: “I didn’t foresee my sacking but I would like to do one last lap. So I’ll go down to Surrey and I’ll do one last lap of that track before the fucking bastards sack me.”

He added: “I’ll be a bit tearful when I do it, but fuck it, let’s do it.”

At the event to raise money for young people to take part in the arts, Clarkson was persuaded to offer up a lap around the Top Gear track by the charity auction compere Christopher Biggins.

Clarkson said: “I’ll drive somebody around in whatever I can get hold of. I’m sacked so it’s probably an Austin Maestro. So who knows? But anyway it will be my last ever lap of the Top Gear track.”

He added: “There was an 18-year waiting list to be in the audience of Top Gear, but the BBC has fucked themselves. It was a great show and they’ve fucked it up. Tonight’s the night when you have the opportunity.”

Clarkson’s Top Gear lap raised the most money at the Roundhouse event, which was hosted by radio DJ Edith Bowman and featured other lots from Jamie Cullum, who played with his band, and Ronnie Wood, who performed with Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri.

Jeremy Clarkson booked to host BBC's Have I Got News For You Read more

The BBC said on Thursday that the investigation into the incident involving Clarkson and Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon, which happened two weeks ago, had been completed.

Although the verdict of the report is not yet known, Clarkson made several references to being sacked from the BBC2 show during his address to the crowd.

The corporation said BBC Scotland head Ken MacQuarrie, put in charge of the inquiry, would now consider all the evidence before reporting to director general Tony Hall next week. Hall will then decide Clarkson’s fate.

The final three episodes of the current Top Gear series were pulled following Clarkson’s suspension. Clarkson’s contract, and those of his fellow Top Gear presenters, Richard Hammond and James May, expire at the end of this month.

Clarkson was suspended on 10 March after an alleged “fracas” with Tymon at the Simonstone Hall hotel near Hawes in North Yorkshire after filming on location in Newcastle.

Clarkson was said to have been unhappy after being offered a cold platter of food after filming, but other reports suggested it was a consequence of problems during the day’s shoot.

It emerged last week that Clarkson himself telephoned Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, to apologise for his part in the row in an attempt to avoid a formal inquiry.

But Cohen felt he had no option but to suspend the star and cancel the next three episodes of Top Gear, a decision that appears to have enraged Clarkson and could cost the BBC millions of pounds.

Last Sunday’s episode was the first to be dropped from BBC2, a Red Arrows repeat watched by 4 million viewers fewer than the 5 million-plus who regularly tune into the motoring show.



