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* Clarkson “considering quitting BBC”

* Jeremy Clarkson “punch” not being investigated by police

* Petition to reinstate Clarkson passes 250,000 signatures

* See the Clarkson newspaper front pages

The three remaining episodes of Top Gear series 22 have been pulled from the schedules after Jeremy Clarkson was accused of punching a producer.

The Top Gear host has been suspended from the BBC after allegedly hitting a male producer, in an incident last week.

The alleged assault was only reported to the corporation yesterday, and BBC executives took the decision to suspend Clarkson earlier today.

In a statement the corporation said that this Sunday’s edition of the motoring show had been pulled, but Radio Times understands that the further two remaining episodes of the series have also been postponed until the corporation has concluded its investigation into the events.

The penultimate episode of the series was due to air on March 22 and has been replaced by a documentary about the Caribbean featuring Simon Reeve, at 8pm, followed by a Louis Theroux documentary.

The BBC would not confirm the identity of the producer.

A statement from the corporation said: “Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation. No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday. The BBC will be making no further comment at this time.”

However, the term producer is an umbrella term, with credits from last week’s show listing the names Liz Campbell, Chenoa Finlayson-Pugh, Polly Holton and Nicholas Krupa in the production team with the producer credit going to Oisin Tymon and the series producer named as Alex Renton.

Sunday’s show was set to feature Clarkson and fellow presenters Richard Hammond and James May getting to grips with classic cars including a Fiat 124 Spider, an MGB GT and a Peugeot 304 Cabriolet with ex-footballer and presenter Gary Lineker the “star in a reasonably priced car”.

The news will come as a huge blow to Clarkson who admitted, with some degree of understatement, that he has recently had a “difficult” last few months which culminated in him and the show’s team being hounded out of Argentina after protestors took violent exception to the numberplate of the car he was driving.

He was also put on what he claimed was a final warning from the BBC after a racism row when he was allegedly caught on camera mumbling the n-word while reciting the nursery rhyme Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe during filming of the BBC2 programme.

Other controversies include protests from mental health charities after he branded people who throw themselves under trains as “selfish”.

And he was forced to apologise for joking on The One Show that striking workers should be shot.

This has prompted BBC director of television Danny Cohen to launch an investigation into the show which is ongoing and which some commentators believe has diluted some of the content. Speaking to RadioTimes.com earlier this year, co-presenter Richard Hammond promised that the current run would be controversy-free.


RadioTimes.com has attempted to contact Mr Clarkson for a comment.