Jeremy Clarkson earned more than £800,000 in the year to the end of March 2009 from the company set up to channel profits from the global exploitation of the Top Gear brand.

Accounts for Bedder 6 filed at Companies House showed an after-tax profit of £2.1m on a turnover of £24m.

Clarkson, who reportedly earns around £1m for presenting Top Gear, owns 30% of Bedder 6 and as a result will have collected £479,000 from his share of the company's £1.59m dividend. He also received a £350,000 fee for "payment for services".

This was more than twice his earnings from Bedder 6 during its previous accounting period, when he received £317,000 over the 17 months to the end of March 2008.

Bedder 6 has nearly tripled its turnover from £8.675m during the previous 17 months, when after-tax profit was £1.876m.

Andy Wilman, the Top Gear executive producer, is a Bedder 6 director along with Clarkson and will also have taken a share of the dividend.

The corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, owns just over 50% of the company, which was created by Clarkson and Wilman in 2006.

Bedder 6 is used as the main channel for the profits for Top Gear merchandising and some of the other commercial exploitation of the hit BBC2 motoring show, including foreign sales of the original UK production.

The company also has a 50% investment in Sub-Zero Events Ltd. Sub-Zero is a joint-venture set up between BBC Worldwide and events specialist Brand Events to run the Top Gear Live roadshow.

The latest accounts show that BBC Worldwide paid the BBC £1.041m in order to use the rights of Top Gear, up from £912,000 in the previous 17 months.

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