Practically Classics Forum

Whilst you can`t say what Clarkson did was right, if he did in fact hit that fella, the BBC have the excuse that they`ve wanted for ages.

They are more than happy to take the £50 mil income (they claim) that the team gives them through rights, (others suggest that this is in fact in excess of £150 mill?) but don`t like the bad press that he generates - usually as a result of them reporting his faux pas!

May has already tweeted that hes now an ex presenter so we know that he and the hamster are off too. BBC are talking about Top Gear 2016 so we know there`s likely to be a radical redesign on the way

All I can say is RIP top gear and when the BBC start crying over a £100mil black hole in their budget the Clarkson brigade will be laughing their socks off.

megadethmaniac wrote:Whilst you can`t say what Clarkson did was right, if he did in fact hit that fella, the BBC have the excuse that they`ve wanted for ages.

They are more than happy to take the £50 mil income (they claim) that the team gives them through rights, (others suggest that this is in fact in excess of £150 mill?) but don`t like the bad press that he generates - usually as a result of them reporting his faux pas!

Don't really see the logic with that one? You say they are 'more than happy to take the income the team gives them' but 'the team' WORK FOR the BBC, TG is a BBC show and as far as I'm aware they own the rights, and 'the team' are employees of the BBC. That's how employees and jobs work. I, along with thousands of other people, work for Ford...and yes they are happy to take the income from the product we design and build for them..it's called business. I get paid by them for this, as does 'the team' by the BBC...extremely handsomely I might add.

People blame the BBC, people blame the producer, but who no-one seems to blame is Clarkson himself. HE flipped his lid when there was no hot food, HE verbally and physically assaulted the producer. No one else, HIM. Clarkson has made a career out of playing with fire, and now it's come back and burnt him.

I also don't condone violence, but the bloke has been out there doing his job - apparently working through the day and into the evening - more than likely at a outside location at not that warm a time of year - so to get back to the hotel that is organised by the production staff to find that some pompous little t*at has failed to make any suitable catering arrangements and the only thing he can offer is cold sandwiches - production staff are paid to sort things like this - its the producer that has failed - no doubt some choice words were exchanged which resulted in Clarkson dishing out the clenched fist response. So put the boot on the other foot - I have my site team working for a very well known racing team over the last 8 weeks restoring the lakes that surround their facility - last week the CEO of said racing team threw his toys out of his cot at my guys for absolutely no good reason - He was obviously in a foul state of mind and my guys were the nearest target - how the hell one them didn't jar him I am not quite sure and its a good job I was not on the site has I would have the team pack up and walk off site. Said CEO would have a few choice words myself too had I been present. That would have terminated the contract there and then and I would have been on a disciplinary with my employers. It's difficult because none us know exactly what was said to Clarkson and what provoked him enough to plant one on the idiot - the BBC are too far up their own backsides to form anything of a sensible approach on these matters but believe me, they will not be shy at forcing us the licence payers to fund the potential blackhole that TG in its current format could leave behind.

megadethmaniac wrote:They are more than happy to take the £50 mil income (they claim) that the team gives them through rights, (others suggest that this is in fact in excess of £150 mill?) but don`t like the bad press that he generates - usually as a result of them reporting his faux pas!

Figures quoted on BBC 5live stated that, as many people have pointed out, TG makes the BBC £50million per year - but almost all of that comes from royalties from past shows (not current ones) and franchise fees for TG USA, TG France etc. The actual current UK shows contribute just a very small amount. It won't hurt the BBC much if it is suspended for a while whilst they revamp.

Grumpy Northener wrote:I also don't condone violence, but the bloke has been out there doing his job - apparently working through the day and into the evening - more than likely at a outside location at not that warm a time of year - so to get back to the hotel that is organised by the production staff to find that some pompous little t*at has failed to make any suitable catering arrangements and the only thing he can offer is cold sandwiches - production staff are paid to sort things like this - its the producer that has failed - no doubt some choice words were exchanged which resulted in Clarkson dishing out the clenched fist response. So put the boot on the other foot - I have my site team working for a very well known racing team over the last 8 weeks restoring the lakes that surround their facility - last week the CEO of said racing team threw his toys out of his cot at my guys for absolutely no good reason - He was obviously in a foul state of mind and my guys were the nearest target - how the hell one them didn't jar him I am not quite sure and its a good job I was not on the site has I would have the team pack up and walk off site. Said CEO would have a few choice words myself too had I been present. That would have terminated the contract there and then and I would have been on a disciplinary with my employers. It's difficult because none us know exactly what was said to Clarkson and what provoked him enough to plant one on the idiot - the BBC are too far up their own backsides to form anything of a sensible approach on these matters but believe me, they will not be shy at forcing us the licence payers to fund the potential blackhole that TG in its current format could leave behind.

Quite an assumption you make there GN? The producer may well have tried to accomodate something and the hotel wouldn't help, how do you know he's a 'pompous little tw*t'? By all accounts Clarckson himself is the pompous one.

I can't confirm this, but have it on good authority that a helicopter was ready to take Clarkson to the hotel 2 hours earlier, but he was in a pub having a drink after filming and didn't want to leave. IF that's the case then what do you suggest? The producer force him at gunpoint to get to the hotel?

Also, it's been documented that the following morning, the hotel had to delay some engineering work that involved shutting off the electric because the holier than thou Clarkson couldn't be bothered getting up in time for the allocated breakfast times and they had to keep the kitchen open for him.

Lakes eh? Was that the Paragon/McLaren technical centre by any chance?

where did you hear the helicopter story? ive not come across that one... i do work for ex bbc staff & they have had contact with mr c & they have no fond memories of him

I suspect none of us know the exact details, or true story. Clarkson reported the incident to "management", but that might have been because he wanted to get his story in first - or because he was frightened of any legal action - or any number of reasons. I gather (from the "local" news) that the Police are investigating the incident; though I would suspect that the producer wouldn't want to press charges, so nothing will happen.

I've said it before, but Clarkson was a reasonable and intelligent man who had a "screen persona" of an arrogant and ignorant oaf. This worked well and made him popular. Unfortunately the screen persona started to become his real life one and had to me more "loutish" to get the required "shock horror" response. IMHO, people like Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand and Chris Evans are/were similar: I've heard that Mr Ross is a decent feller offscreen and we all know Chris Evans had a "breakdown" some years ago - but he came through that and I reckon he is now worth watching again! As for Ross and Brand - IMHO they are what the remote control's off button was made for!

rich. wrote:where did you hear the helicopter story? ive not come across that one... i do work for ex bbc staff & they have had contact with mr c & they have no fond memories of him

An ex-BBC employee I have no reason to disbelieve, but I can't confirm it.

Tractorman, good post

3xpendable wrote:Tractorman, good post

Seconded

I'm with 3xpendable on this one I'm afraid chaps.

If I was to hit someone at work or work related event (and believe me, I have been sorely tempted!)I would be instantly dismissed regardless of the provocation or level of injury. Why should JC be treated any different just because he is a highly paid super star?

I also found his style of presenting entertaining but you just can't go round hitting people. Sorry. Edit (except on a Rugby pitch!

I really can't understand why there is so much media fuss over this nor do I understand the level of support he is getting.

He'll turn up again on another channel almost instantly anyway.