'TOP GEAR' host Jeremy Clarkson suspended

[MJP]

Top Gear is on it's last legs either way really. It's become a dull, predictable shadow of what it once was. I don't think their hearts are really in it any more.

No excuse for acting like a spoilt child though.

Agreed. It's a dull smug fest and as predictable as the A-Team in the eighties. Can't abide Clarkson.

An estimated 350 million people around the world watch it every week it's on.

No one is forcing either of you two to join them.

No one seriously considers it to be a serious consumer advice show; it's an entertainment show centred around cars and the interplay between the three presenters.

The slow, methodical approach of Captain Slow

The puppy dog enthusiasm of Hammond.

The oafish, self opinionated Clarkson.

It is also gloriously un PC and willing to offend; which is rare for anything produced by the BBC these days.

That's what makes it so popular; that's what makes it not just a programme comparing which family MPV is better value.

On Sunday's (8th March) show they announced that all three hybrid hyper car manufacturers had finally agreed in principle to allow Top Gear to run time trials of the LaFerrari vs the McLaren P1 vs the Porsche 918 Spyder; although full details of when and where had to be sorted out.

It will be a tragedy for all car lovers if this now never happens; even though the vast majority of us will never be able to afford one of them.

You just had to say all that didn't you.

Feel better?

[7by7]

What are you on about?

You expressed an opinion; I disagreed with it.

That's what happens on forums!

There's plenty of TV programmes I don't like, even hate.

But I don't moan about them on the internet; I simply don't watch them.

Edited March 12, 2015 by 7by7

[SoiBiker]

Thanks for explaining the show to us as if we were stupid. I guess I'd better extend the courtesy of explaining my point as if you were. I'm not complaining about it being the wrong kind of show - I'm saying it used to be funny and entertaining, whereas most of the time now it's simply tired, predictable, and rather disappointing. I still watch it in the hope it will contain some nugget of interest or humour, but sadly these are rarer and rarer these days.

[MAJIC]

It Might be a publicity stunt to prop up Jeremy's irreverent image.

Top Gear would be very different without him.

A boring program for boring car fanatics,who cares if it gets taken off the air?

PS. Clarkson is comfortable,having banked several millions pounds!

[MAJIC]

It Might be a publicity stunt to prop up Jeremy's irreverent image.

Top Gear would be very different without him.

Bottom Gear,a boring program for boring car fanatics,who cares if it gets taken off the air?

PS. Clarkson is comfortable,having banked several millions pounds,for inane comments and the same commentary week after week! ZZZZZZ.....

[Mosha]

If they don't show those 3 episodes it could prove expensive, if companies they sold them to ask for there money back.

[MAJIC]

He should be sacked,not because of the incident that brought this on,but he has become,tedious, boring,and obnoxious,and also get's paid too much,for the drivel he spouts! every week! unless I read wrongly,last year he got paid something like £7,000,000 £Million .Don't cry for me Argentina springs to mind.

[canuckamuck]

People have such strong opinions about shows they can choose not to watch.

[kartman]

People have such strong opinions about shows they can choose not to watch.

They are just craving to be the replacement host

[joesanunu]

The show jumped the shark a while ago. Less about cars and more about 3 goofy guy fooling around.

Edited March 13, 2015 by joesanunu

[dragonfly94]

Never watched a full episode cars being no more interesting to me than toasters or lawn mowers. However I cannot see a reason for not showing three episodes filmed at licence payers expense, this seems just pointlessly vindictive. having 750,000 sign a petition to save the bloke shows how popular he is, however much he is despised by the lefty PC gang at the beeb. I like the bloke and think he will tell them to shove it and move to ITV.

[emilymat]

The BBC are in a difficult position, irrespective of whether or not we are JC lovers or haters.

If the speculation of events surrounding the fracas become facts then it is difficult to see how the BBC could justify retaining this man - irrespective of the cost involved.

Why?. Well my understanding is that JC was already on a 'final warning' before this incident and, anyone who has worked in an organisation with set disciplinary procedures, will know what this means.

Essentially, what would be the view of the thousands of ordinary employees of the BBC be if there were two rules on this type of matter. One for them, i.e. likely dismissal and another for the 'personalities'?.

It's slightly similar to here where there appears to be two rules, one for the elite and another for the ordinary people.

[dragonfly94]

It's slightly similar to here where there appears to be two rules, one for the elite and another for the ordinary people.

Well they had a different rule for Saville Harris and Glitter, John Peel as well the lovies DJ who admitted abusing 13 year olds' lining up to be abused' so he was happy to oblige. JC just punched a bloke.

Edited March 13, 2015 by dragonfly94

[SoiBiker]

How would you feel if you were just doing your job and your boss punched you in the face?

[Grouse]

Clarkson Quotes....

ON CARS . . . AND WOMEN

‘Driving most supercars is like trying to manhandle a cow up a back staircase, but this one is like smearing honey on to Keira Knightley.’

‘We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It’s the Ladybird Book Of Motorcars from 1963 and, as you would imagine, it’s full of rubbish really. Just endless, boring, grey shapes until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this, for me, when I was little, was like kind of [glamour model] Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly.’

‘The only person who looked good in a four-seated convertible was Adolf Hitler.’

On the Lotus Elise: ‘This car is more fun than the entire French air force crashing into a firework factory.’

‘Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It’s like making a hardcore adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You’d just end up with a sort of half-hour close-up of some bloke’s sweaty face.’

‘This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people-carriers. Not that that’s much to shout about. That’s like saying: “Oh good, I’ve got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!”’

ON POLITICS

‘Supercars are supposed to run over Arthur Scargill and then run over him again for good measure. They are designed to melt ice caps, kill the poor, poison the water table, destroy the ozone layer, decimate indigenous wildlife, recapture the Falkland Islands and turn the entire Third World into a huge uninhabitable desert, all that before they nicked all the oil in the world.’

‘The Green Party is against fracking, bankers’ bonuses and cancer. And for fluffy kittens and soya beans.’

‘Labour’s transport spokesman says he doesn’t like Top Gear. Good. We don’t make it for people who wear pink ties.’

On Gordon Brown after the financial crash: ‘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.’

On public sector workers who strike: ‘I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.’

After Ed Miliband was photographed during floods, he tweeted: ‘Why is that t**t Miliband standing in a puddle, right next to dry land?’

SO VERY POLITICALLY INCORRECT

‘I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?’

On the lunacy of road-calming schemes: ‘People of Ulley Road, in Ashford, Kent. With all those stupid speed humps, I hope you never need an ambulance.’

On climate-change zealots: ‘So, to sum up the BBC London News coverage of the lovely weather: you’re going to get cancer and if you go swimming, you’ll drown.’

He was criticised by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after he joked that the Ferrari F430 Speciale ‘looked like a simpleton’ and should have been called ‘Speciale Needs’.

GRATUITOUS INSULTS

He described the, now deceased, reality TV personality Jade Goody as a ‘racist, pig-faced waste of blood and organs’.

Clarkson took aim at lorry drivers when he made what was seen to be a reference to Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and ‘Suffolk Strangler’ Steve Wright, who both drove lorries. ‘What matters to lorry drivers? Murdering prostitutes? Fuel economy? This is a hard job and I’m not just saying this to win favour with lorry drivers: change gear; change gear; change gear; check your mirrors; murder a prostitute.’

‘Drummers are a bit like houseflies. They’re born, they make a noise, then they die.’

During England’s disastrous 2014 World Cup: ‘It seems the Germans spend their time practising football rather than getting tattoos and stupid haircuts. A lesson for England perhaps.’

‘Mexico doesn’t have an Olympic team… because anyone who can run, jump or swim is already across the [uS] border.’

He mocked Indian culture in a Top Gear Christmas special when he staged a series of Carry On-style digs at the country’s clothing, trains, toilets, food and history. At one point, he ridiculed the unhygienic conditions and lack of sanitation among the poor by driving around the slums in a Jaguar fitted with a toilet. Showing off the car’s convenience, he boasted: ‘This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.’

Last month he wrote: ‘People up there [in Liverpool] earn less, die more quickly, have fewer jobs and live in houses that are worth the square root of sod all.’ The Liverpool Echo said Clarkson had insulted the city. He replied on Twitter: ‘People of Liverpool. Read what I actually wrote. Including the bits the local rag left out. Shocking journalism.’

Boring? Oafish? At least he is not bland!

[Soutpeel]

How would you feel if you were just doing your job and your boss punched you in the face?

he would be spending the following 6 to 8 weeks eating through a straw..

[emilymat]

Grouse...those quotes are outrageous. If true, and I have no doubt they are, then no-one could be surprised if he has his employment terminated.

[Soutpeel]

Grouse...those quotes are outrageous. If true, and I have no doubt they are, then no-one could be surprised if he has his employment terminated.

those quotes I believe come from his books and newspaper pieces and nothing to do with the BBC, so why should they fire him over these quotes ?

Jeez what is quoted there is some of the tamer stuff he has come up with, you really have lead a sheltered life indeed haven't you ?

What is written is typical JC, and he was writing stuff like this way before TG, so one suggests you stop being a curtain twitcher and get a life

[joesanunu]

Clarkson Quotes....

ON CARS . . . AND WOMEN

‘Driving most supercars is like trying to manhandle a cow up a back staircase, but this one is like smearing honey on to Keira Knightley.’

‘We start tonight with the highlight of my childhood. It’s the Ladybird Book Of Motorcars from 1963 and, as you would imagine, it’s full of rubbish really. Just endless, boring, grey shapes until you get to page 40, where you find the Maserati 3500 GT. Now this, for me, when I was little, was like kind of [glamour model] Jordan and Cameron Diaz. In a bath together. With a Lightning jet fighter. And lots of jelly.’

‘The only person who looked good in a four-seated convertible was Adolf Hitler.’

On the Lotus Elise: ‘This car is more fun than the entire French air force crashing into a firework factory.’

‘Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It’s like making a hardcore adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You’d just end up with a sort of half-hour close-up of some bloke’s sweaty face.’

‘This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people-carriers. Not that that’s much to shout about. That’s like saying: “Oh good, I’ve got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!”’

ON POLITICS

‘Supercars are supposed to run over Arthur Scargill and then run over him again for good measure. They are designed to melt ice caps, kill the poor, poison the water table, destroy the ozone layer, decimate indigenous wildlife, recapture the Falkland Islands and turn the entire Third World into a huge uninhabitable desert, all that before they nicked all the oil in the world.’

‘The Green Party is against fracking, bankers’ bonuses and cancer. And for fluffy kittens and soya beans.’

‘Labour’s transport spokesman says he doesn’t like Top Gear. Good. We don’t make it for people who wear pink ties.’

On Gordon Brown after the financial crash: ‘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.’

On public sector workers who strike: ‘I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.’

After Ed Miliband was photographed during floods, he tweeted: ‘Why is that t**t Miliband standing in a puddle, right next to dry land?’

SO VERY POLITICALLY INCORRECT

‘I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?’

On the lunacy of road-calming schemes: ‘People of Ulley Road, in Ashford, Kent. With all those stupid speed humps, I hope you never need an ambulance.’

On climate-change zealots: ‘So, to sum up the BBC London News coverage of the lovely weather: you’re going to get cancer and if you go swimming, you’ll drown.’

He was criticised by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after he joked that the Ferrari F430 Speciale ‘looked like a simpleton’ and should have been called ‘Speciale Needs’.

GRATUITOUS INSULTS

He described the, now deceased, reality TV personality Jade Goody as a ‘racist, pig-faced waste of blood and organs’.

Clarkson took aim at lorry drivers when he made what was seen to be a reference to Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and ‘Suffolk Strangler’ Steve Wright, who both drove lorries. ‘What matters to lorry drivers? Murdering prostitutes? Fuel economy? This is a hard job and I’m not just saying this to win favour with lorry drivers: change gear; change gear; change gear; check your mirrors; murder a prostitute.’

‘Drummers are a bit like houseflies. They’re born, they make a noise, then they die.’

During England’s disastrous 2014 World Cup: ‘It seems the Germans spend their time practising football rather than getting tattoos and stupid haircuts. A lesson for England perhaps.’

‘Mexico doesn’t have an Olympic team… because anyone who can run, jump or swim is already across the [uS] border.’

He mocked Indian culture in a Top Gear Christmas special when he staged a series of Carry On-style digs at the country’s clothing, trains, toilets, food and history. At one point, he ridiculed the unhygienic conditions and lack of sanitation among the poor by driving around the slums in a Jaguar fitted with a toilet. Showing off the car’s convenience, he boasted: ‘This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots.’

Last month he wrote: ‘People up there [in Liverpool] earn less, die more quickly, have fewer jobs and live in houses that are worth the square root of sod all.’ The Liverpool Echo said Clarkson had insulted the city. He replied on Twitter: ‘People of Liverpool. Read what I actually wrote. Including the bits the local rag left out. Shocking journalism.’

Boring? Oafish? At least he is not bland!

I like him more after reading the quotes.

[7by7]

Thanks for explaining the show to us as if we were stupid.

You're welcome.

You obviously do not understand the type of show it is, and has been since it's relaunch in 2002.

Hence the need to explain it to you in simple terms.

I guess I'd better extend the courtesy of explaining my point as if you were. I'm not complaining about it being the wrong kind of show - I'm saying it used to be funny and entertaining, whereas most of the time now it's simply tired, predictable, and rather disappointing. I still watch it in the hope it will contain some nugget of interest or humour, but sadly these are rarer and rarer these days.

You what?

You watch a TV show you find "tired, predictable, and rather disappointing" in the vain hope that one day it might "contain some nugget of interest or humour!"

Are you some strange kind of masochist; or do you secretly love the show but for some reason feel the need to hide this from others, and maybe even yourself?

[7by7]

How would you feel if you were just doing your job and your boss punched you in the face?

Allegedly.

In none of the reports I have read has anyone actually involved said whether or not a punch was thrown and if so by whom and whether or not it landed.

Not Clarkson, not the producer concerned, Oisin Tymon, not anyone else at the BBC.

[Phra Ek]

Agree with the posters who are saying the TG format has passed it's Sell-by date.

it was entertaining - but recent episodes have looked like contrived light entertainment with little to do with cars.

Even the so-called 'non PC' gaffs have the whiff of a sit-com script writer about them. Are we supposed to believe that they just happen to film a local man walking on their Bridge over the (wrong) River Kwai at the time that Clarkson just happened to make a joke about a 'slope'. Yeah, sure!

Then there's a manufactured fuss when people complain. If you have a $50 million product you're going to invest time and effort in building up the image.

But now we all got to see the real Clarkson behavior with no ghost writers - and it didn't sound very entertaining or witty.

Let's not mourn the loss of Top Gear - we should be looking forward to rich variety we'll get when other channels compete to give us something fresh and new (and with motorcycles!).

[MJP]

Here's an idea. See if Suzi Perry will host it instead of Clarkson.

[neverdie]

What are you on about?

You expressed an opinion; I disagreed with it.

That's what happens on forums!

There's plenty of TV programmes I don't like, even hate.

But I don't moan about them on the internet; I simply don't watch them.

You just finish educating us all about what Internet forums are for but you toss that aside with the last line of your post above.

So are people's forum comments only acceptable if the agree with your view point ?

Image if I applied the same method of logic to this entire forum where snotty and somewhat self appointed elitist hob knob farangs continually moan about their host country with the daily tirade of crap and none sense that floods the airways here at tvf.

Clarkson is a smug arrogant SOB and the forum is lined with them too.

As someone pointed out before there's millions of people that tune into the show every week and that just supports my earlier theory that there are d1ckheafs everywhere on the planet and I have no doubt that plenty of them are entertained by this meathead Clarkson.

[neverdie]

Here's an idea. See if Suzi Perry will host it instead of Clarkson.

I would watch the episode where Clarkson burns to death in a fiery crash, he drives like a freak on psp so chances are high, fingers crossed.

[Basil B]

It's slightly similar to here where there appears to be two rules, one for the elite and another for the ordinary people.

Well they had a different rule for Saville Harris and Glitter, John Peel as well the lovies DJ who admitted abusing 13 year olds' lining up to be abused' so he was happy to oblige. JC just punched a bloke.

Had it come to light what Saville and the others were up they would have been sacked.

[MJP]

It's slightly similar to here where there appears to be two rules, one for the elite and another for the ordinary people.

Well they had a different rule for Saville Harris and Glitter, John Peel as well the lovies DJ who admitted abusing 13 year olds' lining up to be abused' so he was happy to oblige. JC just punched a bloke.

John Peel?

[Soutpeel]

It's slightly similar to here where there appears to be two rules, one for the elite and another for the ordinary people.

Well they had a different rule for Saville Harris and Glitter, John Peel as well the lovies DJ who admitted abusing 13 year olds' lining up to be abused' so he was happy to oblige. JC just punched a bloke.

Had it come to light what Saville and the others were up they would have been sacked.

stop talking rubbish, it was known within the BBC and even the police what Saville was up to and a blind eye was turned

[Chicog]

For God's sake why is this bloke still making the news bulletins? Is there not anything more important going on in the world?!

[7by7]

What are you on about?

You expressed an opinion; I disagreed with it.

That's what happens on forums!

There's plenty of TV programmes I don't like, even hate.

But I don't moan about them on the internet; I simply don't watch them.

You just finish educating us all about what Internet forums are for but you toss that aside with the last line of your post above.

So are people's forum comments only acceptable if the agree with your view point ?

Image if I applied the same method of logic to this entire forum where snotty and somewhat self appointed elitist hob knob farangs continually moan about their host country with the daily tirade of crap and none sense that floods the airways here at tvf.

Clarkson is a smug arrogant SOB and the forum is lined with them too.

As someone pointed out before there's millions of people that tune into the show every week and that just supports my earlier theory that there are d1ckheafs everywhere on the planet and I have no doubt that plenty of them are entertained by this meathead Clarkson.

You have obviously failed to understand; so let me try again.

My first point is that as this is an internet forum, anyone is able to express any opinion (as long as they stay within the forum rules, of course).

Got that?

My second point was that rather than watch a TV show I don't like and then moan about it on the internet, I simply don't watch it.

Got that?

If you, MJP or anyone else want to waste your time watching a show you don't like so that you can then criticise it on the internet; that is your choice.

But don't get all self righteous and oh so superior when people who do like the show disagree with you.

Doing so does not say about you what you think it does; it says the opposite!