Jeremy Clarkson, the Top Gear presenter suspended for allegedly punching a producer, could walk away from the BBC within days as his contract runs out at the end of the month.
A source close to Clarkson told the Radio Times that the 54-year-old star may decide to quit the BBC even if he is cleared by an investigation because relations with his television bosses have deteriorated so badly after a string of controversies.
“The last three episodes of this series have been pulled,” the source said. “Can I see him going back to film another BBC series? I don’t think so. But he’ll be fine. The other broadcasters will bite his arm off.”
The presenter joked with reporters outside his flat in Kensington that he was off to the Jobcentre. “At least I’m going to be able to get to the Chelsea match tonight,” he said.
Asked if his suspension was over a row about food he said: “No, no, no.”
Advertisement
However, he answered “yes” when asked if he had any regrets about what had happened.
Clarkson told friends that he did not punch the producer, Oisin Tymon, but that there had been some “handbags and pushing”, the Radio Times reported.
The fracas last Wednesday took place as Clarkson and his co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond of the cult BBC motoring show’s presenters were preparing to sign new contracts that would have kept them at the wheel for another three years.
If Clarkson – who was already on a final warning from his bosses – does not return, it raises the prospect of Top Gear continuing on the BBC with a new presenter, while he take a similar show to one of the corporation’s rivals.
Chris Evans and Piers Morgan have already been named on social media as possible replacements for Clarkson.
Advertisement
Evans swiftly ruled himself out, saying: “I can categorically say I am not and will NEVER be running for office. Please discount my candidacy.”
More than 400,000 people have signed an online petition calling for BBC to reinstate Clarkson.
Colleagues have also backed the suspended star. Perry McCarthy, who was the show’s anonymous driver Stig for several years, said there had been a “complete over-reaction” by people “looking to be offended”.
May told BBC News: “I think he’s been involved in a bit of a dust-up and I don’t think it’s serious.”
The famously irreverent presenter is alleged to have punched Mr Tymon in the face for failing to arrange dinner for the cast after a long day’s filming in Newcastle last week.
Advertisement
Northumbria police say the incident was not reported to them, and television bosses did not hear about it until yesterday, two days after the show had gone out.
They halted filming for this week’s show, suspended Clarkson, and postponed the last three episodes while lawyers and human resources managers investigated.
He told The Sun last night: “I’m having a nice cold pint and waiting for this to blow over.”
Sources close to the star reportedly insisted: “He didn’t punch anyone”, while Clarkson’s daughter Em tweeted: “Oh God, BBC please take him back ... He’s started cooking...”
Clarkson wrote in The Sun last year that he was on a final warning from the BBC after a string of controversies.
Advertisement
“I’ve been told by the BBC that if I make one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time, I will be sacked. And even the angel Gabriel would struggle to survive with that hanging over his head,” he wrote.
In recent years Clarkson has been cleared of breaching the broadcasting code by watchdog Ofcom after comparing a Japanese car to people with growths on their faces, and he faced a storm of protest from mental health charities after branding people who throw themselves under trains as ‘’selfish’’.
He was also forced to apologise for telling BBC1’s The One Show that striking workers should be shot, but it is the claims of racism that have really damaged his standing with the corporation.
Andy Wilman, Top Gear’s executive producer, has admitted that 2014 was an “annus horribilis” for the show. In March it was censured by Ofcom after Clarkson punned on the word “slope”, a racially derogatory term, while filming in Burma.
In May footage emerged showing Clarkson allegedly muttering the word “n***er” while reciting the nursery rhyme Eeny Meeny Miny Mo.
Advertisement
Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, started an internal investigation into Top Gear over concerns about racism.
“He [Clarkson] doesn’t see a problem with some of the language he has used. He feels differently about it from me,” Mr Cohen was reported as saying. He commented that Clarkson was not too big a star to dismiss and said “no one is bigger than the club”.
In October the presenters were forced to flee Argentina after using a Porsche with the registration H982 FKL, which angered Argentinians as an apparent reference to the 1982 Falklands war.
The presenter also caused offence to some by naming his black terrier dog after Didier Drogba, a black footballer.
Clarkson reportedly complained to friends that he felt Cohen had not supported the Top Gear team over the Falklands incident, when they had to be escorted to safety by Argentinian police from an irate, stone-throwing mob.
The BBC issued a statement that appeared to place the blame for the latest incident on Clarkson’s shoulders.
“Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation. No one else has been suspended,” the statement read.
“Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday. We will be making no further comment at this time.”
Last night the Daily Mirror quoted a source claiming that Clarkson had hit Mr Tymon for failing to ensure there was hot foot at the end of the shoot. “It was all over a catering issue,” the source said. “They came to the end of filming after a long day and Jeremy discovered that no food had been laid on. He just saw red and hit the assistant producer, who he blamed for not having organised the food. He snapped.”
A lawyer for Mr Tymon said his client “intends to await the outcome of the BBC investigation and will make no comment until that investigation is complete”.
The “on location” segments of the show are filmed weeks in advance but studio sections are normally shot on the Wednesday before each Sunday broadcast.
This Sunday’s episode was to have featured Gary Lineker as the “star in a reasonably priced car”. The football presenter tweeted: “I don’t think I’m ever meant to appear on Top Gear!”
The Hollywood film stars Keanu Reeves and Henry Cavell were to feature in the last two episodes.
A petition to reinstate Clarkson set up last night by the blogger Guido Fawkes had more than 400,000 signatories by lunchtime today. Many wrote messages backing Clarkson’s irreverence.
“Jeremy Clarkson brings joy to millions, his humour has helped my family members battle depression, and we look forward to every episode of Top Gear, new and old, to bring humour into our home,” wrote Joseph Honeck, of St Paul, Minnesota.
“BBC, you don’t wanna piss off 300 million people,” wrote Ilya Babansky from St Petersburg in Russia.