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he started out on top gear when the grey haired bloke used ot present it , back when it was a serious programme not the pile of shit it is now

He's one of those very ubiquitous people, even if you never watch anything he does, like I don't, you still always see him in the media. He has been close friends with the former editor of The Sun Rebekah Wade for many years - that's why he has a column in The Sun, which is presumably ludicrously well paid.

I find it hilarious that Clarkson has the public persona of an anti-establishment, non-PC man of the people character. Just like Nigel Farage who goes in for a similar shtick, it would be difficult to imagine anybody who is more establishment than Clarkson and Farage.

Clarkson as you pointed out is mates with Rebekah "What's phone hacking" Brooks and David Cameron. When Clarkson bought a lighthouse property on the Isle of Man, the first thing he did was illegally re-route a public path which he felt was too near his property.

The Top Gear presenter and his wife, Frances, claimed having a public path so close to their lighthouse property breached their human rights. Ho. Ho! Infringe their human rights? This is just the sort of stuff, Clarkson in his anti-establishment act would slag off as PC crap.

I suspect he didn't want the hoi polloi e.g. some of the people signing the petition to bring him back to the BBC, from getting close to his A-list person.

What a fraud.

Of course he's only on suspension at the moment, rather than sacked, so he cant be brought back; he's still technically there. And as the Assistant Producer he is said to have hit doesn't appear to be bringing any charges (good career move) its unlikely the BBC will risk a court case for breach of contract to dump the embarrassing arsehole, sorry, talented presenter, Clarkson.

"Of course he's only on suspension at the moment, rather than sacked, so he cant be brought back; he's still technically there"

Yes he can be brought back.

In the sense that the last three episodes have been postponed indefinitely and all filming has been stopped. The petition requests that Clarkson should be "reinstated".

So being "reinstated" or "brought back" refers to Top Gear being filmed and Clarkson being brought back on a BBC screen in new TG episodes.

I fear Clarkson will loom large on our TV screens for ever more, regardless of what actually occurred regarding the 'fracas' that apparently took place between him and the producer. As he has a large following, and as the BBC exec's will be terrified that vast numbers of Top Gear viewers will jump ship if he leaves the programme, they'll retain him on the show. He'll be there for as long as he likes, any person in an ordinary job having a serious falling out with someone in charge would get sacked. Clarkson will always be on TV and will always be paid vast amounts of cash from the Licence Fee payer's purse.

A couple of points:

Firstly, the "snotty-nosed young producer" is obviously not "just out of university," as he's 36 and has been working on the series for about ten years:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1960336/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

We can probably make assumptions and take the piss out of someone with a name like that just on the strength of it, but I know and have known a few people who work at the BBC, and they're actually pretty ordinary. One you get beyond the on-screen talent and the high-end producers and directors, they're not all Nathan Barleys.

Secondly, the BBC doesn't make anything like ?350 million from the programme - that would be like 10% of the income from TV licences. BBC Worldwide, the commercial division, actually makes a profit of around ?150 million a year in total. EVen the figure of ?50 million widely reported for Top Gear looks a little suspicious in that context, but even so, whatever money it does make isn't solely from sale of the new years. All the back episodes are in constant syndication (e.g. endless repeats on Dave), and income also comes from licensing the format to foreign broadcasters who make their own local versions. If the series as a whole does make actually bring in ?50 million a year, stopping the new series is probably going to deprive them for ?5-10 million at the absolute tops.

Apart from being a complete Tory public school toff wally, I think he and the show are simply superb. He and indeed May and Hammond will now all be sucked up by the machine called Murdoch and probably be presenting an identical prog on some obscure Sky channel called 'Low Gear' soon enough.

You're probably right. The only problem on that is Sky sacked Andy Gray and Richard Keys for bullying so might look a bit amiss to hire a much more high profile bully. But then again when did principles ever count in TV land?

SKY would fuck the prog senseless. One of the remaining great things about the BBC is the lack of adverts. Top Gear on SKY would be annihilated by car and lifestyle products. A 60 min show would be lucky to 40 mins of program content. And the advertisers products would then receive great coverage and false reviews. I could see an entire series wanking off about Audi and BMW.