Jeremy Clarkson suspended by BBC after 'fracas'

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC "following a fracas" with a producer.



The corporation said the 54-year-old presenter had been suspended "pending an investigation".

"No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday," it said.

Clarkson was given what he called his "final warning" last May after claims he used a racist word while filming the popular BBC motoring show.

At the time, he said the BBC had told him he would be sacked if he made "one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time".

The BBC gave no further details on the current incident involving Clarkson, and said it would not be making any further statements at this time.

Clarkson's representatives have yet to reply to requests for a comment.

The presenter himself has remained silent, however last month he tweeted a post saying a "new presenter for Top Gear" was wanted.

"Applicant should be old, badly dressed and pedantic but capable of getting to work on time," he said.

Former Top Gear presenter Chris Goffey told BBC Radio 5 live while discussions on the programme sometimes became heated when he worked on the show, "it must have been something fairly serious behind the scenes to warrant his immediate suspension.

"I can't think what the hell's gone on, but there you go. When you've got a very strong character who likes things his own way, if somebody stands up to him, there's going to be a row."

TV critic Toby Earle told the BBC he was not surprised at Clarkson's suspension. "This incident is the one that's really forced management to take action," he said.

"Part of the show's appeal, to many viewers, has been it's sort of edginess and the fact that it's rough around the edges - in some ways takes no prisoners.

"But of course there is a very delicate line to tread with that, and it has crossed that line I feel."

But the TV Times' Mary Evans said she did not think it was the end of the road for the presenter: "He is what he is, like him or loathe him.

"He knows who he is and he knows what he wants to say. Top Gear obviously existed before him, and it wasn't the phenomenon that it is now. So obviously it has something to do with his personal charisma and his fanbase.

"I can't see this will be it for Clarkson, I really can't. But I think he's probably slightly overdue a slap on the wrist," she told the BBC.

Clarkson allegedly punched a producer! (http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-03- ... s-producer)

Top Gear host's BBC contract won't be renewed

Jeremy Clarkson has been formally axed by the BBC, director general Tony Hall has confirmed.

An internal investigation led by BBC Scotland chief Ken MacQuarrie has determined that Clarkson was involved in a 30-second physical assault on Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon, which was interrupted by an unnamed witness.

"It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract," said Hall. "It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon."

Tymon - who also received verbal abuse "[which] contained the strongest expletives and threats to sack him" from Clarkson - did not retaliate during the incident, which occurred on a patio area of the Simonstone Hall Hotel on March 4.

Hall said that the abusive language directed at Tymon "was at such volume as to be heard in the dining room, and the shouting was audible in a hotel bedroom".

Tymon, who drove to a nearby A&E department after the incident, is said to have been left "shocked and distressed" following the altercation, believing that he had lost his job.