Clarkson Blasts The BBC As He Talks About "My Worst Year"

It’s just over a year since that punch happened, leading to Jeremy Clarkson being ousted from Top Gear, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it all worked out well for the man. After all, he and his cohorts Richard Hammond and James May have been signed up by Amazon Prime to produce a new motoring show with a much larger budget, considerably better pay and a less meddlesome environment to work in.

But, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a difficult year for the 55-year-old, and not just because he had to wave goodbye to what he referred to as his “baby” - Top Gear - which had been carefully crafted by himself and producer Andy Wilman ever since the pair relaunched the show in 2001. In an interview with The Times Magazine, Clarkson said: “In one year I lost my mother, my house, my job. How do you think I f***ing felt?”

Clarkson goes on to heavily criticise the BBC regarding the way the organisation acted immediately after her death. He learned of Shirley Clarkson’s death just before doing a live show in front of 15,000 people, and right in the middle of the BBC’s inquiry into the ‘Slope’ controversy.. “Let’s say they were very unhelpful….I said, ‘My mother’s just died. Please leave me alone.’ But they wouldn’t. And it was bad. We were doing the TV show and the live shows, and three newspaper columns a week and endless investigations into whether or not we’d said this or done that or whether or not my hair was straight or my teeth were cleaned.”

Regarding the whole ‘slope’ saga, sparked by Clarkson saying during one episode “that is a proud moment, but there’s a slope on it,” as an Asian man walked across the bridge they’d just built, he commented: “I genuinely don’t think it was bad. It was built up to be a huge thing. We don’t mind being called ‘roast beef’. The Aussies call us Nigel, a lot. Or Poms. We call the French ‘frogs’.”

Clarkson also spoke about his difficult relationship with the BBC director of television at the time of his ‘dismissal’ - Danny Cohen. “Danny and I were, and I suspect will remain for ever, very far apart on every single thing….I wasn’t sacked. What was it? Oh yes, they ‘didn’t renew my contract’. I was sacked.”

Regarding the re-launching of the show he was forced to leave behind - due to be hosted by Chris Evans and a new team of presenters - he doesn’t have much to say, other than: “nobody says, ‘What? Someone’s doing another cookery programme?’ Why shouldn’t there be more than one car programme?”