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Top Gear's Biggest Controversies
The recent complaints over the Top Gear stunt featuring Matt LeBlanc in a Ford Mustang performing donuts near the Cenotaph is not the first time the show has come under scrutiny.
The series has attracted criticism for a number of controversies throughout its history. Here are just a few.
Hotel ‘fracas’
Picture: Simonstone Hall
Probably the most well-known was the suspension of the show’s star, Jeremy Clarkson.
He was suspended for an alleged ‘fracas’ over a steak with a show producer at a hotel in North Yorkshire.
The incident ended with the producer taking himself to hospital to be checked out.
Clarkson’s contract was not renewed in March 2015.
The scene of the incident, meanwhile, was commemorated with a plaque donated by a hotel guest (see above).
Falklands
In October 2014 Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were filming a Christmas special in Argentina.
Among the cars they were driving was a Porsche with the number plate H982 FKL, which was thought to reference the 1982 Falklands War.
As protests in the country intensified, including an incident that resulted in the stars and crew having to hide in their hotel from what Clarkson described as a “mob howling for my blood” the trip was ended early.
The TV presenter sent this tweet on his last day in the country.
This is my car on its last day in Argentina. Note the plates that everyone says caused offence. pic.twitter.com/mCfncbMa6F
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) October 4, 2014
Clarkson “uses the n-word”
Picture: Tony Harrison
In May of the same year, the Top Gear host became embroiled in controversy when a video emerged of him apparently using the n-word while reciting the nursery rhyme “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” while filming.
He later wrote in the Sun: “I’ve been told by the BBC that if I make one more offensive remark, anywhere, anytime, I will be sacked.”
The video came just two months after Clarkson was found to have deliberately used an offensive racial term when he referred to an Asian man as a ‘slope’.
The cast insults Mexico
Picture: Howard Lake
In 2011 Richard Hammond joked that Mexican cars reflected their nation’s characteristics.
He said they were “just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat.”
Jeremy Clarkson said they wouldn’t get any complaints about the comments because the Mexican ambassador would be sat in the embassy in front of the television asleep.
The BBC was forced to apologise but defended the presenters.
Cover photo courtesy of Phil Guest.
Forces TV is available on Sky 264, Virgin 277 and Freesat 652.
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