Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson
File:Jeremyclarkson3.jpg Clarkson in a typical pose
Born	April 11 1960 Doncaster, England
Occupation(s)	Television presenter, talk show host, Author, and Journalist

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born April 11, 1960, in Doncaster) is a British writer and broadcaster who specialises in motoring issues. He writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun, but is most associated with the BBC motoring programme Top Gear, which he presents, first doing so from 1989 until 1999, and then again from 2002. The show won an International Emmy in 2005. "Not a man given to considered opinion," according to the BBC, Clarkson is known to be opinionated and forthright in his views, he was once summed up in an English newspaper both as a "dazzling hero of political incorrectness" and "Jim Davidson with a driving licence".

Biography

Clarkson was educated at Repton School, although he claims to have been expelled for drinking and smoking. His first job was as a travelling salesman for his parents' business selling Paddington Bear toys, after which he trained as a journalist with the Rotherham Advertiser.

In 1984, he combined his writing skills with his love of cars, and together with a business partner (Jonathan Gill) they formed the Motoring Press Agency (later MPA Fingal); conducting road-tests for local newspapers, and wrote for specialist car magazines such as Performance Car from 1986, until 1993.

He married his agent Frances Catherine Cain on May 8, 1993. They have three children: Emily, Finlo, and Katya. The family lives in the Cotswolds near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. They also have a house on his wife's homeland of the Isle of Man, a place described by Clarkson in 2004 as "a thorn in the side of Tony Blair's nanny state," because of its lack of an upper speed limit.

His wife's father, Major Robert Henry Cain, was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. When Clarkson presented a documentary about the Victoria Cross he highlighted the story of Major Cain, only revealing at the end that he had married Cain's daughter and that she hadn't known that her father had won a Victoria Cross until after his death.

In 2004 during an episode of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, Clarkson was invited to investigate his family history; including the story of his Great-Great-Great Grandfather; John Kilner (1792–1857), who invented the Kilner jar; a receptacle for preserved fruit.

It was revealed, during The F-Word on July 5, 2006, that Clarkson's house on the Isle of Man is a lighthouse.

In spite of his penchant for speed, Clarkson holds a clean driving licence.

Television career

File:Topgear.jpg

Top Gear DVD cover

Clarkson is mostly associated with the UK Motoring Programme Top Gear, which he presented from 1989 to 1999, and then again from 2002, when it was relaunched in a new format after a brief period when it was not broadcast. His current co-presenters are James May and Richard Hammond. It is now the most watched TV show on BBC Two, with about 350 million viewers around the world. It won an International Emmy in 2005, for the best non-scripted entertainment show that was not broadcast in the U.S. Jeremy proclaimed: "I didn't attend the awards ceremony because I didn't know that we had won, and I only found out after a 4am text message, whilst I was busy writing the script for the next show...."

Clarkson continues to release annual motoring-based videos: his first being 'Clarkson - Unleashed on cars' in 1996. Over the years, his videos have seen him driving many exotic cars, including a Ford GT40 which had been specially adapted to accommodate taller drivers, Clarkson is 6 feet 5 inches (1.96m). He is also known for destroying his most hated cars in various ways including catapulting a Nissan Sunny using a trebuchet, dropping a Porsche 911 onto a caravan and shooting a Chevrolet Corvette with a Gatling gun attached to an airborne helicopter.

He has also presented other motoring-related series such as Star Cars, Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld, and Jeremy Clarkson's Car Years. For a short while, Jeremy had his own chat show; Clarkson, where he is most notable for offending the Welsh by placing a 3D plastic map of Wales into a microwave oven and switching it on. He later defended this by saying "I put Wales in there because Scotland wouldn't fit". Similarly, he offended Americans by removing the map of the USA and renaming the resultant space the 'South Canada Sea'.

After the dismissal of Angus Deayton, Clarkson was one of a number of guest hosts recruited to present the topical panel show, Have I Got News For You. He was the first such host never to have previously been a guest of the programme. As of June 2, 2006, he has presented the show four times and been a guest once.

In addition to television, Clarkson also has a role in the Pixar movie Cars as the voice of Harv, Lightning McQueen's agent, but only in the British release — Harv is played by Jeremy Piven in the North American release.

Engineering interests

Clarkson is passionate about engineering, especially pioneering work, as his television programmes about Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Colossus computer have shown. Clarkson was awarded an honorary degree from Brunel University on September 12, 2003, partly because of his work in popularising engineering, and partly because of his advocacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 100 Greatest Britons programme.

In April 2004, he appeared on the talk show Parkinson and mentioned that he was writing a book about the soul he believes many machines have. The book, titled I Know You Got Soul was published in October 2004. He cited Air France Flight 4590 as his primary example: when people heard the plane had crashed, quite aside from the sadness they felt for the loss of human life, there was almost a sadness for the machine. Clarkson was one of the passengers on the last BA Concorde flight on October 24, 2003. He paraphrased Neil Armstrong to describe the retiring of Concorde: "This is one small step for a man, but one huge leap backwards for mankind".

Clarkson owns various cars including Ford's latest supercar, the Ford GT40, a Mercedes SL55 AMG, a Volvo XC90, Ford Focus and a BMW M5. His experiences with his Ford GT are well documented, having had many issues with the satellite tracker/alarm system - he reported that it would tell him the car had been stolen even when he was driving it. As a result of what he called "the most miserable month's motoring possible", he returned it to Ford for a full refund. After a short period, including asking Top Gear fans for advice over the internet, he bought back his GT. He has called it "the most unreliable car ever made", due to his not ever being able to complete a return journey using it. He also owned a Ferrari 355 for a short while. This was sold to make way for an SL55 AMG to which an SLK55 AMG was subsequently added.

His known passion for single- or two-passenger high-velocity transport led to his brief acquisition of an English Electric Lightning F.1A jet fighter, which was installed in the front garden of his country home. The Lightning was subsequently removed on the orders of the local council, which "wouldn't believe my claim that it was a leaf blower", according to Clarkson on a Tiscali Motoring webchat. In fact, the whole affair was a setup for the programme Speed, and English Electric Lightning XM172 is now back with the Farnborough preservation group.

After testing the Bugatti Veyron, he pondered and announced that he felt sorry, saying he would never drive a car again that would match it.

Humour and controversy

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Clarkson being pied by Rebecca Lush of Roadblock at Oxford Brookes University

Clarkson has often been the focus of controversy for his humour. His comments on various subjects have sometimes been seen to cause offence, and while they have generally been taken as humourous, a small but vocal minority take them seriously and then claim to be offended by them. Clarkson has often made the observation that such remarks are usually given in a humorous context and that he hates everybody equally.

Rover

Clarkson was known for his relentless criticism of Rover cars which were manufactured at Austin Motor Company's Longbridge plant. After BMW pulled out of Longbridge (taking with it the Iconic Mini brand) Rover was bought by the Phoenix Consortium and the English MG and Rover brands merged becoming the last major British owned and built car manufacturer. Despite some moderately successful models and continued success in touring cars, Clarkson was still among many of the MG Rover brand detractors both on TV and in the papers. However, he did reserve some sympathy for the Rover workers left jobless, saying in his Sunday Times column, "I cannot even get teary and emotional about the demise of the company itself — though I do feel sorry for the workforce."

Vauxhall

One of his most infamous road tests occurred during the filming of a Top Gear episode featuring the Vauxhall Vectra. Clarkson mainly walked around the car silently, because he couldn't think of anything interesting to say about it. Angry Vauxhall workers later blamed him for the Vectra’s poor sales. Ironically, officials from General Motors — who own Vauxhall — invited Clarkson to the launch of the much-improved Vectra, although it is not known whether he attended. Another incident occurred when he tried to prove that a Vauxhall Signum could be driven from the back seat; eventually crashing it after claiming the only good thing about the car was the legroom in the back. When asked where he was by an insurance company when the car crashed he replied, "In the back seat". In one episode, he went so far as to dump nearly half a ton of manure on a Vauxhall van during the annual "Top Gear Car of the Year" awards.

Clarkson's view on Vauxhall has significantly changed in recent years. He praised the VX220 Turbo (even throwing a fan out of the studio when they said the VX220 was "uncool"), and is a big fan of the Monaro. However, neither of these cars were manufactured or designed solely by Vauxhall; the VX220 was designed and manufactured by Lotus Cars, and the Monaro by Australian manufacturer Holden. He also gave the Astra VXR positive reviews, though (surprisingly for Clarkson) he felt it had far too much power for a front-wheel drive family car. It suffered from torque steer and traction problems, which Clarkson demonstrated on Top Gear by smoking the front wheels with the traction control off.

In a recent (Series 8) episode of Top Gear, Clarkson showed viewers using a chart, how he would go to the "moons of Jupiter" and then to the "edge of the universe" to avoid driving a Vectra. And then proceeded to back his assertion by actually driving the Vectra and showing how the car handled so badly that it couldn't negotiate many of the turns on the Top Gear test track. The car essentially went straight on under power despite the steering being at full lock. Apart from all that, Clarkson claimed Vauxhall Vectra as "World's Fifth Fastest Saloon Car That Money Can Buy".

Foreigners

During the 13 November 2005 episode, a news segment featuring BMW's MINI Concept from the Tokyo Motor Show showcased what fellow-presenter Richard Hammond quoted as a "quintessentially British" integrated tea set. Clarkson responded by mocking that the German designed-and-owned MINI Cooper should be fitted with "a quintessentially German... sat-nav that only goes to Poland" in reference to the Nazi invasion of Poland that started World War II, and saying that "[one] fan belt will last a thousand years", a reference to Adolf Hitler's propaganda slogan of "the thousand-year Reich". These statements gained negative attention in the British and German news media. He made similar remarks about the new Mercedes S-Class when he used the car's speech recognition system, inbuilt into the SatNav, to take him to Warsaw, the capital of Poland.

Clarkson visited New Zealand in 1997. He was not impressed to see the number of Austin Allegros, Maxis, Princesses, Hillman Hunters, Avengers and older Ford Cortinas among other British relics (long since recycled in Great Britain) still being driven daily by New Zealanders.

In October 1998, Hyundai cars complained to the BBC about what they described as "bigoted and racist" comments he made at the Birmingham Motor Show, where he was reported as saying that the people working on the Hyundai stand had "eaten a dog" (due to the fact that Koreans are known for their consumption of dog meat), and that the designer of the Hyundai XG had probably eaten a spaniel for his lunch. He also allegedly referred to those working on the BMW stand as "Nazis". He has also described some BMW vehicles as "Nazi staff cars".

His typical view of American cars is that they are poorly built and have terrible steering and interior design. Despite this he owns Ford's new GT supercar (left-hand drive, something else of which he could be critical as well as the electrical problems) and is a big fan of the classic Ford Mustang. In September 2005, Clarkson wrote an editorial for The Sun, criticising Americans after the Hurricane Katrina rescue response, and included the comment: "Most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs". He has also said on Top Gear when comparing a rural British village with a rural American village that "[in rural America, the town] would be full of people doing… whatever it is they do. Incest, mostly" and "if you buy an American car you're gonna have to commit acts of love with your cousin."

On 2 July 2006 in a Sunday Times article entitled "The United States of Total Paranoia", he wrote that during a recent trip to the USA, he learned that "you even need a passport to buy a drink." but that you don't need any ID at all to rent a "machine gun".

Clarkson also constantly makes references to the French. For example when he was driving a £7,000 Maserati Merak, he said "Now when the French and the Italians come together to do cooking, that's great. When they come together to make cars... run, run for your life."

Celebrities

Clarkson has also made numerous remarks on Have I Got News for You. He once famously jested, during a dispute that Paul McCartney should be credited before John Lennon on many of The Beatles' songs, that he believed McCartney should have been listed above Lennon on Mark David Chapman's hitlist. He also joked that Paul McCartney has offered a date to a woman who used her prosthetic leg to fend off a burglar, in relation to his failed marriage to Heather Mills. Clarkson also defended Camilla Parker-Bowles on an episode. "People often criticise her (Parker-Bowles) because she's approaching 60," he said, "but they forget that Princess Diana was approaching 120 when she went into the tunnel." He also remarked that Camilla's personal make up artist was known as "Ken the plasterer".

He has a long-running public feud with Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror. In October of 2003, on the last Concorde flight, he threw a glass of water over Morgan while the two were exchanging insults. In March 2004, at the British Press Awards, he cursed at Morgan and punched him, apparently angry that the newspaper had published photographs of Clarkson with a woman who was not his wife.

Comedian Sean Lock unsuccessfully attempted to put Clarkson into Room 101. Since then, they have appeared together on numerous television programmes, including an episode of QI, where Lock repeatedly mocked and belittled Clarkson. He admitted the rift between the two is good humoured.

Clarkson is a great fan of the stories of The Who's antics. In 2005, Clarkson filmed an item for Top Gear where he drove a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow into the Chipping Norton Lido, achieving a long-time ambition to recreate the urban legend of Keith Moon driving into a swimming pool. Clarkson is a regular supporter of the Lido, having hosted several "auctions of promises" and the stunt was carried out with full co-operation of the Lido management, Top Gear producers and a stunt team.

Other controversies

In the Sunday Times on June 2, 2002, he joked that he had spent the day hunting rats using tennis racquets and croquet mallets. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals issued a warning to him as a result of this comment. During a guest appearance on QI, screened on the November 11, 2005, he said that seal flipper tastes "exactly like licking a hot Turkish urinal". He also ate whale (which he said tastes like steak but with an iron tang), covered in grated puffin. He said, "The waiter asked if I wanted some grated puffin on my whale and how do you say no to something like that?"

Clarkson's views on cyclists and promotion of motoring have caused concern among cycling and road-safety organisations. Transport 2000 have called for Top Gear to be replaced by a more safety, and environmentally-aware, motoring programme called "Third Gear". The BBC, however, does not take issue with the controversial views presentented on the show, saying they are simply jokes and pranks. In February of 2004, Clarkson rammed a 30-year-old horse chestnut tree with a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck to demonstrate how rugged the vehicle was. This led to the BBC having to compensate the local parish council who, until they saw the Top Gear broadcast, thought that the damage had been caused by local vandals.

In 2005, the School of Technology at Oxford Brookes University awarded him an honorary engineering doctorate, leading to protests from green organizations, who objected to his statements about the environment and his advocacy of car use. He has said: "I do have a disregard for the environment. I think the world can look after itself and we should enjoy it as best as we can". After the ceremony, he was hit in the face with a banana-meringue pie by Rebecca Lush of Roadblock. Clarkson took the insult with humour, commenting that the pie had too much sugar.

In May 2006, a long-standing conflict between Clarkson and the British environmentalist and chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Sir Jonathon Porritt, boiled over when Porritt described Clarkson as an "outstandingly bigoted petrolhead" because of the perceived influence of his views on global warming. Clarkson responded in his Sunday Times column: "I should be worried, I suppose, but mostly I’m rather flattered. For years I’ve felt like King Canute sitting on the beach, watching helplessly as the tide of eco-offal rolls inexorably towards the shore. But now Mr Pot-Porritt has come out of nowhere to say that I really do have the power to hold back his plans to make trains out of cardboard and create electricity by composting Tories."

In July 2006, Clarkson attracted complaints from British gay rights groups after agreeing with a Top Gear audience member that a featured car was a bit "gay" or "ginger beer" (rhyming slang for "queer"). The BBC was already defending another of its presenters, Chris Moyles of BBC Radio 1, against claims of homophobia after a similar use of the term in reference to a telephone ringtone. The complainants felt that the presenters were using the word pejoratively - a claim the BBC denied.

Clarkson, among others, has been blamed for poor denim sales. Draper's Record, trade magazine to the fashion industry, ran an article on Clarkson's poor fashion image: "For a period in the late Nineties denim became unfashionable. "501s — Levi's flagship brand — in particular suffered from the so-called 'Jeremy Clarkson effect', the association with men in middle youth." He was also featured on What Not to Wear, where he was named as one of "the world's worst-dressed celebrities".

Clarkson has always been noted for his pro-smoking viewpoint, even publicly smoking as much as possible on National No Smoking Day. However, he announced that on 14 April, 2006 he had given up smoking. He cited that he had found a cure for the urge - the Koenigsegg CCX.

See also

• J. Bonington Jagworth, "militant leader of the Motorists' Liberation Front" — character invented by Peter Simple who bears a strong resemblance to Clarkson.

Works

Non-motoring shows

• Clarkson (1998-2000): A chat show that ran for three series.
• Jeremy Clarkson's Extreme Machines (1998): where he rode all manner of machines, including a plane, and an airboat.
• Robot Wars (1997): Clarkson presented the first series of the UK version.
• Jeremy Clarkson Meets The Neighbours: A notorious Europhobe, Clarkson travelled around Europe, confronting (and in some cases reinforcing) his prejudices.
• Speed (2001): A series about the history of fast vehicles, including aeroplanes, boats and cars.
• Have I Got News For You: hosted three episodes, the first in 2002, two in 2005 and one in 2006. Also appeared as a guest in 2003.
• Inventions That Changed the World (2004): five episodes featuring the invention of the gun/computer/jet engine/telephone/television from a British point of view.
• Top of the Pops: co-hosted one episode on July 24, 2005 with Fearne Cotton.
• QI: appeared as a guest on four occasions.
• Room 101: appeared on this in 1995 when Nick Hancock was host. Clarkson's choices were caravans; flies; Last Of The Summer Wine; the mentality within golf clubs; and vegetarians.
• Grumpy Old Men (2003-4): Clarkson appeared alongside his friend, the food critic A A Gill, in a christmas special and then in the second full season of this series.
• Jeremy Clarkson: Who Do You Think You Are? (2004): Clarkson traced his family tree for one episode the popular documentary series.
• Great Britons : In a poll to find the greatest historical Briton, Clarkson was the chief supporter for Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who came second.
• The Victoria Cross: For Valour (2003): Clarkson presented a one-off documentary about the history of the Victoria Cross.
• Never Mind The Buzzcocks: Guest presenter April 10, 2006
• Cars (2006): Clarkson voiced Harv (the agent of the main character, Lightning McQueen) in the UK version of the film.

Videos

• Jeremy Clarkson's Motorsport Mayhem (1995)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Unleashed On Cars (1996)
• The Best Of Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld (1996)
• More Motorsport Mayhem Featuring Jeremy Clarkson And Steve Rider (1996)
• Jeremy Clarkson's Unlimited Extreme Machines (1997)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Apocalypse Clarkson (1997)
• The Most Outrageous Jeremy Clarkson Video In The World...Ever (1998)
• Jeremy Clarkson Head To Head (1999)
• Jeremy Clarkson - At Full Throttle (2000)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Top 100 Cars (2001)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Speed (2001)
• Jeremy Clarkson - No Limits (2002)
• Jeremy Clarkson's Shootout (2003)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Hot Metal (2004)
• Jeremy Clarkson - Heaven And Hell (2005)

Books

• Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld (1996)
• Clarkson on Cars: Writings and Rantings of the BBC's Top Motoring Correspondent (1996)
• Clarkson's Hot 100 (1996)
• Jeremy Clarkson's Planet Dagenham: Drivestyles of the Rich and Famous (1998)
• Born to Be Riled: The Collected Writings of Jeremy Clarkson (1999)
• Jeremy Clarkson's Ultimate Ferrari (2001)
• The World According To Clarkson (2004)
• Clarkson on Cars (2004)
• I Know You Got Soul (2004)
• Motorworld (2004)
• Świat według Clarksona (Polish edition of The World According to Clarkson, 2006)

External links

• Jeremy Clarkson at IMDb
• Archive of Clarkson's Sunday Times columns
• Petition opposing Clarkson's receiving an honorary degree
• Some best bit of Clarkson
• Clarkson writing about his use of Wikipedia