The controversial Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been sacked by the BBC.
Given that Clarkson is highly popular, he has been offered a job by Channel Ten in Australia to produce a program similar to Top Gear in Australia. It will be called High Gear. It is rumoured that world’s richest woman Gina Reinhart is behind this initiative. Gina is well known to love people like Clarkson, for example, she was responsible for employing Andrew Bolt.
The BBC’s director-general Tony Hall issued a statement to media, saying it was “with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract.”
After a string of mishaps, Clarkson was given a “final warning” by the BBC last year. Clarkson told UK media at the time he would be sacked if he made “one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time”.
“Common to all at the BBC have to be standards of decency and respect,” he said. “I cannot condone what has happened on this occasion.”
Hall revealed that during the incident on March 4, “a member of staff, who is a completely innocent party, took himself to [hospital] after a physical altercation accompanied by sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature.”
Hall said that incident marked a line “crossed”.
“It is not a decision I have taken lightly,” Hall added. “I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon.”
