Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson is set to return to BBC television next month, with him being given the thumbs up to present an episode of comedy panel show Have I Got News For You despite having been sacked by the broadcaster last month.
The presenter was ousted from his position on the auto show after punching one of the show’s producers, and though the BBC decided not to renew his contract following the incident, he has been given permission to record an episode of HIGNFY next month. A spokeswoman for the BBC said: “Jeremy’s contract has not been renewed on Top Gear but he isn’t banned from appearing on the BBC.”
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Call me crazy, but I’m of the belief that if you physically assault a co-worker, from that point on you should be prohibited from entering your place of work ever again. If one of us Average Joe’s were to punch a fellow employee, for instance, I’m sure our employer wouldn’t be too impressed if we simply marched back in and started working in another office in the same building, or if we put on a hairnet and decided to take up a job in the catering department. There were many people who sprung to the defence of Clarkson, with their only argument for his continued employment being “he’s entertaining, so he should therefore be able to do what he wants,” and that the producer somehow overreacted when he was punched in the face and decided that, actually, he didn’t really enjoy being assaulted whilst trying to do his job.
It’s true that the BBC will likely lose a lot of viewers following Clarkson’s ousting from Top Gear, but that’s not the BBC’s fault. It’s Clarkson’s. If he wanted to keep his job, he should have kept his fists to himself. I would wager that the people leaping to defend Clarkson at every turn would be unimpressed if they were to arrive at their place of work and find themselves greeted by one of their co-worker’s fists in their mouths, but because Clarkson was good at his job, apparently the societal rules applicable to everyone else in the UK somehow do not stretch to involve him.
When the BBC stated that they were going to let his contract expire rather than fire him on the spot, I sensed that there was some degree of cowardice at play. Now it has become apparent that the BBC didn’t want to lose Clarkson as a presenter, even though it had been backed into a corner and forced to let him go from Top Gear, so rather than forcibly remove him from his duties on the show they instead allowed his contract with the company to run out, so that he would still be available to appear on HIGNFY and other BBC shows. This means that when the BBC are now questioned regarding Clarkson’s continued involvement with the BBC, they can simply reply that as he wasn’t actually sacked from his previous job, so he can therefore continue to work with them.
While they’re at it, they could also offer him a job at their brand new car show Not Gear, in which he and two co-hosts dressed in far too much denim discuss the sexiest cars, to a baying audience of men who use their irreverent humour and off-the-cuff xenophobia to distract themselves from their dismal 9-5 careers, working for a boss they’d love to punch but can’t because they’d be sacked immediately.
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