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Post by Lou Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:51 am

Dramatic pictures of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson deliberately smashing a truck into a wall have been released.

A Top Gear spokeswoman said the star was "quite badly injured" in the stunt, staged, she said, to "see how difficult it was to be a truck driver".

Mr Clarkson has said he emerged from the accident "in screaming agony", with bruises to his leg, back and finger, but has since made a good recovery.

Viewers can watch the high-speed smash on Sunday's episode of Top Gear.

In the programme, Mr Clarkson and his co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May were each given a series of tasks to complete as truck-drivers.

Mr Clarkson was instructed to drive a Renault Magnum lorry through a wall at 56mph - the vehicle's maximum legal speed - at a test track near Milton Keynes.

In a recent Sun newspaper column Mr Clarkson described the smash as his first serious road accident for 31 years.

He said that he had had decided before being allowed on the road, "everyone should be made to drive at high speed into a wall."

He added: "At the moment, teenagers see Bruce Willis driving his car into a helicopter and imagine that you can get out afterwards and still be well enough to punch a baddy in the face.

In-truck view of the Top Gear smash
The presenter said he could not 'walk, talk or think' after the smash

"This isn't accurate. I emerged from my high speed head-on impact in what can only be described as screaming agony. I couldn't walk. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think."

His injuries included an index finger that looked like "a burst sausage" and heavy bruising to his shin and back.

He wrote: "Everyone should experience this before they are given a licence.

"It would let them know that crashes really really hurt and that it would be a good idea to not have one."

Hammond smash

In 2006 Mr Clarkson's fellow Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was badly injured when the jet-powered car he was driving crashed at high speed during filming for the BBC show.

He recovered and remains a host on the show.

Although an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive spotted failings in the BBC's risk assessment procedures, no prosecution was launched against the corporation.

Speaking about the latest high-speed crash, the Top Gear spokeswoman said: "Before the stunt was carried out a full heath and safety assessment was carried out.

"Jeremy has made a full recovery."

The new Top Gear series begins on Sunday 2 November on BBC Two at 2000 GMT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7704928.stm

I fail to see either the logic or the entertainment value of driving a truck through a wall Shocked I usually like Top Gear, but I think they are running out of ideas.
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Post by lulu Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:22 am

Sounds like Jeremy Clarkson has upset a few people now. Evidently he's made some sort of comment about truck drivers murdering prostitutes.
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Post by Lou Tue Nov 04, 2008 12:08 pm

Yes, this is the story from the BBC

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has prompted more than 500 people to complain to the BBC about a joke he made on Sunday's motoring show.

Clarkson, 48, was taking part in a lorry-driving task, when he joked about lorry drivers killing sex workers.

"Change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day," he said.

The BBC said the joke had made "ridiculous an unfair urban myth".

Lorry driver Steve Wright was jailed in February for killing five prostitutes in Ipswich.

Clarkson's joke, made before the watershed, has now sparked 517 complaints.

But a BBC spokesman said that by Monday morning - before the incident had been reported on by newspapers and websites - there had been 188 complaints.

Sunday's programme, which aired on BBC Two at 2000 GMT, was watched by around seven million viewers.

In a statement, the BBC said: "The vast majority of Top Gear viewers have clear expectations of Jeremy Clarkson's long-established and frequently provocative on-screen persona.

"This particular reference was used to comically exaggerate and make ridiculous an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving, and was not intended to cause offence."

The Iceni Project, a charity which had helped some of the murdered prostitutes in Ipswich, criticised Clarkson's remark.

Director Brian Tobin called the comment "highly distasteful and insensitive".

Mr Tobin said the joke was made around the anniversary of the women's deaths and it made him "cringe".

Last week, the BBC received more than 30,000 complaints about a series of phone pranks made by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross on Radio 2.

Cari Mitchell, of English Collective of Prostitutes, meanwhile, said Clarkson's comments were "more serious than the Ross and Brand debacle" because he was "making light of murder".

"More than 60 women have been murdered who the police say are prostitutes in the last 10 years so it's an absolute disgrace," she said.

Clarkson should lose his job and "the people who allowed this programme to go out have to be brought to account," she added.

Hammond defends Clarkson's joke

"I think it's a sacking offence to make light of the murder of anybody, never mind prostitute women who are vulnerable and criminalised."

But Clarkson's Top Gear co-presenter Richard Hammond told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat: "Jeremy was just being Jeremy, just being himself and that's what people watch the show for, so why change it?"

He added: "He was just being Jeremy. People love that. That's what he was delivering."

Will Shiers, editor of Truck & Driver magazine said "a small number of drivers were offended by the murdering prostitute reference".

"On the whole, I thought the show was really entertaining.

"If anything it succeeded in demonstrating to car drivers just how difficult it is to drive a truck."

Media regulator watchdog Ofcom said it had also been contacted by viewers angry at the remarks.

A spokesman said: "We're looking at complaints we've received but we're not currently investigating the programme."
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Post by lulu Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:48 pm

What is it with men of a certain age not thinking before they speak? I can't go to work and say and do whatever I want, so why should people who work in tv and radio expect to?
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Post by Lou Tue Nov 04, 2008 3:01 pm

I thinks thats what has annoyed people about the Brand/Ross incident and now this one. If it was anyone else in any other job, it would have been instant dismissal no questions asked. Yet these lot that are over paid and under worked get a slap on the wrist.
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Post by HiJo Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:44 am

I detest Jeremy Clarkson. He's an obnoxious sexist pig.
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