Tony Hall, the BBC’s Director-General, has released the following statement.
“It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract. It is not a decision I have taken lightly. I have done so only after a very careful consideration of the facts and after personally meeting both Jeremy and Oisin Tymon.
“I am grateful to Ken MacQuarrie for the thorough way he has conducted an investigation of the incident on 4th March. Given the obvious and very genuine public interest in this I am publishing the findings of his report. I take no pleasure in doing so. I am only making them public so people can better understand the background. I know how popular the programme is and I also know that this decision will divide opinion. The main facts are not disputed by those involved.
“I want to make three points.
“First – The BBC is a broad church. Our strength in many ways lies in that diversity. We need distinctive and different voices but they cannot come at any price. Common to all at the BBC have to be standards of decency and respect. I cannot condone what has happened on this occasion. A member of staff – who is a completely innocent party – took himself to Accident and Emergency after a physical altercation accompanied by sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature. For me a line has been crossed. There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations.
“Second – This has obviously been difficult for everyone involved but in particular for Oisin. I want to make clear that no blame attaches to him for this incident. He has behaved with huge integrity throughout. As a senior producer at the BBC he will continue to have an important role within the organisation in the future.
“Third – Obviously none of us wanted to find ourselves in this position. This decision should in no way detract from the extraordinary contribution that Jeremy Clarkson has made to the BBC. I have always personally been a great fan of his work and Top Gear. Jeremy is a huge talent. He may be leaving the BBC but I am sure he will continue to entertain, challenge and amuse audiences for many years to come.
“The BBC must now look to renew Top Gear for 2016. This will be a big challenge and there is no point in pretending otherwise. I have asked Kim Shillinglaw to look at how best we might take this forward over the coming months. I have also asked her to look at how we put out the last programmes in the current series.”
Top Gear的未来
作为一个很成熟的商业节目，和一系列成功的周边产品，TG不会消失。但是没有Clarkson的TG，也不再是TG。何况另外两个主持人说了‘我们3个是一个套装（‘come as a package’），所以这月底另外两位还是否要延合同，很难。我相信也不会有人会不知风情地去填Clarkson留下的洞，当第’3‘者，破坏这几个chav boy之间的Chemistry。
我认为最有可能的结果是，BBC把TG这个品牌和其他周边产品打包贱卖。
Clarkson还会回来，但是露脸的地方可能是Sky也可能是Nexflix。
其实早在2012年Clarkson已经暗示他的结局（背景音乐：Brain Eno: An Ending) 把他的台词改成 ‘What is made me feel though, is sad… the Political Correctness …’
他还在2012年1月7日的THE SUN NEWSPAPER中，就伦敦奥运会花样游泳门票事进行评论并恶毒表示：“花样游泳” 只是一些在水中头朝下、戴着帽子的中国女人，你可以在莫克姆湾海滩免费看到这些。该言论隐射2004年发生的中国非法劳工在莫克姆湾海滩遇难一事。2004年2月，23名来自中国的非法劳工在英国兰开夏郡的莫克姆湾海滩捡拾蛤贝时突遇涨潮而遇难。
换换口味也好