I see Clarkson & Co have hit the headlines again - twice this week. In the Top Gear magazine Clarkson likened Kent inhabitants as "the sort of people who arrived in England in the back of a refrigerated truck or clinging to the underside of a Eurostar train" and the Isle of Sheppey (admittedly not the prettiest place in the county) as "Mostly a caravan site. There are thousands of thousands of mobile homes, all of which I suspect belong to former London cabbies, the only people on Earth with the knowledge to get there before it's time to turn round and come home again. Now they've managed to upset India with the Top Gear special with their "toilet humour". This on top of the Mexican debacle and Clarkson's comments on The One Show. I know it's just Clarkson being Clarkson but Isn't it about time the BBC called time-out and put him and his cohorts back in the box before they do some real damage and mark it "Do not open again - EVER"?
I'm not the sort of person who delights in taking umbrage at things that have been broadcast, and in general have enjoyed Top Gear over the years. The desert special and the north pole one were both excellent; since the florida to new orleans one the emphasis seems to have been more on offending the locals wherever the special is set. I was particularly disappointed by the India special as I feel they missed a great opportunity to do a really interesting program in a truly fascinating country. The stunts they organised were pretty pathetic and unnecessary - the best bits of the show were the hillclimb and the night drive. The cars were destroyed not by extreme driving conditions but by the deliberate vandalism of their modifications. I don't know if the program was more insulting to India, or to the viewer's intelligence.
