Top Gear
presenter says his efforts to obscure word while reciting eeny meeny miny moe
'weren't quite good enough'
theguardian.com,
Josh Halliday, Nicholas Watt and Kevin Rawlinson, Thursday 1 May 2014
 |
| Jeremy Clarkson came under fire after apparently using the N-word in unbroadcast footage from the BBC's Top Gear. Photograph: Ben Stansall/PA |
Jeremy Clarkson has begged viewers' forgiveness after he appeared to use the N-word
during filming of his BBC programme Top Gear.
In a video statement posted online on Thursday, he said that he had tried to obscure the
word when reciting the "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" nursery rhyme to
chose between two cars, but that his efforts to do so "weren't quite good
enough".
Clarkson
had previously issued a robust denial of the allegation, telling his 3.2
million Twitter followers: "I did not use the N-word. Never use it. The
Mirror has gone way too far this time."
But footage
of the incident was later posted on The Daily Mirror website. In it Clarkson
recites the beginning of the children's nursery rhyme "eeny, meeny, miny,
moe" before apparently mumbling: "Catch a nigger by his toe."
His apology
came after a day of growing calls for the BBC to sack him. The corporation
issued a strongly worded statement saying: "Jeremy Clarkson has set out
the background to this regrettable episode. We have made it absolutely clear to
him, the standards the BBC expects on air and off. We have left him in no doubt
about how seriously we view this.".
Downing
Street condemned any use of the word, saying that David Cameron – a friend of
Clarkson's – would "certainly not" use it.
Aliya
Mohammed, the chief executive of Race Equality First, called for immediate
action from the BBC.
She said:
"I am appalled at yet another open display of racism from Clarkson. How
many racist comments will the BBC allow from the presenter? It makes me
question whether Clarkson feels it would be acceptable because he thinks
viewers and others within the BBC share his views.
"Racism
is illegal and it has no place in modern society. I urge as many people as
possible to show their condemnation of this abhorrent display of racism. A
public personality should set an example to viewers and Clarkson is clearly a
very bad example."
Lawyers for
the Indian-born actor Somi Guha, who appeared in The Bill and other television
shows, made a formal complaint to the BBC Trust as calls for Clarkson to be
sacked gathered pace. In the letter, which was also sent to the media regulator
Ofcom and has been seen by the Guardian, the lawyer Lawrence Davies demanded an
external investigation into how the offensive language had come to be edited
out of the show and whether Clarkson had been reprimanded.
Davies,
director of the law firm Equal Justice Solicitors, said Clarkson would be
dismissed in any other line of work. "It's appalling. He's a repeat
offender and should be sacked," he said.
"If he
was a Ukip councillor in a private meeting I believe they would suspend or
dismiss him. If he was the owner of an American basketball team he would be
fined and banned. But the BBC consider themselves unaccountable on the issue of
racism."
The prime
minister's spokesman said: "In terms of any usage of that word, that would
be quite wrong."
He added
that the BBC would be investigating the claims. "If there are those types
of reports and allegations I'm sure that is something the BBC will look
at."
Clarkson,
who earned more than £14m last year for his Top Gear work, is understood to
have spoken to senior BBC figures on Thursday morning as part of the
corporation's investigation into the allegations.
Executives
learned about the controversy only when a preview of the Mirror's front page
was published online on Wednesday night.
Clarkson's
Top Gear co-host James May earlier leapt to the star's defence. May told his 1.4 million Twitter followers: "Jeremy Clarkson is not a racist. He is a
monumental bellend and many other things, but not a racist. I wouldn't work with
one. #ThatIsAll."
Piers
Morgan, the former CNN presenter with a long history of feuding with Clarkson,
led calls on Twitter for him to be dismissed. He said Clarkson should be
"TV toast", and added: "Ron Atkinson was fired by @ITV for using
the N-word. Don't see how the BBC can avoid firing @JeremyClarkson if he did
the same … In America, he'd be fired by now."
The
programme, aired in February 2013, showed Clarkson standing between a Toyota
GT86 and a Subaru BRZ and saying: "Both cost the same, they have the same
bodies and the same interiors with the same equipment.
"They
are even built by the same people in the same factory. You might imagine then
that it's quite hard to choose between them, but actually, it isn't. Watch,
because this is how you do it."
In the
unaired footage – which was later passed to the Mirror – the presenter then
recites the children's counting rhyme and appears to use the N-word under his
breath before pointing at the Toyota and shrugging: "Toyota it is."
The offensive term was removed from the episode, according to the Mirror. In
the broadcast version, Clarkson recited the rhyme but this time used the word
"teacher".
Clarkson's
full apology
"Ordinarily
I don't respond to newspaper allegations but on this occasion I feel I must
make an exception. A couple of years ago I recorded an item for Top Gear in
which I quote the rhyme "eeny, meeny, miny, moe". Of course, I was
well aware that in the best-known version of this rhyme there is a racist
expression that I was extremely keen to avoid. The full rushes show that I did
three takes. In two, I mumbled where the offensive word would normally occur
and in the third I replaced it altogether with the word teacher. Now when I
viewed this footage several weeks later I realised that in one of the mumbled
versions if you listen very carefully with the sound turned right up it did
appear that I'd actually used the word I was trying to obscure. I was mortified
by this, horrified. It is a word I loathe and I did everything in my power to
make sure that that version did not appear in the programme that was
transmitted.
"I
have here the note that was sent at the time to the production office and it
says: 'I didn't use the N-word here but I've just listened through my
headphones and it sounds like I did. Is there another take that we could
use?'
"Please
be assured I did everything in my power to not use that word, as I'm sitting
here begging your forgiveness for the fact my efforts obviously weren't quite
good enough, thank you."
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.