It is the first time I have ever heard a producer called a “junior employee.” Does the term producer mean something different in the U.K.? Because in Hollywood it means boss.
I wonder if this done on purpose by Clarkson, perhaps in cahoots with the other two to gain more creative freedom and take their show elsewhere?
The timing seems awfully convienent and a place like the BBC can probably be played like a fiddle once you get familiar with how they operate.
Yep, I think it’s a textbook “suicide by cop”.
Telegraph says “confirmed” Clarkson has been sacked.
I’m sad.
From the BBC website Jeremy Clarkson dropped from Top Gear, BBC confirms - BBC News
“An internal investigation began last week, led by Ken MacQuarrie, the director of BBC Scotland.
It found that Mr Tymon took himself to hospital after he was subject to an “unprovoked physical and verbal attack”.
“During the physical attack Oisin Tymon was struck, resulting in swelling and bleeding to his lip. The verbal abuse was sustained over a longer period, both at the time of the physical attack and subsequently.”
The verbal abuse “contained the strongest expletives and threats to sack” Mr Tymon, who believed he had lost his job, Mr MacQuarrie noted in his report.
The “physical attack lasted around 30 seconds and was halted by the intervention of a witness,” he added.”
TCMF-2L
Loach
In Hollywood (and elsewhere) “Producer” can mean a lot of things. In a studio funded project the producer may be the one putting forward the finance. They have the initial say on starting a project. Plus the theoretical ability to close a project down.
However each film is collaborative so directors and star actors (who will possibly be given executive producer credits anyway) can carry as just as much weight as a named producer. Plus, once a project is started and money has been spent, everyone wants to keep the project going.
Then there are also producer credits given for legal, vanity and financial reasons. Check out any big film and you will see dozens of producer credits.
The more junior producers are employed on a project to deal with any and all issues that need to be dealt with to allow the creative vision to be achieved. An on set producer will be watching the budget and signing cheques, ensuring props, crew and talent arrive and, as with Top Gear, making sure food is available.
In this specific matter Oisin Tymon - despite being described as a “senior BBC producer” - was employed by the BBC to assist in the creation of a Top Gear episode dealing with all sorts of what you might call minor housekeeping issues.
As the renowned star of the show Jeremy Clarkson was far more senior, at least, far more important than a faceless producer and could conceivably have had him sacked. As he had threatened.
The far more senior staff in this case are Danny Cohen (job title Director of Television at the BBC) and Tony Hall (job title Director General of the BBC.) Even they have to balance enforcing workplace standards of behaviour with indulging the tantrums of a proven to be lucrative talent.
TCMF-2L
I don’t give a flying fuck how entertaining Clarkson is.
I don’t care how much value he brings to my licence fee.
He punched a subordinate in the mouth, had to be dragged off, then screamed and shouted at him so an entire hotel could hear.
So he handed himself in.
He’s a dick.
If you signed that bloody petition, and don’t regret it now the whole story is out.
You’re a dick too.
I don’t know how calculated it all was. But, yeah, it does feel an awful lot like he was trying to get himself sacked. He’s been nudging the line with offensive comments on Top Gear for a while now. He has admitted that he was on final warning. From earlier comments in the media, he has seemed resigned to it being a matter of when, not if. Then, for whatever reason, it wasn’t happening quickly enough for him, and he decided to brute force the issue.
There’s a bit of the obstinate four year old child pushing the breakable object further and further towards the edge of the table, while their parents are telling them to stop, about the whole thing.
Although, really, I think he could have gone on making slightly racist jokes on Top Gear forever, and never actually manage to get sacked over that. Punching your producer is obviously in a different sort of category. I guess he felt he had to ratchet the misbehaving up a notch.
Come on. It’s bad enough to hit someone in a fit of spoilt anger. But you’re suggesting that the assault plus 20 min tirade was a premeditated strategy; that he sent a guy to hospital purely as a means of adjusting his employment status. That makes Clarkson a borderline psychopath. Is that really a better explanation than that he’s an entitled arsehole?
This isn’t a win for Clarkson. He might yet come out of it with a Netflix deal or some such, but this is not where he wanted to be three weeks ago. Christ, if he wanted out, all he had to do was not renew his contract next week.
I’m hoping for an intelligent remodel of the show, it had been growing stale for years. James May has always been interested in the tech of the vehicles, -allow- him to be interesting instead of mocking him. Now the dead weight has kicked himself out, some new blood would be nice as well.
yeah, some of the excuse making on the car sites is sickening. People moan about how he had “such a stressful job, with long hours” as though that excuses assaulting someone over a trivial matter. Look, I actually work in the auto industry and I’ve been on new model launches. That’s pretty damn stressful too; you’re often away from home for an extended period of time, you’re stuck at an assembly plant day in and day out either sitting in an ad-hoc office area or down on the line trying to work on build issues, and you’re there for a lot more than 8 hours a day. And if you physically assaulted someone at all, you would be placed on immediate leave and escorted from the premises by security and likely handed over to the police. After a (very short) investigation, you would be fired.
but if you have a popular TV show, it’s just part of the job.
This seems unlikely to happen though. I (and most of the internet) think May and Hammond will refuse to go on with TGUK without Clarkson. Overwhelming theory is that the three of them will scoot off to a different network to do a different version of TGUK. Which is maybe for the best.
Regardless, Clarkson really does need to learn to not be such a buffoon/ass/bully. That shit should not be tolerated anywhere. I enjoy the show, but do not find him very likeable outside of his TV character.
And therefore TGUK would be looking to replace all of their on-air talent, immediately after canning their very popular trio.
I never miss an episode of Top Gear and really enjoyed a lot of Clarkson’s other specials. I enjoy his humour. He had to be fired. Anybody in a normal job would have been removed from their position post haste.
The argument about money and him being a star just couldn’t hold up. Not in a post Jimmy Saville* BBC.
Looking forward to the next thing he does.
*A big star for the BBC in the 70’s/80’s who got away with assaulting and raping all around him mostly because of his fame and importance.
He’s sacked. It’s official.
ETA: http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/25/world/uk-bbc-jeremy-clarkson/index.html
Is that a fair comparison? Savile sexually abused children, hospital patients, the elderly, some who were in no condition to fight back, and the BBC, police and UK government covered up the victims’ stories and made Savile (and the others) wealthy household names.
JC lost his rag and hit a guy. Yes, it’s a terrible thing to do. He should’ve been put in the sin bin, sent on an anger awareness course, banned for a few episodes, made to apologise (actually he already did that by text, email and in person) profusely whilst doing community service.
There’s an online poll and so far 88% say they won’t watch TG without the three - I certainly won’t. It brought in 50 million pounds a year for the BBC, and was watched by 350 million people. Probably the most popular tv show on the planet, those three were BIG. Big like ‘A’ listers, some of whom have had their indiscretions but continued in their careers, not dropped by their labels, film companies or sports teams.
You see punch ups in sports every day be they football, ice hockey, rugby, film and music ‘stars’ commit heinous crimes like drink-driving, politicians…well, the list is endless.
I think some perspective has been lost, TG was the biggest factual program ever. Nothing rivalled it, and JC was integral to its success.
Bullshit. this is something which would get almost all of us fired from our jobs if we did it, and likely charged with a crime.
I. Don’t. Care. I don’t understand why you think deplorable behavior like this should have less severe consequences just because you’re famous. There’s no legitimate reason for there to be one set of rules for the wealthy and famous, and another (harsher) set of rules for the rest of us.
- we’re not talking out those people here
- we’re not excusing those people either.
Top Gear was hardly “Factual.” that so many people think it is is one reason I dislike it so much.
In an odd coincidence, I was watching season 20 of Top Gear on Netflix, and I just heard Clarkson interviewing Benedict Cumberbatch, and Clarkson says “I have no idea how to fly a spaceship or punch anyone.”
I guess he learned in season 21.
‘We’ are not excusing anyone of their crimes, the industry is. It is because those ‘A’ listers who commit them - except in the most extreme of cases - are known to be doing so because, partly, of the immense pressures they’re under, partly because their creativity that enhances our media has another side, which often leads to actions that are bad for themselves. Have you ever had an assignment that will be viewed and critiqued by 350 million people, and hundreds of journalists who are trying to sell papers/clicks by being controversial?
Those people working in media give people joy, for billions of hours. They’re not an accountant or tax inspector, a waiter or blue-collar worker. They produce (sometimes, not always) interesting and engaging media that we can watch, listen to, read or see over and over again. So can our children and their children, ad infinitum.
It’s not just because he’s famous (or wealthy), it’s because he brought entertainment - about cars, an already saturated market - to hundreds of millions of people, who probably looked forward to forgetting their miserable lives for an hour. Better than dosing up on <your drug of choice>. Royal families are all rich and famous, but if they punched a subordinate I’d want them severely punished to the letter of the law. Same goes for most people, but I see the output of legitimate, game-changing artists (or scientists, or economists, or inventors) as being a part of their unique genius which I think we, as a people, should allow some leniency if they mess up.
As to your last point: I didn’t see it as a sitcom, soap, news item, cartoon, film, sports, drama, or cookery show. It had facts like brake horse power, torque, technology, valves, ceramic this and chassis that, and more subjective opinions like how a car felt or behaved. I’d call that factual, but it was also a lot of other things. What genre would you call it?
I binge watched Top Gear a few years back and loved it. I just started watching the newer seasons, and I now realize just how full of crap the show is. The “races” they do aren’t real races, the things they do on their road trips are heavily scripted, and some of the funniest moments are all set up, managed, and not spontaneous at all. Maybe the show has changed (I’m not likely to go back and watch the old ones again), but I find it a bit more annoying at just how … invented … it is.
That 350 million figure gets banded about a lot (including in BBC articles), but I really wonder about it. 1 in 20 of the Earth’s population watches Top Gear? I think this is in the “1 billion watch the Superbowl” territory. Top Gear gets around 6 million in the UK and, what, two million in the US. Where’s the other 342 million viewers coming from?