I have held my silence all the way through this as I have to confess to enjoying Top Gear..which probably means that I will be drummed out of the forum
However, whatever you may think of him, a fact that I learnt about one of the programs quite suprised me and made me respect Clarkson just a tad..
Remember the car v train v motorbike race from London To Edinburgh..well the Train was a certain A1 Pacific in Apple Green of fairly recent construction. I have it on very good authority ( from the Director of engineering for the A1 trust who I shared the footplate with last year ) that not only was the race Genuine but Clarkson really did stick it out for the whole distance ( the official crew where changed twice !! ) The A1 guys reckoned he would only last as far as Grantham !! Having been on the footplate at main line speeds I can assure you that it is hot/noisy/dangerous/ and not somewhere you would want to spend a long time.
The good thing was that the programe gave Tornado a massive PR boost and many people now call it the "Top Gear Train".
However, a slightly "sad" note, the last time I played on the footplate I was told the story of a young man who had gained access to the cab when she was in maintenance and was found to be sitting in the fireman's seat. When asked what he was doing he replied " I just wanted to sit in the same seat as Jeremy Clarkson "
Oh dear....