Search the Community

Clarkson comment complaints top 500 1 hour 40 mins ago The BBC said complaints about the Top Gear show in which Jeremy Clarkson joked about murdering prostitutes have risen to more than 500. Clarkson comment complaints top 500 The Top Gear presenter, 48, made the quip about lorry drivers killing sex workers on Sunday's BBC2 show. As he completed a lorry-driving task, he said: "This is a hard job and I'm not just saying that to win favour with lorry drivers, it's a hard job. Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day." His comments come after serial killer Steve Wright was convicted in February of murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich. Wright was a former lorry driver, as well as pub landlord and forklift truck driver. Clarkson's joke, made before the watershed, had sparked 188 complaints to the BBC by Monday morning, out of what the Corporation said was seven million viewers. The Iceni Project, a charity which had helped some of the murdered prostitutes in Ipswich, previously criticised the remark. The group's director, Brian Tobin, said: "I just think it was highly distasteful and insensitive." Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said it had been contacted by viewers angry at the remarks. The complaints were being assessed against the Broadcasting Code before a decision was made whether or not to investigate. But others held different views, including Eddie Stobart chief executive Andrew Tinkler, who said the reference was used to comically exaggerate an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving. He said: "They were just having a laugh." A BBC spokesman said: "The vast majority of Top Gear viewers have clear expectations of Jeremy Clarkson's long-established and frequently provocative on-screen persona. This particular reference was used to comically exaggerate and make ridiculous an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving, and was not intended to cause offence." From BTYahoo news