BBC rant ‘was all meant in jest’, declares Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson has described the past week as “turbulent” and claimed that he was joking when he appeared to criticise BBC bosses in an expletive-laden rant at a charity event.

The suspended Top Gear presenter said he woke up on Friday to the news his on-stage speech at the charity gala for young people at the Roundhouse, north London, the previous evening had been videoed, and was told off by his lawyer.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Clarkson said it had all been in good humour. He wrote: “But it was all meant in jest and anyway it worked.