TG & Jeremy Clarkson: Here's What I Saw When I Worked ...
Mar 13, 2015 9:32:01 GMT
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Post by RedMoon11 on Mar 13, 2015 9:32:01 GMT
Top Gear And Jeremy Clarkson: Here's What I Saw When I Worked On The Show
Ian Morris
Contributor 3/12/2015 @ 7:41AM
Context: Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended from Top Gear, the BBC’s motoring show, and one of its biggest exports. The reason? It is claimed he had a “fracas” with a producer which some British papers are claiming was physical. As a result of his suspension, Top Gear’s current run has been halted, and the show may lose its main host.
Before I became a technology journalist I worked at the BBC for many years. During that time I was lucky enough to work on Top Gear. My job was to maintain the BBC’s official website. In the past I haven’t written much about my time there, but now seems like as good a time as any to talk about what it is like to work on Top Gear.
To do my job I used to go to the Top Gear studio near Guildford. Recording tended to start around 2pm and would usually run for a few hours. During this time everyone is kept in a large aircraft hangar at Dunsfold Park. It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, which is why you see people either dressed in thick coats, or sweating in virtually nothing. The shooting is bearable for the public because there are nice cars, and the hosts chat with them. This is a total rarity in TV, but if you go to a Top Gear recording, you will be able to talk to the presenters.
So, what of those guys Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond? Well, I can only speak about my experience, but all of them were terrific to me. James May once looked like he’d shoot me when I laughed at something he said about his cat. I thought he was joking, he wasn’t.
Of course there were stories of some horror from other members of the production team. I remember one of the early US shoots being a particular nightmare, with some crew members complaining that Jeremy was insisting on things being done his way, and that led to the crew being exhausted and not stopping for food when they needed it. Jeremy also wanted to put a dead cow on the roof of the car, and the results of that were pretty grim.
Even so, most people were not overly critical of Clarkson, even though he was sometimes belligerent and hard to manage – most talent can be, especially at his level. And it is worth mentioning that Top Gear in its current form was Clarkson’s show, his format an idea that he worked on with Andy Wilman to revitalise one of the BBC’s well-known but very tired brands.
Here’s what’s most striking about the Top Gear team though: it’s a family. I’ve worked on lots of TV productions over the years. Mostly, I’ve done this as web support, so I’ve had a slightly different take to those actually producing the shows. Top Gear was one of the most amazingly welcoming and friendly teams I’ve ever encountered.
Chief among the people who was welcoming is the producer that it is alleged Clarkson had an argument with. Back then Oisin Tymon was more junior, but just utterly lovely to me, and everyone else. The fact that he’s been involved for so long makes this bust up seem even more odd. I started on Top Gear when the show was in its third season in 2003, Oisin either started around then, or very slightly after. He’s being working with Clarkson now for more than 10 years.
It’s the team aspect of this that makes the story of Jeremy arguing with, and then if British press reports are to be believed, hitting Tymon. Jeremy was always very protective of the team, and you can see this in the interviews he gave following the crew’s swift exit from Argentina recently where he was genuinely concerned for the people hurt.
While I wouldn’t seek to suggest there’s ever an excuse for hitting someone, I also know from experience that, if you do, an apology can often sort the problem out. I don’t know about how close Clarkson and Tymon are. My experience with the producers was that they were pretty involved with the on-screen talent. It may be that there was a fight, it was resolved between the two of them but someone else reported it.
What was the worst thing that I ever saw Jeremy Clarkson do in the time I worked there? Not much, he hated the CD I left in the rental car I lent him to drive to the test track, and when I jokingly asked him what he thought, he declared with an expletive that he wasn’t a fan. I didn’t expect anything else really.
One thing’s for sure, whatever did or did not happen, Clarkson will have received phone calls from May, Hammond and the show’s executive producer Andy Wilman, calling him every name under the sun. Don’t forget, for all the surface calm that Clarkson is putting out on Twitter at the moment, a whole industry exists around Top Gear. It’s worth £50million to the BBC in foreign revenue and spin-offs. It’s the world’s largest factual TV show, and it’s shown all over the world and is frequently one of the most-downloaded TV shows online.
The team, with whom Clarkson is close, also stand to lose their jobs and the BBC one of its highest rated TV shows. That said, if someone was punched it puts the BBC in a near-impossible situation. It can’t very well keep him, while telling other staff that if they are involved in a physical altercation they will be immediately dismissed.
My time at Top Gear is among my happiest memories, even including the time that I had an hour-long phone call from Andy Wilman that got fairly heated over an broken online vote. That’s a story for another day though. Top Gear production team members are, and always have been, at the top of their professional game and friendly with it.
And that leads me to an odd conclusion. Namely, that perhaps those involved – like Clarkson – are bored. The show has run for longer than anyone, including them, expected. Bored people can, sometimes, look for ways to put an end to things, and if Jeremy wants to go and work for Sky making a different show, then belligerently arguing with the BBC and his producers is one way to get out. It’s also important to note that all three presenters were weeks off signing new contracts that would lock them into the show for three more years.
No matter what the reasons though, I liked Oisin Tymon a great deal. He was a good person, and a gentle soul, anyone hitting him would earn my contempt, even if that person is someone I’ve looked up to for a long time. For that reason, I’m still hoping none of it is as bad as the press is making out.
If you have questions about my time on Top Gear, put them in the comments and I’ll try and answer them.
www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2015/03/12/top-gear-and-jeremy-clarkson-heres-what-i-saw-when-i-worked-on-the-show/
*There are four behind the scenes pix at the link*
Ian Morris
Contributor 3/12/2015 @ 7:41AM
Context: Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended from Top Gear, the BBC’s motoring show, and one of its biggest exports. The reason? It is claimed he had a “fracas” with a producer which some British papers are claiming was physical. As a result of his suspension, Top Gear’s current run has been halted, and the show may lose its main host.
Before I became a technology journalist I worked at the BBC for many years. During that time I was lucky enough to work on Top Gear. My job was to maintain the BBC’s official website. In the past I haven’t written much about my time there, but now seems like as good a time as any to talk about what it is like to work on Top Gear.
To do my job I used to go to the Top Gear studio near Guildford. Recording tended to start around 2pm and would usually run for a few hours. During this time everyone is kept in a large aircraft hangar at Dunsfold Park. It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, which is why you see people either dressed in thick coats, or sweating in virtually nothing. The shooting is bearable for the public because there are nice cars, and the hosts chat with them. This is a total rarity in TV, but if you go to a Top Gear recording, you will be able to talk to the presenters.
So, what of those guys Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond? Well, I can only speak about my experience, but all of them were terrific to me. James May once looked like he’d shoot me when I laughed at something he said about his cat. I thought he was joking, he wasn’t.
Of course there were stories of some horror from other members of the production team. I remember one of the early US shoots being a particular nightmare, with some crew members complaining that Jeremy was insisting on things being done his way, and that led to the crew being exhausted and not stopping for food when they needed it. Jeremy also wanted to put a dead cow on the roof of the car, and the results of that were pretty grim.
Even so, most people were not overly critical of Clarkson, even though he was sometimes belligerent and hard to manage – most talent can be, especially at his level. And it is worth mentioning that Top Gear in its current form was Clarkson’s show, his format an idea that he worked on with Andy Wilman to revitalise one of the BBC’s well-known but very tired brands.
Here’s what’s most striking about the Top Gear team though: it’s a family. I’ve worked on lots of TV productions over the years. Mostly, I’ve done this as web support, so I’ve had a slightly different take to those actually producing the shows. Top Gear was one of the most amazingly welcoming and friendly teams I’ve ever encountered.
Chief among the people who was welcoming is the producer that it is alleged Clarkson had an argument with. Back then Oisin Tymon was more junior, but just utterly lovely to me, and everyone else. The fact that he’s been involved for so long makes this bust up seem even more odd. I started on Top Gear when the show was in its third season in 2003, Oisin either started around then, or very slightly after. He’s being working with Clarkson now for more than 10 years.
It’s the team aspect of this that makes the story of Jeremy arguing with, and then if British press reports are to be believed, hitting Tymon. Jeremy was always very protective of the team, and you can see this in the interviews he gave following the crew’s swift exit from Argentina recently where he was genuinely concerned for the people hurt.
While I wouldn’t seek to suggest there’s ever an excuse for hitting someone, I also know from experience that, if you do, an apology can often sort the problem out. I don’t know about how close Clarkson and Tymon are. My experience with the producers was that they were pretty involved with the on-screen talent. It may be that there was a fight, it was resolved between the two of them but someone else reported it.
What was the worst thing that I ever saw Jeremy Clarkson do in the time I worked there? Not much, he hated the CD I left in the rental car I lent him to drive to the test track, and when I jokingly asked him what he thought, he declared with an expletive that he wasn’t a fan. I didn’t expect anything else really.
One thing’s for sure, whatever did or did not happen, Clarkson will have received phone calls from May, Hammond and the show’s executive producer Andy Wilman, calling him every name under the sun. Don’t forget, for all the surface calm that Clarkson is putting out on Twitter at the moment, a whole industry exists around Top Gear. It’s worth £50million to the BBC in foreign revenue and spin-offs. It’s the world’s largest factual TV show, and it’s shown all over the world and is frequently one of the most-downloaded TV shows online.
The team, with whom Clarkson is close, also stand to lose their jobs and the BBC one of its highest rated TV shows. That said, if someone was punched it puts the BBC in a near-impossible situation. It can’t very well keep him, while telling other staff that if they are involved in a physical altercation they will be immediately dismissed.
My time at Top Gear is among my happiest memories, even including the time that I had an hour-long phone call from Andy Wilman that got fairly heated over an broken online vote. That’s a story for another day though. Top Gear production team members are, and always have been, at the top of their professional game and friendly with it.
And that leads me to an odd conclusion. Namely, that perhaps those involved – like Clarkson – are bored. The show has run for longer than anyone, including them, expected. Bored people can, sometimes, look for ways to put an end to things, and if Jeremy wants to go and work for Sky making a different show, then belligerently arguing with the BBC and his producers is one way to get out. It’s also important to note that all three presenters were weeks off signing new contracts that would lock them into the show for three more years.
No matter what the reasons though, I liked Oisin Tymon a great deal. He was a good person, and a gentle soul, anyone hitting him would earn my contempt, even if that person is someone I’ve looked up to for a long time. For that reason, I’m still hoping none of it is as bad as the press is making out.
If you have questions about my time on Top Gear, put them in the comments and I’ll try and answer them.
www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2015/03/12/top-gear-and-jeremy-clarkson-heres-what-i-saw-when-i-worked-on-the-show/
*There are four behind the scenes pix at the link*
