Topic: BBC star faces call for sack in new row.

[mistybear]

                                                          BBC star faces call for sack in new row.

LONDON (AFP) — A British lawmaker called Thursday for a controversial BBC presenter to be sacked, as a growing number of viewers complained about remarks he made in a new row rocking the broadcasting giant.

More than 1,800 people have complained about the comments, in which the notoriously-provocative frontman of the cult show "Top Gear" made fun of lorry drivers, according to a BBC spokeswoman.

On the latest edition of the show Sunday, Jeremy Clarkson crashed a lorry through a brick wall for a stunt, and commented: "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," added the 48-year-old.

Earlier this year a former lorry driver, Steve Wright, was convicted of murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich, southeastern England, in a case which attracted a huge amount of publicity.

Chris Mole, a lawmaker from the governing Labour Party who represents the constituency where Wright committed the murders, said Clarkson should be dismissed.

"The murders in my constituency in 2006 were horrific and the community has spent a lot of time pulling together to respond constructively to such dreadful events," he wrote in a letter to BBC director general Mark Thompson.

"For Mr Clarkson to make light of murder in any circumstance must be a dismissible offence," he added.

The BBC, which has said Clarkson's remarks were intended to make fun of "an unfair urban myth about the world of lorry driving," said that as well as complaints it had received 150 calls in support of the presenter.

Meanwhile an online games developer unveiled a new game which gives lorry drivers the chance to run down and "kill" Clarkson. It allows players to control an animated Clarkson being chased by angry truckers.

"Jeremy Clarkson is a loveable rogue, but we think he's overstepped the mark this time. So we figured we'd give truckers the chance for revenge," said Sadia Chishti of T-Enterprise, designer of the game "Run Clarkson Run."

The Clarkson row came after Lesley Douglas, the head of the BBC's most popular radio station Radio Two, quit last week over offensive on-air comments by top presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand.

Brand resigned and Ross has been suspended for 12 weeks over the comments, made in a phone prank played on veteran actor Andrew Sachs, who starred in the 1970s comedy "Fawlty Towers."

LINK

[Simon]

I think this has been blown out of all proportion on the back of the Ross / Brand episode, and there's no way Clarkson should go over this.

[mistybear]

We have Top Gear here, I think it's our own version now though. I don't watch it, but I hear that's very popular.

It sounds more like a bad taste joke, than anything else. I guess truckies are a sensitive bunch. 

[Simon]

It's not the truckers who are creating, that's the stupid part of all this.  It's people going out of their way to find things to be 'offended' about.

[Clive]

Clarkson for PM.   

[daveeb]

It's people going out of their way to find things to be 'offended' about.

Yes there do seem to be rather a lot of "retrospective" complainants at the moment. I wish i had that much time on my hands 

[Serenity]

I wish i had that much time on my hands 

You've hit the nail on the head Dave, these so called 'offended' complainants will be the same idiots who moaned about Ross & Brand. I bet 85% of them never watch or listen to all 3 presenters  but are so narrow minded, miserable boring little twerps who just sit there festering thinking of ways to make other people's lives a misery! The way things are going we shall have no satirical programmes left... Mock the Week has already taken a hit, how long before that and HIGNFY is taken off the airwaves 

[Simon]

Couldn't have put it better myself, Bev!

[chorleydave]

Perhaps once Nu-Labour has gone, the brainwashed sheep, known commonly as the population of Britain, might learn how to chill out again.