Clarkson murder joke complaints top 500

The BBC today said complaints about the Top Gear show in which Jeremy Clarkson joked about murdering prostitutes have risen to more than 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.

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"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.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who killed 13 women, was also a truck driver.

Clarkson's joke, made before the watershed, had sparked 188 complaints to the BBC by yesterday 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."

Speaking for campaigning group All Women Count, Cari Mitchell has said: "It was a truly heartless comment."

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."

Will Shiers, editor of Truck & Driver magazine, believed most of the UK's drivers who saw the programme loved it.

He said: "On the whole I thought the show was really entertaining."

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."

The remarks come after a prank carried out by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand on Brand's Radio 2 show led to the controller of the station, Lesley Douglas, resigning.

Ross was suspended for three months without pay and Brand also resigned over the incident, in which the pair left a message on Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs's answer machine claiming Brand had slept with his granddaughter.