Jeremy Clarkson offered role in Russian comedy about a man who turns into a cat

Who needs Top Gear when you can star in hot new sitcom Puss in Boots?

Jess Denham
Wednesday 29 April 2015 11:41 BST
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Jeremy Clarkson has been offered a bizarre role in a Russian comedy
Jeremy Clarkson has been offered a bizarre role in a Russian comedy (Rex Features)

Jeremy Clarkson might have lost his job on Top Gear but he has now been offered a comedy role, so perhaps things are looking up.

The controversial presenter has been approached to star as an “older foreigner” in a new Russian sitcom about a man who turns into a cat.

The team behind Kot V Sapogakh, which translates to Puss in Boots, are keen to get Clarkson on board, despite probably hearing all about the notorious “fracas” that upended his BBC career.

“We offered the role of a foreigner to Clarkson,” producer Armen Manasaryan told The Hollywood Reporter. “He hasn’t given us a definitive answer yet. We are in talks.”

Clarkson is also pondering a job offer from TV station Zvezda, owned by the Russian Ministry of Defence. The station’s website purports to have been given a response by Daniel Rix, a supposed spokesman for Clarkson.

In Rix's response to the open letter, in which his email address has been blurred out, he wrote: “I can only imagine what an episode of Russian Top Gear would look like. It could feature a Tsar in a reasonably priced car!”

The 55-year-old’s contract with the BBC was not renewed after an investigation found he had punched a Top Gear producer over the lack of hot food in a hotel.

“For me, a line has been crossed,” BBC director general Tony Hall said in a statement last month. “There cannot be one rule for one and one rule for another dictated by either rank, or public relations and commercial considerations.”

Clarkson and his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May had been on the brink of signing new three-year-contracts with the hit motoring series.

Hammond and May will not return to Top Gear without Clarkson (Getty Images)

Whether or not Clarkson sees his future in a bizarre show about a cat-man remains to be seen. Probably unlikely, but who are we to judge.

Kevin Spacey has signed up to play a businessman who finds himself trapped in a cat’s body in upcoming movie Nine Lives after all.

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