Jeremy Clarkson should not have been sacked following Top Gear 'fracas', says ex-BBC boss

'I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose'

Clarkson reportedly ordered in a range rover 'just so he could look at it' ( Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Former Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, has said the broadcaster should not have sacked Jeremy Clarkson following his infamous “fracas” with a producer on the set of Top Gear.

"Clarkson can be a deeply objectionable individual, and I say that as a friend," Thompson told The Sunday Times. "I don't think people should punch their colleagues. It's hard to keep them if they do. But I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose.

"He spoke to people who didn't find much else in the BBC. The fact no-one could ever quite believe the BBC allowed Top Gear to go out was a precious thing to hang on to. As a fan, I regret its passing.”

Soon after Clarkson was fired for punching the producer over a cold meat platter - James May and Richard Hammond left the show soon after - the search began for another presenter.

The BBC found Matt LeBlanc, who Thompson called “promising”, and BBC Radio 2 presenter Chris Martin, who didn’t make a great impression on the ex-BBC boss.

"Chris Evans is a great broadcaster," he told the paper. "I couldn't work out why he didn't impersonate Chris Evans, rather than Jeremy Clarkson.”

In the same interview, Thompson also detailed other times he had to deal with Clarkson’s media outbursts: "Clarkson phoned up out of the blue when I was on a day off. His first words were, 'I won't apologise, I don't care what you say, I won’t'.

"I said, 'Er, why would I want you to apologise?' He told me that he'd just called Gordon Brown, who was then prime minister, a 'one-eyed Scottish idiot' and a 'c**t'. We agreed that he would apologise for calling him ‘one-eyed'."

Meanwhile, Clarkson will be appearing alongside May and Hammond in the Amazon Prime show The Grand Tour, the first clip from which was recently released.