The Odyssey, The Clarkson and The BEEB
Well, the BBC has let Jeremy Clarkson go, by announcing they will not renew his contract. The BBC created the monster colloquially known as Clarkson and I believe they should take at least some of the responsibility for his actions. If you take a guy, any guy and give him his own TV show, which is essentially premised on his natural talent to be humorously obnoxious, then encourage him to be obnoxious, can you really be that upset when he does something, well, obnoxious? We are all only human.
The BBC is doing what they feel they need to do, to be fair it is what they have to do, they are state controlled broadcaster and Clarkson did punch a guy, plus don’t get me wrong, I feel for the Irish producer on the show, who wouldn’t? But I come back to what I said earlier, these people are living in a bubble, a bubble created, in part, by the BBC for ratings. It is difficult for people like you and me to get our heads around how people like Clarkson live. I don’t begrudge him it one bit. I’m sure the life of luxury and success these poor celebrities live has its own pit-falls. It’s just difficult to see these pit-falls at the moment from behind the outstanding bills on my desk.
These creatures are created by media organizations for our entertainment and the process works, we like to see someone say and do the things we inevitably can’t. What has happened with Top Gear was like a Greek tragedy, we could see it happening, we wish it wasn’t going to happen but ultimately, it was always going to happen. He was designed that way, the BBC were designed to react that way, it was inevitable. Perhaps now though, the BEEB after quieting their critics and following their obligations (or their role in the story) may sneakily bring back Mr. Clarkson into the fold.
To be honest, if we got rid of celebrities from our TV screens every time they acted like prats than we would left with a 24 hour test card. Of course, knowing how are media love the monsters they make, they will probably produce ‘When good TV Celebrities go bad’, the new “reality” TV show instead. I can see it now and if I’m honest, it could be a success because it would have no shortage of available contestants.
