Jeremy Clarkson

Clarkson was born in Tickhill, Doncaster (then in the West Riding of Yorkshire), the son of Shirley Gabrielle Clarkson (1934–2014), a teacher, and Edward Grenville Clarkson (1932–1994), a travelling salesman.

His parents, who ran a business selling tea cosies, put their son's name down in advance for private schools, with no idea how they were going to pay the fees.

However, shortly before his admission, when he was 13, his parents made two Paddington Bear stuffed toys for Clarkson and his sister Joanna.

These proved so popular that they started selling them through the business.

Because they were manufacturing and selling the bears without regard to intellectual property rights, upon his becoming aware of the bears Michael Bond took action through his solicitors.

Edward Clarkson travelled to London to meet Bond's lawyer.

By coincidence, he met Bond in the lift, and the two struck up an immediate rapport.

Consequently, Bond awarded the Clarksons the licensing of the bear rights throughout the world, with the family eventually selling to Britain's then leading toystore, Hamleys.

The income from this success enabled the Clarksons to be able to pay the fees for Jeremy to attend Hill House School, Doncaster, and later Repton School.

Clarkson has stated he was deeply unhappy at Repton School, saying that he had been a "suicidal wreck" there, having experienced extreme bullying.

He alleged that:

"I suffered many terrible things. I was thrown on an hourly basis into the ice plunge pool, dragged from my bed in the middle of the night and beaten, made to lick the lavatories clean and all the usual humiliations that... turn a small boy into a gibbering, sobbing, suicidal wreck... they glued my records together, snapped my compass, ate my biscuits, defecated in my tuck box and they cut my trousers in half."

According to his own account, he was expelled from Repton School for "drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself."

He famously left with one C and two U (fail) grades at A level.

Clarkson attended Repton alongside Formula One engineer Adrian Newey and former Top Gear Executive Producer Andy Wilman.

He played the role of a preparatory school pupil, Atkinson, in a BBC radio Children's Hour serial adaptation of Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings novels until his voice broke.

Clarkson's first job was as a travelling salesman for his parents' business, selling Paddington Bear toys.

He later trained as a journalist with the Rotherham Advertiser, before also writing for the Rochdale Observer, Wolverhampton Express and Star, Lincolnshire Life, Shropshire Star and the Associated Kent Newspapers.

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, and writer who specialises in motoring.

He is best known for the motoring programmes Top Gear and The Grand Tour alongside Richard Hammond and James May.

He also currently writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun.

In 1984, Clarkson formed the Motoring Press Agency (MPA), in which, with fellow motoring journalist Jonathan Gill, he conducted road tests for local newspapers and automotive magazines.

This developed into articles for publications such as Performance Car.

In 1987, Clarkson wrote for Amstrad Computer User and compiled Amstrad CPC game reviews.

Clarkson writes regular columns in the tabloid newspaper The Sun, and for the broadsheet newspaper The Sunday Times.

His columns in the Times are republished in The Weekend Australian newspaper.

He also writes for the "Wheels" section of the Toronto Star.

He has written humorous books about cars and several other subjects, with many of his books being collections of articles that he has written for The Sunday Times.

From a career as a local journalist in northern England, Clarkson Rose to public prominence as a presenter of the original format of Top Gear in 1988.

Since the mid-1990s, he has become a recognised public personality, regularly appearing on British television presenting his own shows for BBC and appearing as a guest on other shows.

As well as motoring, Clarkson has produced programmes and books on subjects such as history and engineering.

He has regularly written for Top Gear magazine since its launch in 1993.

In 1998, he hosted the first series of Robot Wars, and from 1998 to 2000 he also hosted his own talk show, Clarkson.

In 2015, the BBC elected not to renew Clarkson's contract after he assaulted a Top Gear producer while filming on location.

That year, Clarkson and his Top Gear co-presenters and producer Andy Wilman formed the production company W. Chump & Sons to produce The Grand Tour for Amazon Prime Video.

Clarkson's opinionated but humorous tongue-in-cheek writing and presenting style has often provoked a public reaction.

His actions, both privately and as a Top Gear presenter, have also sometimes resulted in criticism from the media, politicians, pressure groups, and the public.

He also has a significant public following, being credited as a major factor in the resurgence of Top Gear as one of the most popular shows on the BBC.

When writing in 2015 in his final column for Top Gear magazine, he credited the Shropshire Star as his first outlet as a motoring columnist: "I started small, on the Shropshire Star with little Peugeots and Fiats and worked my way up to Ford Granadas and Rovers until, after about seven years, I was allowed to drive an Aston Martin Lagonda... It was 10 years before I drove my first Lamborghini."

Since 2018, Clarkson has hosted the ITV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.