Filming of Patagonia Special During 2014, in September and October, filming of the
Top Gear special in
Argentina was being done by the presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, alongside a crew of 29 people, with the group using three cars for a road trip across the country and its neighbour of
Chile. However, controversy arose when an incident occurred during filming, which received extensive coverage by the media in both Britain and Argentina. Whilst the crew and presenters were travelling south to
Ushuaia, comments emerged on
Twitter which alleged that the
number plate "H982 FKL" on the
Porsche 928 GT being driven by Clarkson, was a direct reference to the
1982 Falklands War. Upon the comments being seen by one of the film crew, the number plate was substituted with one that read "H1 VAE". However, when the group arrived in
Ushuaia in
Tierra del Fuego on 2 October, in which they had planned to film in the city for three more days before continuing to Chile, a large protest had formed, consisting of Argentinian veterans of the
Falklands War who claimed the group were deliberately referencing the war, despite the change of number plate, forcing the crew and presenters to stay at a hotel while discussions commenced between the producers and representatives of the protesters to calm the tension down.
Andy Wilman, executive producer for the show, said on 2 October that "
Top Gear production purchased three cars for a forthcoming programme; to suggest that this car was either chosen for its number plate, or that an alternative number plate was substituted for the original is completely untrue." On the same day, Clarkson tweeted "For once, we did nothing wrong." Clarkson later wrote for
The Sunday Times that he "had to hide under a bed" due to "a mob howling for his blood". However, discussions failed to do anything, and with more protesters arriving and the atmosphere turning hostile, local police told the group they could not and would not give them any assistance, leading to the team making the decision of leaving. Believing the presenters were the main target of the controversy, Clarkson, Hammond and May left for
Buenos Aires alongside the women of the crew, while the rest of the team focused on driving their equipment and the cars, both the presenters' and their own, back to the border with Chile; in a statement made by May after the incident, planning was done for possible
airlifts for the crew if the journey to the border had become too dangerous, in which he and his fellow presenters assisted in planning prior to flying back to
Britain. forcing them to drive on tertiary roads. The second came when an intimidating crowd stopped them deliberately in
Tolhuin, before pelting their cars with eggs, rocks and other missiles before they could escape, resulting in two of the film crew being injured and their cars receiving minor damage. In light of the attack and believing they were a magnet for trouble, the team abandoned the presenters' cars and continued on through the night for the border; pictures show that the abandoned cars had been attacked and damaged with stones. Their third problem came when, at 2am that night, they had to find a tractor to help get the camera cars across the river and into Chile. Following the incident, the Argentine ambassador
Alicia Castro met with BBC Director of Television
Danny Cohen on 31 October 2014, and demanded a formal apology for what occurred. However, the
BBC refused to do so, making it clear that they intended to broadcast the special as a fair representation of the events that occurred. On 28 May 2015, the
BBC Trust, after investigating claims that there was a "cover-up" going on involving the use of the number plate, ruled that this was not the case and that no evidence had been provided to show that the reference to the Falklands War had been deliberate, adding it would not take further action on the matter. On 29 October, later that year,
The Guardian reported that an appeal made at the appeal courts in Argentina had successfully demanded that Judge Maria Cristina Barrionuevo was to re-open a criminal investigation she had presided over, after she had decided not to press ahead with a full-scale investigation into the crew's decision to change the Porsche's number plate. Her decision to do so was because she had felt that it had been forced to happen by "massive government and popular pressure", despite the fact that it is an offence in the country to change a vehicle's registered licence plate to another.
Jeremy Clarkson's suspension and dismissal In March 2015, the
BBC announced that it had suspended Jeremy Clarkson while it would look into an incident that had occurred during filming in
Hawes,
North Yorkshire, with the remaining episodes of the series withdrawn while they dealt with their investigations. Former
Stig,
Perry McCarthy, criticised the decision by the broadcaster to pull the episodes from the schedule. Media coverage of the matter soon revealed that Clarkson had physically and verbally abused a producer, Oisin Tymon, after being offered soup and a cold meat platter instead of the steak he wanted, and learning that the chef at the hotel they were staying at had gone home. Despite a petition starting on
Change.org on 10 March by blogger
Guido Fawkes, aimed at reversing the decision on Clarkson being suspended, and being delivered on the afternoon of 20 March to the BBC after receiving one million signatures, which made it the fastest-growing campaign in Change.org's history, the broadcaster officially announced on 25 March that after deliberations on Clarkson's action and behaviour, it had decided to not renew his contract, effectively axing him from the show. Clarkson's departure would be soon followed by the departures of May, Hammond, and executive producer Andy Wilman, after which the four would then form a new show for Amazon named
The Grand Tour. On 24 February 2016, Clarkson formally apologised to Tymon, while settling a claim made by the producer for racial discrimination and physical injury sustained in the incident. Due to Clarkson's dismissal, the series was shortened by two episodes. The planned eighth episode would have featured
Gary Lineker as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, while
Henry Cavill would have been the guest in episode nine. Episode nine would have also featured an additional film featuring Clarkson testing a trio of luxury limousines on and off the track. The planned tenth and final episode would have been a special in which the three presenters take an epic road trip across "one of the most remote areas of the planet". ==References==