19 March 2023 , 18:20
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Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he faced the wrath of the BBC after pinning up a poster of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The former Top Gear presenter, 62, made the admission after the broadcasting company became embroiled in a scandal after suspending Gary Lineker last week.
The former footballer had criticised the current Conservative government's latest asylum policy and led to people debating whether the company was simply a "Tory BBC".
Now, putting his two cents in, Jeremy claimed that when he first joined the company 25 years ago everyone was "flaming red".
He say the "mob" slating the BBC is "wrong", before claiming that he too had upset the big bosses after he replaced his controversial wall art with a poster of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
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Jeremy Clarkson described how BBC reacted to his choice of poster (Rex)Writing in his Sunday Times column about how strict the BBC's impartiality rules are, Jeremy said: "I know someone who was told to take down his Union Jack because it was ‘offensive’, and I was asked to remove my poster of Mrs Thatcher because it was upsetting people who walked past.
"I did, and replaced it with a picture of Kate and Wills, which somehow made them even angrier."
And he added how he was told he must agree with recent public sector strikes before his appearance on The One Show, otherwise there would have been "awkward" scenes.
When looking at whether he believed the corporation had changed since he first joined, he added: "At this precise moment of history it’s possible that the two people at the top of the BBC might at some point in their past have voted Conservative, but what about everyone else?
Jeremy opened up on his run-in with BBC bosses (GC Images)
He replaced a controversial posted with a William and Kate pinup (Getty Images)"All the other 22,000 people involved in running this broadcasting giant?"
He also pointed out that there would be no chance he'd be able to present Top Gear in the same way now as he used to, claiming some comedy is even "too risky" for the BBC nowadays.
Despite his suspension, Gary returned to hosting duties on Match Of The Day on Saturday as he took to the screens for the live fixture between Manchester City and Burnley.
Immediately after the show began, his co-panellist Alan Shearer took a moment to address the situation, saying: "I just need to clear up and wanted to say how upset we were for the audience that missed out last weekend.
"It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned and through no fault of their own some really great people in TV and radio were put in an impossible situation and that wasn’t fair so it’s good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again."