Jeremy Clarkson was once accused of racism over his dog’s name, and he has now recalled the incident.
In his latest Sunday Times column, the television presenter blasted the broadcaster for “reprimanding” him for what he perceived to be a minor incident.
He said he was seen as “the ultimate bad boy” at the BBC, when really he was “nothing more than a naughty scallywag”.
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According to Clarkson, this happened even though disgraced figures like Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Huw Edwards were working there.
“Savile and Harris and Edwards were going about their business while I was being reprimanded for calling my new dog Didier Dogba. And it just keeps getting worse”, Clarkson went on.
Clarkson, 65, faced an online backlash in 2014, just a year before he left Top Gear.
And this was because he called his new black dog Didier Dogba, after Chelsea footballer Didier Drogba.
“Why is it racist to name our amazingly brilliant dog after a footballer?”, Clarkson asked on X, as he hit back at the allegations at the time.
BBC investigated him as part of an internal review into the culture at Top Gear.
Then director of television, Danny Cohen, later confirmed that Clarkson was not racist.
Discussing his exit from Top Gear in 2015 following an altercation with a producer, Clarkson added: “Number one, since they ‘let me go’, my life has improved immeasurably and number two, when I look at what’s happened to them since, I can’t help feeling just a tiny bit smug.”
Clarkson and his co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May went on to host The Grand Tour on Prime Video after Top Gear.
Meanwhile, Top Gear ended after a harrowing crash on set with Freddie Flintoff, who had hosted alongside Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.