- "Please welcome the man who gets heavy with the metal, Jeremy Clarkson!"
- — Robot Wars Announcer Stuart McDonald
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11th April 1960) is a British broadcaster and journalist who was the main presenter of the first series of Robot Wars.
Robot Wars
Clarkson presents Robot Wars
As presenter of the show, Clarkson's role was to open the show with written speeches, announce each event, and to encourage the competitors who did well. Clarkson was also given some leniency to disparage competitors who didn't impress him as much, resulting in some tongue-in-cheek jokes and derogatory comments about the competitors and their robots. Generally he would be scathing towards robots that performed badly in the Gauntlet or the Trial, while complimenting those who would complete it, although Clarkson would occasionally still disparage a successful robot for humorous intent, remarking that Skarab looked like "cheese on toast", calling Wedgehog's weapon a "toothpick" and calling Krayzee Tokyo a "piece of litter". Both he and Philippa Forrester maintained a particular disdain for Prince of Darkness, insulting it at every opportunity throughout its heat despite its impressive performance, which the team would joke along with.
- "That is the worst robot I have ever seen in my life!"
- — Jeremy Clarkson venomously comments on Prince of Darkness.
Unlike his successor, Craig Charles, who cheered for the competitors, Clarkson felt his role as presenter meant he was to be more on-side with the House Robots, which he would call his "mates", complimenting them frequently and telling the competitors to leave them alone.
- Jeremy Clarkson: "This is getting to be a habit, everyone's killing my mates. I hate you, I hate you for doing that."
- Jonathan Pearce: "Jeremy's friends -electric driven robots. Interesting"
- — After Nemesis pushed out Shunt in the sumo, in Robot Wars: The First Wars/Heat A
Clarkson was introduced to the audience with a number of different descriptions including "your commander in chief", "the man who put scrap into metal" and "the father of all wars".
He left the show after the first series due to other commitments and was replaced by Craig Charles. Robot Wars producer Tom Gutteridge claims this was not because Clarkson disliked the show, simply that he was too busy. Since the six episodes of Series 1, Clarkson was not seen or referenced in Robot Wars again. This is in spite of a VHS release of Robot Wars: The First Great War, which recapped the entirety of Series 1, where Clarkson was edited out, and Craig Charles hosted the programme.
An infamous moment during Clarkson's time on Robot Wars, was that backstage, a robot started up unintentionally, and in the words of the bystanders, "nearly killed him".
Career outside of Robot Wars
Jeremy Clarkson (centre), and his fellow former Top Gear hosts
Clarkson is best known for his role as a presenter of the British motoring programme Top Gear, during its original format from 1977 to 2001 as well as its relaunch from 2002 to 2015 (although he only presented the original from 1988 to 1999, becoming a regular presenter in 1989). Following on from Clarkson being replaced on Top Gear, he hosted a similar show, The Grand Tour, on Amazon Video. Clarkson regularly appeared on British television presenting his own shows 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. From 1998 to 2000 he also hosted his own chat show, Clarkson, and has done other work as a presenter and voice-actor. Examples include being a guest presenter on Have I Got News For You between 2002 and 2015, providing the voice of Harv in the UK release of the 2006 Pixar film Cars, and providing voiceovers for the Forza Motorsport video game series. Prior to his television career, Clarkson worked as a journalist in Northern England, his first job being a journalist on the Rotherham Advertiser and still writes regular columns for various British newspapers.