Clarkson in festival masterclass

By Angie Brown Edinburgh reporter, BBC Scotland news website

BBC's Top Gear is presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is to deliver a TV masterclass to this year's Edinburgh International Television Festival.

The 48-year-old presenter of the BBC hit show will be officially unveiled on Tuesday as one of the keynote speakers.

He will be joined by executive producer Andy Wilman to discuss why Top Gear remains the highest rating BBC2 show.

They will also talk about how former F1 Michael Schumacher was jokingly unveiled as mystery test driver Stig.

The hoax earlier this month saw 7.1 million viewers tune into the hour-long show.

Top Gear, presented by Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, has achieved universal appeal, with women accounting for 47% of the audience.

Hammond almost died in a crash while driving a 300mph jet-powered dragster for the show, at Elvington airfield near York in September 2006.

Clarkson and May were in Edinburgh filming recently and ended up gate-crashing the wedding of an Edinburgh lawyer.

The presenters turned up at Mark and Angela McCole's reception at the city's plush Balmoral Hotel.

Clarkson was covered in soot and wearing a blue boiler suit and took time out to congratulate the couple.

They had been filming a three-way race between a steam engine, 1940's Jaguar car and 1957 Vincent motorbike for the latest series.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version