BBC pulls QI episode starring Jeremy Clarkson

BBC pulls QI episode starring Jeremy Clarkson (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

The BBC has pulled Friday night's episode of QI featuring Jeremy Clarkson following the furore over his comments about suicide and striking public sector workers. The episode of the BBC2 quiz, hosted by Stephen Fry, was recorded earlier this year and also features Ross Noble, Dara O'Briain and regular panellist Alan Davies. It will be replaced by another new episode and will be broadcast at a later date. An industry source told the Guardian: "It's not to do with anything specific that Clarkson said on QI. "It is more a case of the BBC not wanting to look as though it didn't care about the storm and putting Clarkson back on screen as if nothing had happened." The Top Gear presenter faced a storm of protest from mental health charities after he branded people who throw themselves under trains as 'selfish'. Clarkson, 51, had earlier apologised after telling BBC1's The One Show that all striking workers should be shot. A BBC spokeswoman said: "It is not unusual for the running order of programmes to change. The billed episode of QI will be shown at a later date."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.