''' Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson' (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster and journalist who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May. He also writes weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun''.

From a career as a local journalist in the north of England, he rose to public prominence as a presenter of Top Gear in 1988. Since the mid-1990s Clarkson has become a recognised public personality, regularly appearing 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.

His opinionated but humorous tongue in cheek writing and presenting style has often generated much public reaction towards his viewpoints. His actions both privately and as a Top Gear presenter have also sometimes been controversial, resulting in criticism from the media, politicians, pressure groups and the public.

As well as the criticism levelled against him, Clarkson also generated a significant following in the public at large, being credited as a factor in the resurgence of Top Gear to the most popular show on BBC Two, and calls for him to be made Prime Minister. Clarkson himself was keen to downplay his perceived influence on the British public, stating he regularly contradicts himself, and would make a "rubbish" Prime Minister.

Personal life

Born in Doncaster to teacher Shirley Gabrielle Ward and travelling salesman Edward Grenville "Eddie" Clarkson, his parents ran a business selling tea cosies. They put the young Jeremy's name down in advance for a number of public schools with no idea how they were going to pay the fees, until at the last moment, when he was 13, they made two Paddington Bear stuffed toys for each of their children. These proved so popular that they started selling them through the business with sufficient success to be able to pay the fees for Clarkson to attend Repton School.

He was later expelled for "drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself."

Clarkson played the role of a public schoolboy, J.C.T. Jennings, in a BBC radio Children's Hour serial adaptation of Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings novels until his voice broke.

For an episode of the first series of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast in November 2004, Clarkson was invited to investigate his family history. It included the story of his great-great-great grandfather John Kilner (17921857), who invented the Kilner jar: a receptacle for preserved fruit.

Clarkson married his agent/manager, Frances Cain, in May 1993 in Fulham. The couple currently live in the town of Chipping Norton, situated in the Cotswolds, with their three children (born August 1994, March 1996, and November 1998). Clarkson also has a flat in Bayswater as a base in London for working, but after selling this the couple bought a lighthouse as a second home on Frances' family home of the Isle of Man. Known for buying him car-related gifts, for Christmas 2007 Clarkson's wife bought him a Mercedes-Benz 600.