Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson

London, Jan. 18: The BBC has rejected the charge that its Top Gear programme, which provoked the Indian high commission in London into writing a formal protest letter, constituted an insult to the country.

Viewers in India will be able to make up their own minds.

Philip Fleming, head of communications, Global Brands, BBC Worldwide, the overseas commercial arm of the BBC, said: “I can confirm that BBC Worldwide will broadcast the Top Gear India special soon in India on our BBC Entertainment channel. We have yet to confirm an exact date.”

He also said: “The show is one of the most well-loved programmes in India. We have over 200,000 fans on social media and we believe this India special will add to the viewers’ enjoyment of the series.”

Although there are periodic calls for the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear’s controversial presenter, BBC Worldwide has found him to be a vastly profitable product.

“BBC Worldwide operates a joint venture business with Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman (Top Gear’s executive producer) called Bedder 6 to better develop the commercial potential of Top Gear internationally,” Fleming explained.

“In the last four years, the business has turned over more than £100 million, and grown its profits almost five-fold, with the vast majority of this being returned to the BBC and reinvested back into the UK show. BBC Worldwide owns just over 50 per cent of the business.”

That makes Clarkson virtually immune to dismissal. He knows the BBC pays him £1 million a year to be as rude as possible, especially to foreigners. But he and his colleagues do understand cars and are excellent drivers, even on India’s appalling roads. It is hard not to laugh with him and at him.

In any case, the BBC has put up its defence of the programme on its complaints website, dealing with the subject, “India Special was offensive towards the country and its culture”.

It gave the programme’s response to viewers’ complaints: “The Top Gear road trip across India was filled with incidents but none of them were an insult to the Indian people or the culture of the country. Our film showed the charm, the beauty, the wealth, the poverty and the idiosyncrasies of India but there’s a vast difference between showing a country, warts and all, and insulting it.”

“It’s simply not the case that we displayed a hostile or superior attitude to our hosts and that’s very clear from the way the presenters can be seen to interact with them along the way,” the statement added. “We genuinely loved our time in India and if there were any jokes to be had they were, as ever, reflected back on the presenters rather than the Indian people.”

The BBC has written a separate letter to the high commission which had complained that its Top Gear special on India, shown over the Christmas period, “was replete with cheap jibes, tasteless humour and lacked cultural sensitivity”.

It was fronted, as usual, by Clarkson, who believes his unique charm lies in offending as many people as possible.

Wishing to draw a line under the affair, the high commission found the BBC’s letter to be “good-natured”.

Suggestions that the Prime Minister David Cameron, who counts Clarkson among his personal friends, had endorsed the programme are wide off the mark. However, some British newspapers had started reporting that India and the UK were now involved in a diplomatic row over Top Gear.

Although feeling somewhat let down by the BBC, the high commission is satisfied that Cameron has distanced himself from the programme.

Many Indians in the UK who have seen this particular episode of Top Gear were also not particularly bothered by the programme though it has its share of lavatory humour.

It is age-old practice for TV producers to promise embassy media officers that their programme will give a glowing account of their respective countries but slip in the not-so flattering aspects before their film is actually screened.

The high commission ought to have known that anything involving Clarkson would be less about India and more about Clarkson in India. “It’s a bit like a marriage proposal,” a diplomat said. “You say the bride is very beautiful but forget to mention she is just a teeny weeny bit pregnant.”