Big step for the BBC. Contrary to his carefully cultivated image, Clarkson was very much a BBC insider.
I had the dubious pleasure of working with him on live shows where he was much more outspoken than on broadcast TV. I found him to be an oaf, and his casual racism was deeply offensive. His justifications for this have echoes of Richard Keys and Andy Grays pathetic 'banter' defence. Sky dumped them, and rightly too.
At one show, sponsored by a Korean manufacturer, he never stopped belabouring 'jokes' about dog eating. In the presence of several Mercedes executives he maintained a school boy prattle about 'the war' almost all afternoon. It may or may not have been an act, but whatever it was, it was not to my taste. It wasn't to the production company's taste either and he was quietly dropped after two years. I may be in a minority, maybe 'jokes' about dog eating really are as funny as some (and it was by no means all) in the crowd found them.
I'd argue that Top Gear wasn't really a motoring show, it was a light entertainment show, based on the on screen personas of the three principle presenters. As such it is now gone. The BBC needs to decide whether it wants another entertainment show with some incidental and unaffordable cars, or a genuine motoring show.
Finally, if you assault someone in the work place physically and verbally, then you should face the consequences, whoever you are. I know what would happen to me if I pulled a stunt like that
Cheers
Steve