Jeremy Clarkson has revealed that he had a stay in a rehab facility shortly after being ditched from ‘Top Gear’.
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The television presenter’s stress levels were said to be so high following the sacking, and the death of his mother, that he was becoming a “drooling vegetable”.
Clarkson likened his spell in rehab to being locked up in a prison and said it was similar to spending a “whole month back in the Stone Age”.
He further added that they told him that he “must go immediately to a prison where there would be no contact with the outside world”.
His last series is nominated in the factual entertainment category, but faces tough competition from last year’s victor Gogglebox.
“It was an actual prison”.
“I agreed because in my mind it would be a gentleman’s retreat, filled with Scandinavian furniture and half-naked Vietnamese women”, he wrote.
But Clarkson was happy to make jokes at his own expense, the Radio Times said, once insisting he was forbidden to discuss motoring matters.
Clarkson, who was suspended and dropped from the auto show after punching BBC producer Oisin Tymon, was back at the corporation to host the satirical panel show.
The retreat saw Clarkson, who has now signed a big money deal to re-boot the motoring show for Amazon, in bed by 10pm each night after a day of clean living.
But the most painful part of his experience was not his bleak surroundings.
The new show, which is thought to be called Gear Knobs, will reportedly see Clarkson take the title of Britain’s highest paid TV host.
He may have punched a BBC colleague in the face for failing to provide a heated steak, but that doesn’t mean his gesture didn’t come with repercussions.
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To the delight of millions, he was verbally bashed by team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop, and by panellist Richard Osman.
