Jeremy Clarkson was a talent BBC couldn’t afford to lose, says Mark Thompson, ex-BBC Director General and current Chief Executive Officer of The New York Times Company.

In an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine –and shared by the Telegraph, Thompson shared his thoughts on Clarkson and BBC’s moves.

“Clarkson can be a deeply objectionable individual, and I say that as a friend,” Thompson said. “I don’t think people should punch their colleagues. It’s hard to keep them if they do.”

He added: “But I would say his pungent, transgressive, slightly out-of-control talent was something the BBC could ill afford to lose. He spoke to people who didn’t find much else in the BBC.”

Mark Thompson had long left the BBC by the time Clarkson decided to punch one of his producers over a steak. He recalled though Clarkson refusing to apologize for making controversial comments about the UK’s then-prime minister Gordon Brown.

Thompson said that Clarkson called him up “out of the blue” following the incident. “His first words were, ‘I won’t apologize. I don’t care what you say, I won’t,” he said.

“I said, ‘Er, why would I want you to apologize? He told me that he’d just called Gordon Brown, who was then prime minister, a ‘one-eyed Scottish idiot’ and a ‘c***’.

“We agreed that he would apologize for calling him ‘one-eyed’.”

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