We're being a bit too po-faced about this, I think. Who takes Clarkson et al seriously anyway? His programme is almost a caricature of the whole "petrolhead" thing - a sort of lads' mag for car fans. Quite fun, in its own simple-minded way.

As the article says, any publicity is good publicity for Clarkson. To be fair, he is quoted as saying, "If you are going to break the speed limit, make sure you are not in France. You would be advised to pay attention to what happened next. Because the on-the-spot fine was everything we had in our wallets. We were left penniless. And they took away our driving licences. No court case. No arguing. Nothing.”

That might not have been intended as a warning, but that's what it should be seen as.

Edited by FP on 20/11/2013 at 14:56

I love the way Clarkson says they were confused by the speed limit. Not only were they above the limit for that road, they were above the limit for thr road they thought they were on!