Let me try to recap based on what I've seen, read, and extrapolated. Please pipe in and correct me if anything seems incorrect or not as you've seen. I'm as detached from what's happening as anyone else here.
* Filming had been long, arduous, and there had been a shortage of producers making everything a little harder.
* The helicopter ride to the hotel was 2 and a half hours, during which James drank a bottle of wine and was therefore inebriated. Jeremy didn't drink due to a script needing work.
* Guests at the hotel noted that Clarkson wasn't feeling too hot and he rejected requests for pictures.
* Tymon has been a part of the production team for some time, and there has been no indication of bad blood or animosity on set for many years.
* Guests (presumably the same as mentioned before) noticed a lot of swearing, ranting, and a close face-to-face in which jobs were threatened.
* Clarkson wrote a column about dinosaurs which some have analysed as being about him, others about the BBC itself.
* BBC head of TV Danny Cohen has no love lost for Clarkson, despite his show's extreme profitability.
* Clarkson called Cohen himself to report the incident, and there has been no statement from Tymon or anyone else on the matter.
* According to an interview on Parkinson, Clarkson has said that the only person he has ever punched has been Piers Morgan. So apparently he isn't a violent man, per se.
And now some analysis:
* Based on May's vague comments ("handbags"), the lack of police reports, and the rampant media guessing (only days after the incident there are reports of A&E and copious amounts of blood), I'd suspect the physical contact was more like a push / shove, or perhaps a thrown plate with no human-to-human hitting.
* Suspension and investigation does seem like the correct course of action considering the accusations. However, very few organizations have so much money and notoriety resting on one or a few people. Considering this and the very public nature of the show, perhaps a better course of action would have been a continuation of Clarkson's studio duties while the investigation is carried out and a real hearing held as soon as the series is finished.
* Even if the Savile comparisons were to the public response rather than the acts, linking the two is repulsive and do nothing to improve the strained relationship. One can only hope that it's more a case of Daily Heil editorialism rather than Cohen (or anyone else's) statements.
* This series of events has led me to believe that the show / host's relationship with the BBC has come to a close. The only two workable scenarios I can see now are either a sale of the Top Gear property / brand to the highest bidder (of which there will be many) or a gutting of the show as Clarkson, presumably May, Wilman, and maybe Hammond (who has the most ties to the BBC right now) and troupe depart for another show on another network, and the Top Gear brand descends into irrelevance.
It's just some more of the same old private-versus-public-media drama.
