Clarkson Faced Cereal Debacle At 'Fracas' Hotel

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson narrowly avoided a second culinary disaster at the hotel where a "fracas" over cold food led to his suspension from the BBC.

Staff at Simonstone Hall Hotel in the Yorkshire Dales say Clarkson was lucky not to be served cold cereals for breakfast after sleeping in on the morning after the alleged row with a producer.

BBC staff pleaded with workers not to disconnect the hotel's electricity supply for planned maintenance so the presenter could have hot food when he finally appeared.

"I got a call to say Clarkson was still in his room and wouldn't be down 'til 10 o'clock," a member of the kitchen staff told Sky News.

"I said, 'Well in that case he'll have to have Weetabix' because a sign on reception said the electricity would be cut off at half past nine."

The staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said most of the BBC team had left for filming before Clarkson appeared downstairs.

Another worker at the hotel confirmed that Clarkson's assistant had to ask the electricity workers to leave the power connected for an extra hour until Clarkson had eaten his breakfast.

The report into an alleged incident at the hotel, involving the Top Gear presenter and a show producer, is to be handed to BBC director-general Tony Hall next week, said a corporation spokesman.

He said BBC Scotland chief Ken MacQuarrie was "considering the evidence" and "once this has been considered, we will set out any further steps".

Last week, the Ward family from Leeds - the only members of public staying at the hotel on that Wednesday evening - told Sky News that Clarkson had threatened to have a colleague fired during the row.

Sue Ward, 54, described Clarkson's behaviour towards the unnamed employee as shocking.

"He said he hadn't done his job properly, it was ridiculous that there was nothing to eat - obviously there was lots of expletives in between all this - and that he would be losing his job, he would see to it that he would lose his job," she said.

Top Gear, the BBC's biggest global brand and worth more than £50m a year, has been taken off air during the internal investigation.

The BBC has declined to comment on the latest claim.