Argentina’s ambassador in London has made a formal complaint to the BBC, accusing Jeremy Clarkson, the host of globally popular TV motoring show Top Gear, of provocative and insulting behaviour during the filming of an episode in Argentina.
Alicia Castro visited the BBC’s offices in person on Monday to allege that Clarkson had evoked memories of the 1982 Falklands war during filming and then made insulting remarks about the Argentine government and people.
Diplomatic relations between Britain and Argentina have been strained ever since the war over the sovereignty of the remote islands, 300 miles off the Argentine coast, which they respectively refer to as the Falklands and the Malvinas.
A statement from the Argentine embassy said Castro had called for the BBC to apologise for “Clarkson’s provocative behaviour and offensive remarks towards the government and the Argentine people”.
She presented the BBC’s Director of Television Danny Cohen with a dossier of letters from British citizens, lawmakers and celebrities which she said condemned Clarkson’s behaviour. She said she was awaiting a response.
The BBC said it had received a complaint and would apply its usual processes.
The outspoken Clarkson made headlines in the British press earlier this month with vivid accounts of an incident in which he said an angry mob objected to the registration number of a car he was driving through Argentina during filming.
The number plate “H982 FKL” was seen as a reference to the year and location of the war in which over 900 people died. Clarkson and the BBC said the vehicle number was a coincidence.
Clarkson was quoted as saying hundreds of protesters had thrown rocks and bricks at his car. He called it “the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been involved in”, and complained that officials had thrown him out of the country for political reasons.
Top Gear has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the most-watched factual television show of all, with episodes broadcast in more than 200 countries and territories.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez has revived nationalist sentiment over the Falklands in recent years, mounting a vocal campaign to renegotiate sovereignty and prevent London-listed oil and gas firms from drilling near the islands.
Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner decided yesterday to resume her work schedule after initially postponing a domestic trip for health reasons.
She was diagnosed with pharyngitis, a painful sore throat condition, on Friday and ordered to rest for two days.
Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich told reporters the 61-year-old president had postponed a trip tomorrow to the northern part of the country because of her condition.
But the trip to the northeastern Chaco province has been put back on Kirchner’s schedule, said Alfredo Scoccimarro, secretary for public communications.
And the government’s web portal said she had resumed her official duties. It was unclear what prompted the change.
In July, Kirchner was forced to cancel a trip to Paraguay because of a similar throat condition that kept her out sick for more than a week.
Over a year ago, she underwent surgery to remove a subdural hematoma, which kept her on medical leave for six weeks.
In early 2012, Kirchner underwent surgery to remove her thyroid gland after an initial cancer diagnosis. Subsequent tissue analysis, however, showed she did not have cancer after all.
