Robot Wars (lost near-death footage of Jeremy Clarkson from robot combat game show; 1998)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Nsfl.png


This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its discussion of a near-death experience.



Robotwarsjeremyclarkson1.jpg

Jeremy Clarkson as host of Robot Wars

Status: Lost


Robot Wars is a British robot combat game show produced by Mentorn. Broadcast on BBC Two and Channel Five from 1998-2004, and from 2016 to 2017, the premise involved machines built by amateur engineers battling other competitors in combat. Series 1 (also known as The First Wars), featured British TV presenter and journalist Jeremy Clarkson as host. During filming for the inaugural series, a malfunctioning robot almost resulted in Clarkson's death.

Background

Best known as a presenter of the BBC motoring show Top Gear's various runs from 1977-2015, Jeremy Clarkson also hosted the first series of Robot Wars. His duties included opening the show with a written speech, announcing the events the robots would partake in, and interviewing the roboteers post-match. Despite finding the show "hilarious", Clarkson was replaced by Craig Charles for subsequent series due to the former's lack of interest and other commitments.[1] In a 2012 interview with the Robot Wars Wiki, Mentorn founder Tom Gutteridge revealed that Clarkson had to endure many hours of false starts, mainly because the few robots competing in Series 1 were often unreliable and required constant repairs.[2]

Accident

According to a 2008 blog post made by Gutteridge, during day two of filming, one of the show's House Robots, Dead Metal, was cutting into a defeated competitor with his metal saw when the blade abruptly broke away and flew loose at over 200mph, ultimately embedding itself in a concrete wall just behind where Clarkson was standing.

The incident was recorded and later analysed in slow motion. The production crew determined that the saw blade had missed Clarkson's scalp by less than two inches; a minor change in its trajectory could thus have resulted in Clarkson being instantly decapitated. Filming went on hiatus for a week so that bulletproof Perspex could be added to the Robot Wars Arena's auditorium, shielding Clarkson from further debris.[3] As a result, filming resumed with no further incident. Gutteridge claimed in the Robot Wars Wiki interview that the accident had no influence on Clarkson's decision to leave the show.

Availability

No images or footage of the incident have ever been publicly released. While Mentorn or the BBC may still hold the footage, it is unlikely to ever be available for public viewing, mainly because of its context and for Robot Wars generally distancing itself from Clarkson following Series 1.[4]

Gallery

See Also

References