BBC Top Gear host Chris Evans has apologised “unreservedly” for scenes over the weekend that appeared to show filming near the Cenotaph memorial in Whitehall.
Paparazzi shots showed presenter Matt LeBlanc and stunt driver Ken Block driving Block’s ‘Hoonicorn’ near to the war memorial – scenes that drew immediate criticism with one retired Colonel, Richard Kemp, telling the Telegraph it was wrong to film next to “a sacred tribute to millions of people. Jeremy Clarkson was certainly no saint but I don’t believe he would have ever performed a stunt in such bad taste.”
Today, Chris Evans responded to the criticism on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, stating that he “completely understood the furore” around images of the shoot.
“It doesn’t matter what actually happened, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances were that could explain this away, what is important about this is what these images look like and they look entirely disrespectful – which is not and would never be the intention of the Top Gear team or Matt.
“Retrospectively, it was unwise to be anywhere near the Cenotaph with this motor car.”
Evans acknowledged that there had been some “very incendiary comments written alongside these pictures, and I completely understand this furore, but the Top Gear team would never, ever do that.”