Jeremy Clarkson's apology to Top Gear team over fracas was 'half-hearted and feeble', says former script editor

'We'd happily work long and late, trying to find a unicorn, a Talbot Samba and a cat that looked like Kylie Minogue if that's what Jeremy wanted'

Jeremy Clarkson has been offered a bizarre role in a Russian comedy (Rex Features)

In a “tell-all” book by a former Top Gear script editor, Jeremy Clarkson has been described as having a “lack of respect” for his co-workers and hinted at a diva-like attitude on set.

Richard Porter wrote in his book And on that bombshell: Inside the madness and genius of Top Gear how the presenter’s fracas with producer Oisin Tymon earlier this year was "so stupid and so unnecessary”, and how he had "let us down”.

It read, according to The Telegraph: "We'd happily work long and late, trying to find a unicorn, a Talbot Samba and a cat that looked like Kylie Minogue if that's what Jeremy wanted.

"But when the reward for the team's hard work was a smack in the chops, that suggested a lack of respect for the people who worked so tirelessly to make his vision a reality.”

Porter worked alongside the 55-year-old for 13 years on the show. According to his account, Clarkson’s apology to the team for the fracas was “half-hearted”.

"He didn't sit down or even take his jacket off," Porter wrote. "He just told us he'd made a confession to management and that he was sorry to all of us. With that he left the office for what would be the very last time.

"I was furious. Properly, knee-jigglingly, teeth-grindingly furious. His apology seemed half-hearted and feeble, like a child saying the word sorry because they know it's what the adults want to hear, rather than a sincere reflection of remorse.”

Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May in the final Top Gear with its former line-up (BBC)

He added that he was not surprised the show ended how it did: "Over the years all of us on the show had bickered and bitched and behaved as a close-knit group of people does, but we'd never started lamping each other.

"The truly sad thing is, it was never meant to end this way. But actually, in this silly, feckless, chlidish, calamitous stupid world we created, it's really no surprise that it did.”

The Daily Mail noted how in the book Clarkson is described as being a Rosé drinking, leading to the nickname Axl Rosé after the Guns & Roses singer. Al Rose has famously walked off stage numerous times and had a troubled relationship with many members of his band.