Many Argentinians were delighted to hear the news of the BBC refusing to renew Jeremy Clarkson’s contract as host of Top Gear, after a controversy sparked during filming in the South American country last year.
Clarkson drove a vehicle with a license plate apparently referencing the bloody 1982 Falklands War, which left 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel dead. Clarkson’s ‘H982 FKL’ license plate sparked outrage among locals, who pelted the Top Gear crew’s vehicles with stones.
The BBC said the license plate was a coincidence and not intended to reference the war, while Clarkson wrote on Twitter that they had done “nothing wrong.” The Argentinian ambassador to the U.K., Alicia Castro, demanded an apology from the BBC and accused Clarkson of “fabricating a horror story” and seeking “to portray Argentinians as savages.”
A few months on, Argentinian news articles discussing the end of Clarkson’s career at the BBC have seen a flurry of comments from Argentinians who are overjoyed to see the presenter go. One commented on the Clarin newspaper’s website: “This is what happens when you mock the Malvinas,” using the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands. According to the Daily Express, one person called Clarkson a “disrespectful pig” and another merely said his fate was “Karma.”
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Write to Naina Bajekal at naina.bajekal@time.com