The importance of disliking Jeremy Clarkson for the right reason

Jeremy Clarkson believes strikers should be shot in front of their families. Or so you will believe if you've been reading Twitter this week. The example above comes from a usually interesting left-wing account.

The truth is that Clarkson did say that, but for once someone really is being quoted out of context. Have a look at this video.

Yes, he was making fun of the BBC's insistence on 'balance'. Maybe the moral is that you shouldn't attempt irony on The One Show.

And Clarkson's politics are not always what people imagine. As I wrote here, he made the best case for Britain's membership of the EU that I have heard in referendum year, and Remain should have made more use of him during the referendum campaign.

I would have a go at Clarkson for taking up the role as spokesman for wealthy landowners, but my party's MPs seem happy to march shoulder to shoulder with him on that

So let me instead take issue with his strange ingratitude to the BBC.

I don't mean his disapproval of balance, but his "Typical BBC - you people" comment the other day when Victoria Derbyshire quoted his own words about buying land to avoid paying inheritance tax.

Because Clarkson and the BBC go back a long way. All the way back to 1973, when as a 13-year-old, be played Atkinson in BBC Radio 4 serialisations of the Jennings books.

Then he went to public school, his fees paid from his mother's business making Paddington Bear toys. And the BBC was Paddington-friendly even before the animations with Michael Hordern's voice, because Michael Bond was a cameraman with them. So you got exclusive Paddington stories in your Blue Peter annual.

And, then, of course, the BBC's Top Gear made Clarkson a millionaire. A little gratitude wouldn't come amiss.