10 Things BBC Wants You To Forget About Jeremy Clarkson

4. The Falklands Number Plate

Mere months ago, last October in fact, Clarkson, May, Hammond, and the rest of the Top Gear crew were forced to leave Argentina after a number of residents who had come to watch the show being filmed had taken exception to the number plate on one of the cars they were driving. The number plate was H982 FKL, which despite the show's protestations of innocence was clearly meant as a deliberate nod to the 1982 Falklands War. Clarkson said at the time if the BBC had thought he had requested the plate on purpose then he would have lost his job, and said the crew changed the plate as soon as the controversy was pointed out to them. Quite why a colonial territorial pissing contest that cost almost 1,000 people their lives is the source of so much humour remains a mystery, but the incident served only to heighten tensions between the two governments.