Jeremy Clarkson hailed as a great polar explorer

Jeremy Clarkson has been hailed as a great polar explorer like Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

17 years ago Clarkson, 64, and 'Top Gear' co-host James May, 61, raced across frozen Canadian seas to the North Pole in a modified pick-up truck and polar expert Dr Linda Parker called the daring journey a “watershed moment”.

She wrote in The European Magazine: “Like it or loathe it, the 'Top Gear' expedition was a watershed moment in the development of Polar research and exploration. Light-hearted and comedic as it was, Clarkson and May’s attempt was in many ways in the same tradition of the early pioneers. Yes, they had support vehicles and camera crews in tow, and yes, they no doubt had some of the best technological innovations available to them. But was Clarkson’s mindset really so different to that of the early 20th-Century explorers? Their journeys, financial backers, and equipment were different, certainly, and the risk of physical injury and death substantially smaller, but their ‘derring do’ attitude – one shared by the Russian cosmonauts, no doubt – is common to all who have set foot in a polar region. In the annals of history, true explorers push the boundaries of what is possible, and Clarkson, May, and Kornienko et al did just that. It pains me to say it, but in the long annals of history, the 'Top Gear' presenters will go down as true explorers and pioneers.”

Clarkson and May beat their colleague Richard Hammond, 54, who was on a traditional dog sled, to the North Pole.

Meanwhile, Jeremy recently admitted he doesn't think a show like 'Top Gear' would get commissioned these days.

Clarkson - who fronted the BBC motoring show from 2002 to 2015 before launching a similar series, 'The Grand Tour', on Prime Video in 2016 - doesn't believe that he and co-hosts May and Hammond would have the same appeal to executives now and feels lucky that they have enjoyed the run for as long as they have.

He reflected to The Sun newspaper: “It wouldn’t get commissioned now in a million years.

“Monkey tennis would be more likely to be commissioned than this, I think.

“It would be so difficult — three middle-aged, middle-class guys, driving cars around in other countries, I think they’d probably say no.

“Fortunately, our 'Top Gear' grew out of something else. I started in 2002, doing originally just with Hammond, and then May came along in the second season of the series.

“Then Hammond had his accident and then a lot of people started watching the show and it grew some more and then we accidentally did a special in America.

“But you couldn’t get it commissioned from the get-go now.”