Jeremy Clarkson has described being left a "suicidal wreck" after enduring a harrowing bullying ordeal during his childhood. The Clarkson's Farm star attended Repton School in Derbyshire, a boarding school costing £9,000 per term, where he later achieved a C and two Us in his A-levels before rising to fame on BBC's Top Gear.
Details of the Ordeal
Clarkson's school days were marked by terror. Despite meeting his future friend and colleague Andy Wilman—producer of The Grand Tour and Top Gear—at the school, he suffered "many terrible things" while living in a boys' dormitory. He recounted: "I was thrown on an hourly basis into the ice plunge pool, dragged from my bed in the middle of the night and beaten, made to lick the lavatories clean and all the usual humiliations that public school used back then to turn a small boy into a gibbering, sobbing, suicidal wreck."
He added: "In the first two years the older boys broke pretty much everything I owned. They glued my records together, snapped my compass, ate my biscuits, defecated in my tuck box and they cut my trousers in half with a pair of garden shears."
Expulsion and Reflection
Although Clarkson earned nine O-levels, he was expelled before completing his studies due to drinking and smoking at local pubs. However, speaking on the Andy Jaye podcast, he said the experience "brought me to my senses." He reflected: "I appreciate that for many, many, many people bullying is horrific, but it just wasn't for me particularly. I mean it was horrible to suffer from it, but I look back and I am grateful for what it made me become, if that makes sense."
If you have been affected by this story, you can contact the Samaritans, call 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit https://www.samaritans.org/.
