That Time Jeremy Clarkson Was Held at Gunpoint During “Top Gear” Filming

Since 2016, Jeremy Clarkson has been hosting the car show The Grand Tour along with Richard Hammond and James May. But, before parting ways with the BBC and moving on to Amazon Prime Video, the co-hosts had plenty of memorable moments on the long-running show Top Gear.

One of these moments happened back in 1997, during the filming of a Top Gear episode in Detroit, Michigan. What started as the scouting out of an abandoned train station as a film set ended in Clarkson being held up at gunpoint by a local gang, as Clarkson recalled in early 2019.

Jeremy Clarkson Reveals That Time He Got Held at Gunpoint
“Somebody held a gun against my head in Detroit,” Clarkson recalled, according to The Drive. “It’s a long, complicated story but we were trying to do some filming and some people thought we were trespassing on their turf. It was pretty nasty. And this time, 100 yards from where that happened, I was having dumplings in a goose broth.”

“I’m sure if you actually lived there you wouldn’t call it interesting, you’d call it dangerous,” the former Top Gear presenter continued. “But the chrome shoots of rejuvenation are growing again so you can actually eat quite well there, you can stay in a nice hotel, you can go short distances from A to B without being shot.”

Looking back on the terrifying moment, an unidentified member of the Top Gear film crew added, “Jeremy was filming in a ruined railway station but was warned by cops not to go inside as there were warring gang factions operating.”

“But he ignored the advice and was surrounded by gangs.”

Despite the intense gang run-in, Clarkson has gone back to Detroit to shoot footage multiple times over the course of his TV show career. Hopefully, Clarkson doesn’t find himself face-to-face with any dangerous gangs, whether from Detroit or elsewhere, anytime soon.

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