James Nesbitt is said to have angered a group of motorists, who were reportedly turned away from a fully-stocked petrol station while he filmed for a television drama. Jeremy Clarkson has now waded in on the matter in his latest column.
The Grand Tour presenter defended the actor, saying he was experiencing his own location issues.
The 61-year-old shared how his Amazon Prime programme had to move their chosen spot due to it being used by another production crew.
Jeremy suggested James, 56, might have had “no alternative” but to film there.
The latter television star was pictured at a Texaco garage in Vauxhall, south London, filming for Channel 4’s Suspect.
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According to The Sun, pumps were closed off for seven hours, 30 minutes after being refilled at 11.30pm, and remained that way until 7am.
Addressing the “kicking” James and his colleagues have recieved over the incident, Jeremy urged those hitting out to “hang on a minute”.
“Have you considered the possibility that James had to film that scene in the petrol station because there was no alternative?” he started.
“Today, there’s a huge demand for very high quality television… And this is causing problems.”
And this siutation had been repeated recently when Jeremy, James May and Richard Hammond had “tried” to film in Derbyshire.
Jeremy stated: “That was full of Tom Cruise making Mission: Impossible 975 so we switched to Kent, where we had to wait for Fiona Bruce to finish a piece to camera about wardrobes before we could begin.”
“And even then, we had to be quiet because Chris Packham was in a nearby bush, filming beavers,” he quipped.
He added in the aforementioned publication: “TV production companies now have an even bigger problem, because all of the nation’s fuel is currently being stored in old washing-up bottles in people’s cellars.
“This means there’s none left for TV people, which means they are forced to film close to their offices.
“… It’s also, presumably, why James Nesbitt was in that petrol station at night, because during the day they were using it to make the next series of Call The Midwife.”
The independent owner of the garage used for James’ shoot said a technology error was to blame, and the plan had been for the public to continue to use the pumps.
A Channel 4 spokesperson said: “The petrol station was booked as a filming location a number of weeks ago.
“The forecourt was used from midnight-5am on Thursday morning, during which time the area was safely cordoned off, with cast, crew and equipment clearly visible to drivers from a distance.”
They also claimed there wasn’t any queues of drivers like some had said and that the garage was not open when filming commenced due to lack of fuel.
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