Jeremy Clarkson vents fury at 'snowflake' BBC Repair Shop staff over 'cancellation' of Bob Monkhouse tribute: 'Greatest comedian of all time!'

The late comedian's notebooks, containing gags dating back to the 1960s, were brought to the show's barn for repair but never made it to air.

According to reports, a member of the Ricochet production team objected to content in one of the jokes, prompting what sources described as a "collective decision" to abandon the item entirely.

The books were subsequently handed back to Mr Monkhouse's family without filming being completed.

The notebooks were delivered to the programme by Mr Monkhouse's former writing partner, Colin Edmonds, and his adopted daughter, Abigail Williams.

Mr Edmonds inherited the collection through a specific clause in the comedian's will, which stated: "I give all my gag books, specifically the two loose-leaf handwritten files and the eight loose-leaf typewritten files in their pilot cases, and all the copyright therein, free of inheritance tax, to Colin Edmonds."

The journals have been stored in suitcases beneath Mr Edmonds's desk since Mr Monkhouse's death.

After the decision to remove the item from the programme emerged, inevitably, many of Mr Monkhouse's fans reacted in outrage.

GB News regulars Kelvin Mackenzie and Leo Kearse were just two public figures to slam the decision by the BBC show's production staff.

And now, Mr Clarkson has followed suit. Writing in his latest column for The Sun, he began by describing Mr Edmonds and Ms Williams' decision to restore the books as a "lovely story."

He went on to admit: "I think Bob Monkhouse was the greatest comedian of all time and I would have loved to see his 'workings out' in those scrap books."

Mr Clarkson then detailed to his readers the incident involving the member of the production staff who took offence, to which he offered an alternative response.

"Someone on the Repair Shop’s production team had a peek at the books and decided that they were offended by some of the jokes in there. No biggie. Don’t show those ones on the television. But no," he continued.

"This person decided that because Bob had written these jokes, he must be an offensive person and as a result, no mention should ever be made of him ever again.

"He may be dead, but he should still be cancelled."

Ripping into the entire saga, Mr Clarkson raged: "So here we are. Bob Monkhouse has been erased because one person didn’t like something he once wrote.

"And that begs a question. If this television production person is so easily offended, why on Earth were they given a job?

"I appreciate that in this day and age, bosses cannot refuse to employ someone because of their colour or their sexual orientation or their religion.

"But there is nothing in the statute books which forces them to employ idiots. That’s what these delicate-flower snowflakes are: Idiotic. And you really don’t want people like that in the office."

Joanna Ball, managing director of production company Ricochet, has since addressed the decision directly.

"We planned to fix the joke book, but when we got it to the barn and saw it in its entirety, we realised it contained many jokes that were not appropriate for a programme," she said.

"We explained this to the family and returned the book to them. We did not complete filming of the item, so it was never included in the programme."

Ricochet confirmed that both the production team and the BBC agreed on excluding the item, adding that such editorial decisions form part of standard production processes and depend on various factors.

Mr Monkhouse remained one of British television's most recognisable entertainers across several decades, hosting programmes including The Golden Shot, Celebrity Squares, Family Fortunes and Bob's Full House before his death from prostate cancer in December 2003 at the age of 75.

Mr Edmonds has previously acknowledged that the journals reflect their era, noting that material acceptable in the 1970s would be unthinkable today.

The books at the centre of the backlash were also in the news back in the mid-nineties.

In 1995, they vanished from a BBC locker and Mr Monkhouse offered £10,000 for their return. They were recovered 18 months later.