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This Is What Prompted Grand Tour’s Jeremy Clarkson To Punch Piers Morgan

The rivalry between the Grand Tour presenter Jeremy Clarkson and his worthy adversary Piers Morgan may be over, but the story behind their feud was never fully revealed by either until they sat before each other on Jeremy’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? quiz show and Good Morning Britain.

One coming on the show and sitting opposite the ex-Top Gear presenter, Piers Morgan was keen to tell the crowd what happened all those years ago in 2004 when Jeremy punched him in the face at an awards ceremony.

Piers said the following on Good Morning Britain:

“For reasons that still baffle me I agreed to go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hosted by a man who’s punched me repeatedly in the head.

“It wasn’t very Christmassy but it’s airing tomorrow night on ITV at 9.30pm Boxing Day which is appropriate.”

This was followed by a video from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire where Piers explained how Jeremy hurt himself when punching him in the face.

He said the following:

Jeremy Clarkson, who I had a long-term feud with, who actually broke his finger hitting my head. That’s how hard my head is.

“This is the moment where we go through some of the rules.”

He turns to the video which shows Jeremy explaining the rules of the quiz show:

“I’m here to talk you through the rules because you’re normally in bed…

“I don’t watch this show,” Morgan retaliates.

“I used to watch the old one when it was hosted by a proper stand-up character.”

“You’ve got 15 questions,” Jeremy continues. “You’ll never make it.”

“I won’t make it,” Piers jokes.

“You’ve got four lifelines,” Jeremy tells him, but Piers slams back with: “Well I’ve got three and you.”

Jeremy responds quickly:

“Yes, you’ve got 50/50, then, and this is a real problem for you, you’ve got two phone a friends,” he says.

“I’ve cleared out my rolodex and they were both available, who knew?” Piers laughed.

“And you can ask me,” Jeremy adds. “I am so looking forward to that.”

In the studio of Good Morning Britain, Piers admits that he found the quiz rather difficult: “I did have to ask him and I did have to phone my friend, one of whom is sitting very close to me right now.”

“When you say friend…,” Susanna quipped before Piers continued: “A friend would have helped a friend in need. Wouldn’t they, Susanna?”

“A real friend you’re right,” she said.

Piers joked: “The phrase bus and chucked under springs to mind.”

“Well, what did you expect?” Susana asked.

 

Morgan carried on: “As Mr Clarkson put it we’re going to give the public what they want.

“It was a long and painful experience.”

“When you say long…,” Susanna joked.

“It wasn’t that long,” Piers finished.

This followed shortly after Jeremy told The Sunday Times:

“He was seated in the row behind me, droning on about his brilliance, so as we began our descent into London, and an inevitable encounter with the waiting bank of television cameras, I turned round and emptied a glass of water into his crotch.”

He continued:

“’Look,’ I said to journalists as we walked down the aircraft steps, ‘the idiot’s wet himself.'”

A year after he did this, he punched Piers at the 2004 British Press Awards three times in the head, with him later calling Piers a “ghastly little weasel”.

“My wife thought otherwise. And at the British Press awards gave him one of her hard stares from across the room. ‘Why’s your f***ing wife looking at me like that?’ he thundered. So I punched him. And then I punched him again.”

Piers didn’t retaliate, worrying that he would lose his job as a result, but he shouted to Clarkson, “is that all you’ve got?”

He told the press since the incident:

“I think it is fair to say he was a little inebriated. He did then try to apologise but sadly I wasn’t massively enamoured by this gesture, given the mounting inflammation to various parts of my skull – although I’ve frankly taken worse batterings from my three-year-old son.”

Jeremy also talked to the press, joking that Piers won:

“He’s won really. I’ve hurt my finger and he’s fine.”

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