Top Gear's Clarkson To Learn Fate Imminently

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson could find out within hours whether he is to be sacked from the hit show, a senior BBC executive has said.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper said he thought a decision was "about 24 hours away".

Clarkson has been in limbo for two weeks since the BBC suspended him over his now infamous "fracas" with producer Oisin Tymon.

Both men have given evidence to an internal investigation at the corporation, where Ken McQuarrie has been tasked with getting to the bottom of what really happened at a hotel in the Yorkshire Dales.

The investigation into Clarkson's conduct is being handed over to the director-general Tony Hall, and a decision could follow today.

Mr Cooper said the incident had to be dealt with in "a very serious way".

He said: "I think if my son or daughter went to a place of work where they were shouted at, abused and someone threw a punch at them I would want there to be an inquiry and for that to be dealt with in a very serious way and that's what the BBC is currently doing."

Clarkson, along with his co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond, had been due to take part in four live Top Gear shows in Norway this week, but they were postponed on Sunday.

On the same day, Clarkson wrote about his "turbulent" week in a newspaper column and played down an expletive-packed rant at a charity event, in which he appeared to criticise his BBC bosses.

The 54-year-old seemed to suggest he may be sacked from Top Gear and hit out at the corporation's executives in the speech, which was captured on video.

But he wrote in the Sunday Times: "It was all meant in jest and anyway it worked.

"By being brief, controversial and a bit sweary I woke the room up and the auction prize I was offering - one last lap of the Top Gear test track - raised £100,000."

The presenter of the BBC's most lucrative show also thanked supporters of a petition to reinstate him, which was signed by more than a million people and delivered to New Broadcasting House in a tank last Friday.

Meanwhile, with Top Gear off air during the internal investigation, May has been tweeting about getting to grips with life without work.

He wrote at the weekend: "Woodwork tasks today. Being jobless allows you to revisit old interests, learn new things, and listen to the radio more. Sold the telly."