A fixer used by top TV stars has lifted the lid on stars’ furious off-screen rows, near-fatal crashes, ‘demanding’ antics and how viewers were tricked with faked scenes made to look dangerous.
Digby Greenhalgh, co-owner of Explore Indochina, has guided stars including Jeremy Clarkson, Gordon Ramsay and Bear Grylls on motorcycle trips in South East Asia.
Now he has opened up about his own experiences – including witnessing Clarkson flying into a vicious foul-mouthed tirade and spitting at a colleague.
The row happened during filming for the Top Gear Vietnam special in October 2008 – seven years before he was sacked by the BBC for punching a colleague.
In a blog post, Mr Greenhalgh, described the moment the presenter confronted executive producer and longtime friend Andy Wilman in a hotel foyer filming at a beach club finished for the day and they returned to the hotel without him.
He wrote: ‘In the confusion, understandable at the end of such a long and tiring day, Jeremy was left behind and mobbed by the tourists.
‘He had trouble finding the hotel, and when he finally returned, it was just him, myself and Andy [Wilman] in the hotel’s foyer.
‘He was pissed off and went straight up to Andy and shouted, “You care more about the crew than me. I’m out of here, you c***”.
Digby Greenhalgh, co-owner of Explore Indochina, has guided stars including Jeremy Clarkson , Gordon Ramsay and Bear Grylls on motorcycle trips in South East Asia
The row with Jeremy Clarkson happened during filming for the Top Gear Vietnam special in October 2008 – seven years before he was sacked by the BBC for punching a colleagu.
In a blog post, Mr Greenhalgh, described the moment the presenter confronted executive producer and longtime friend Andy Wilman in a hotel foyer filming at a beach club finished for the day and they returned to the hotel without him
‘Then Jeremy spat in Andy’s direction and stormed into the elevator. Andy was stunned and turned to me and said he’d been Jeremy’s best man twice.
‘It had been an extremely long day.’
The Top Gear Vietnam special which aired in December 2008 saw Clarkson and co stars Richard Hammond and James May, travelling 1,000 miles across the country in eight days and proved a huge hit with fans with 6.7 million viewers tuning in.
Explore Indochina provided further assistance with them during filming and Digby revealed the back wheel nearly fell off Clarkson’s Vespa moped but the BBC refused to spend more than $400 on a safer but more expensive alternative.
Digby – who carried the lead cameraman on the back of his bike – also revealed the crew became so sick of Clarkson’s outbursts they wouldn’t fix a short circuit on his Vespa moped so he was repeatedly electrocuted.
He added: ‘At one point, the director asked Jeremy to repeat what he’d just said, but while looking at the camera. Jeremy said “Since when do you do the talking? This is Top Gear, and I do the talking”.
‘The Vespa started to give Jeremy electrical shocks, and we all smiled behind his back. One of the crew members said he could probably fix it, but it was decided that he should just let him suffer.’
In 2009 Digby joined the crew filming Bear Grylls’ Man vs Wild show in the Khe Bang-Phong Nha National Park – and revealed the adventurer slept one night in a cave before secretly checking into a hotel that had to be booked out so nobody got a photo of him relaxing by the pool.
He also accused Bear Grylls of faking scenes including filming wilderness scenes right next to the road, hidden safety wires during river crossings and an ‘encounter’ with a cobra bought from a local snake restaurant and tied to a tree
He also accused the ex-SAS trooper of faking other scenes including filming wilderness scenes right next to the road, hidden safety wires during river crossings and an ‘encounter’ with a cobra bought from a local snake restaurant and tied to a tree.
He wrote: ‘All these [filming] spots had to be no more than a 20-minute walk from a road, and, ideally, right next to the road.
‘Next time you watch the show, notice how he’s always running around, giving the impression that he is covering lots of ground. In reality, he just runs around in circles.
‘The whole snake in a national park issue was solved by buying a massive cobra in a snake restaurant outside the park and then tying it to a tree. Bear comes across it, says some BS about it being a spitting cobra, and goes around it.’
He was also employed by the BBC for an episode of Most Dangerous Roads in which Sue Perkins and Liza Tarbuck drove the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
He wrote: ‘I was hired as the Trail guide and expert but spent most of my time keeping the presenters happy.
‘The pair were rather demanding, and accommodation on the Trail in those days was rough, so one of my jobs was to ride ahead of Perkins and Tarbuck and ensure their rooms were presentable.
‘That meant splashing bleach on the floor and bathrooms to eliminate unpleasant odours, laying out fresh, clean, disposable sheets, and sweeping up any nasty surprises.’
On another BBC show – Without Limits – he claims the shoot almost ended in tragedy when a modified jeep blew a gasket, lost steering and crashed while the brake disk on a disabled presenter’s modified bike broke off.
Digby also filmed with Gordon Ramsay when he travelled to Vietnam to learn how to prepare famous local dishes for Gordon’s Great Escape
He wrote: ‘The shoot occurred during the middle of a scorching summer, which, apart from making it very uncomfortable for the presenters, almost resulted in a terrible crash when the jeep overheated and blew a gasket.
‘The loss of hydraulics disengaged the steering wheel, and the jeep hit the roadside barrier. Only three kilometres down the road was an extremely steep descent above a very high cliff, which would have been fatal if the gasket had blown there.
‘On the same pass, the back disk brake on one of the presenter’s bikes broke off, and he was lucky to escape unscathed. In both cases, the root cause of the problem was the rushed schedule imposed on us to get the vehicles and motorcycles ready for the shoot.’
Digby also filmed with Gordon Ramsay when he travelled to Vietnam to learn how to prepare famous local dishes for Gordon’s Great Escape.
He revealed the show’s legal department decided the TV chef was ‘too valuable’ to ride on any public road and could only go around in circles on a closed-off cement road.
But as soon as he got out of sight of the director Gordon, 58, gunned his 650cc Ural bike through traffic and past a police road block. He wrote: “Gordon’s off-camera demeanour was very different to his trademark grumpy persona. Polite and professional, he was a pleasure to work with.’
