No one knows how to put their foot in it quite like Jeremy Clarkson, and sure enough he’s come under fire again this week for poking fun at a dyslexic lawyer on Clarkson’s Farm.
In fairness to Clarkson, he had no idea that Barrister Charles Streeten was dyslexic when he told him to “learn how to spell” at the end of this clip from January:
Streeten was so hurt by the incident that he wrote an open letter to Clarkson revealing that he’s dyslexic, and that Clarkson’s jibes reminded him of being bullied in school. Here’s a section of the letter from The Times:
‘Learn to spell. Well, I’ve certainly tried. When you muttered those words to me you couldn’t have known how many times I’ve heard them. But to a dyslexic, it’s a familiar phrase.
At school, I always failed spelling tests. No matter how hard I worked, or how often I stowed the list of words beneath my pillow, when the time came to be tested, I simply could not put the letters in order with certainty.
My ears would burn and I would know I’d failed again. As the rest my class graduated to Beryl roller-balls and fountain pens, I was limited to the indignity of a pencil; one with a rubber grip, to force me to hold it properly. It was at that school, as it happens the very same school to which you sent your daughter, that they told me a career at the bar wasn’t for me.
Even at an institution that offers its pupils every imaginable advantage, becoming a barrister wasn’t realistic if you couldn’t pass a spelling test. The inability to arrange letters according to historical convention is, to this day, seen as the calling card of indolence or imbecility. Usually both.
The mandatory ration of extra time doled out indiscriminately to dyslexics, dyspraxics, and those with ADHD certainty didn’t help me.’
OK, we get it – it’s tough being dyslexic. Still, you’d probably expect a high flying lawyer to be a bit more thick-skinned, not to mention use a spell-checker or proofreader to ensure everything is spelt correctly on important legal documents. Surely written evidence needs to be completely accurate at these sort of hearings?
Well anyway, Clarkson may be a bit of a dxck but Clarkson’s Farm is a good show so at least we’ve got Season 2 incoming before Amazon severs ties with him completely. You can catch the trailer for that HERE.
