Last last month, Jeremy was at the Xscape SnoZone (an indoor snow park) for his daughter’s birthday party. While he was outside smoking, a group of teenagers came up to him, started harassing him, and asking if he had any security with him.

I wasn’t even remotely bothered when the swarm of children first approached. I figured they were fans of Top Gear and wanted to know about Richard Hammond’s head. But no. What they wanted to know most of all was if I had any security.

I asked them politely to leave me alone. I walked away. I even walked away a bit more. But they kept coming. And so, figuring that attack was probably the best form of defence, I grabbed the ringleader by his hoodie, lifted him off the ground and explained, firmly, that it’d be best if he went back to his tenement.

You can read the full account in Clarkson’s latest Times column.