Jeremy Clarkson

He likes cars, hates Australia and has a face so big and craggy, it could be an Easter Island statue. He's the one and only Jeremy Clarkson, the man people love to hate, and hate to love. Well that's what you get when you don't give two hoots what anyone thinks of you.

Where motors are concerned, there's no room for subtleties or flowery verbosity. Outrageous, outspoken and quite often out of order, Clarkson boasts an onscreen persona the equivalent of a sledgehammer: a no-nonsense tool, verbally bludgeoning its way through any artifice that stands in its way.

As you might expect from one so opinionated, the bear-like bouffant haired boy-racer comes from affluent middle-class stock. Born in Doncaster in 1961, his crush on cars was not immediately evident. Maverick behaviour, however, was more apparent in which his redoubtable magistrate mother may have been an influence. His claims of being expelled from public school for drinking, smoking and copping off with girls, while perhaps not being necessarily true, all add to the larger-than-life legend.

Despite the fact that he always seems to have looked the same, Clarkson was only 28 when he first presented Top Gear way back in 1989. Not bad for a former journalist who learnt his trade in the humble surroundings of the Rotherham Advertiser. The car calling came when he passed his driving test at the wheel of his grandfathers 'R' type Bentley. It wasn't long before pen mixed with passion, which lead to him forming the Motoring Press Agency in 1984, as well as contributing to most specialist car magazines over the forthcoming years.

In spite of that hair and those jeans, our Jezza has, of course, gone on to pursue a highly successful TV career, even though most screens struggle to contain his hulking ego. But perhaps his most interesting job was actually way, way back, when he was a salesman for a company that made Paddington Bear toys. And why is this so fascinating? Well, believe it or not his mum actually made the very first Paddington Bear for Clarkson when he was a toddler - and later formed a company mass-producing the cuddly toys.