JEREMY CLARKSON'S REMARKS SLAMMED BY ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT

Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond kicked off their new BBC2 series in Romania.

When they went to rural areas, Clarkson put on a pork pie-style hat and talked of entering “Borat country”, a reference to Sacha Baron Cohen’s film about the fictional Kazakhstan television presenter. During the film, broadcast last week, Clarkson said: ‘‘I’m wearing this hat so the gypsies think I am one. I’m told they can be violent if they don’t like the look of you.”

When he sees locals building a house he jokes they are building “gallows”. Romania will soon mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, shot dead by a firing squad on Christmas Day 1989.

Clarkson is seen washing his face saying “cool, refreshing communist water” although the country is not run by communists and is unlikely to remain a socialist democracy after elections being held there today.

Dr Ion Jinag, Romanian ambassador in London, was “surprised and disappointed” by the references to Borat and gypsies. Those filmed were mainly villagers and not gypsies. The Romanian embassy said: “We anticipate a positive response to our request for changes.”