One of Britain’s best known television presenters is at the heart of a diplomatic upset with India for a programme described by the Indian High Commission in London as “replete with cheap jibes, tasteless humour” and lacking in “cultural sensitivity.”

Millionaire Jeremy Clarkson (51), a friend of British Prime Minister David Cameron, hosts the popular BBC TV programme, Top Gear, that attracts more than 300 million viewers every week. The programme is about cars and motoring and when it first started Clarkson and his co-presenters would buy and drive the cheapest cars on the market to see how they performed against each other.

The Top Gear Christmas special shot in India featured Clarkson and his team driving a Jaguar and attached toilet as Clarkson boasts, “This is perfect for India because everyone who comes here gets the trots (diarrhoea)”.

Part of the show also has Clarkson dressed in a white dinner jacket, but stripped down to his underwear below the waistline. What has caused particular outrage in India are the paper banners that the Clarkson team hung on the sides of Indian trains. When the train carriages moved and the banners split, so did the meaning of the slogans on the banners.

For example one banner reading, ‘The United Kingdom promotes British IT for your company’ became ‘The United Kingdom promotes British shit for your company.’ Similarly, another banner reading ‘Eat English muffins’, changed to ‘Eat English muff’ a sexual innuendo that has not gone down well in Delhi.

When Top Gear producer Chris Hale applied for visas for his team, he told the Indian High Commission, “Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will travel across India in three cars filming a light hearted road trip focusing on the journey and the inevitable idiosyncrasies of the cars they will drive, as well as the country and the scenery we see along the way.

“There will be spontaneous interaction between the presenters and their environment, and potentially the people they meet along the way. This will be in an incidental manner, not interviews. Key ingredients of what we film will be beautiful scenery, busy city scenes, local charm and colour within these locations, areas to illustrate the local car culture that exists in India.”

The response of an Indian High Commission spokesman since the programme was broadcast twice over the Christmas holiday says: “This is not clearly what we expect of the BBC. I write this to convey our deep disappointment over the documentary for its comment and tone of the presentation. “You are clearly in breach of the agreement that you entered into, completely negating our constructive and proactive facilitation. We strongly protest and expect the BBC to make amends, especially to assuage the hurt sentiments of a large number of people.”

British reactions to the programme and the outrage it has provoked have been mixed. One viewer was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying: “Very funny. That is what he is about.” Another was quoted as saying how the modified toilet seat in the Jaguar was “in very bad taste.” A third viewer simple commented: “Ahem…I’m Indian…I loved it.”