Top Gear's Clarkson and May gatecrash city wedding

Published on Friday 15 May 2009 10:00

HE IS perhaps not everyone's idea of a perfect guest, but Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson caused quite a stir after turning up at an Edinburgh wedding.

The outspoken presenter gatecrashed a reception at the city's Balmoral Hotel, along with co-host James May, after filming a race between Edinburgh and London for the show's new series.

Clarkson, dressed in a blue boiler suit and with his face covered in soot, posed for pictures with newlyweds Mark and Angela McCole as bemused members of the public looked on.

The couple, who first met at Edinburgh University's medical school, recently returned from their honeymoon in the Maldives to find the bizarre incident had been watched by more than 2,000 people on YouTube.

Clarkson and May had arrived in Edinburgh after a three-way race between a steam engine, a 1940s Jaguar and a 1957 Vincent motorbike, which broke down with Richard Hammond on board.

Mrs McCole, 39, said: "The last person I expected to see on my wedding day was Jeremy Clarkson. We spotted him and James May as we were making our grand entrance and it caused quite a stir.

"Jeremy Clarkson had been on a steam train, which was why he was in a boiler suit and had a black face. James May had travelled up in a classic car and Richard Hammond had broken down somewhere. They were having a few beers in the Balmoral and then joined us for a few photos – it was really bizarre."

Mrs McCole, a GP, met her pathologist husband while the couple were studying at the university in the late 1990s.

Mr McCole, 29, who grew up in Liberton, graduated along with his future wife in 2002 and the couple both went on to work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Now living in Oxfordshire, they were married in the Capital's Church of the Sacred Heart on 25 April and had just posed for pictures in Princes Street Gardens before running into the Top Gear team.

Mrs McCole said meeting the TV presenters had been the "icing on the cake" of her "fantastic day".

She added: "They were really nice and chatty and we had a laugh. Jeremy Clarkson told my husband to 'lose the beard'. It was the icing on the cake, my husband even managed to mention it is his speech."

It is not yet known if the incident will feature as part of the episode, but the couple hope to be part of the studio audience when the show is filmed.

The programme will be shown as part of the new Top Gear series, which starts on BBC2 on 21 June.