Jeremy Clarkson suspended: James May confirms Top Gear host was in ‘a dust-up’ with producer over dinner

The producer who was ‘punched’ by Jeremy Clarkson is facing a backlash from angry Top Gear fans who blame him for its possible cancellation.

Oisin Tymon has been abused by viewers of the BBC2 show, who have said he has a ‘very punchable face’ and should never work again.

They have also circulated Mr Tymon’s email address, urging people to write to him personally and tell him what they think.

The 36-year-old has worked on Top Gear for six years, in what colleagues say was his ‘dream job’. Now he is ‘feeling the pressure’ as the person who forced the show off air ahead of a BBC investigation next week.

‘Here is a guy who doesn’t want Top Gear to finish. It’s his job,’ said a source. ‘But he still has millions of people telling him he is wrong.

More than 800,000 people have signed a petition demanding the BBC revoke the star’s suspension and today Mr Clarkson said he was ‘very grateful’ for their support.

But it has emerged some have threatened to attack Mr Tymon, shoot him and his family and suggest he is ‘Britain’s most hated man’ after his ‘fracas’ with Clarkson led to the star’s suspension.

Others have attacked him because of his Irish heritage and also encouraged people to ‘circulate’ his contact details as part of a campaign of abuse.

There is no suggestion that Mr Clarkson condones or has encouraged the vicious online attacks on his producer.

It came as the BBC apologised to viewers upset after it pulled at least two upcoming Top Gear episodes while it investigates Clarkson, but refused to say how many complaints it has received.

Mr Tymon was last seen leaving his London home with his girlfriend earlier this week and has said he will not comment until the BBC’s internal investigation has been completed.

The anonymous Twitter account ‏@NelsonsRightArm said: ‘If a man called #OisinTymon didn’t cook my dinner, I’d have him and his entire family shot’.

One claimed that Clarkson had ‘shown restraint’ to punch Mr Tymon ‘only once’ during the alleged fist-fight.

Mr Tymon was allegedly ‘smacked’ in the face at the luxury Simonstone Hall Hotel in North Yorkshire.

The Ward family from Leeds, who were staying in the hotel, said they were horrified by the ferocity and length of the star’s abuse.

Bob Ward told MailOnline: ‘He was saying: ‘This is not f****** good enough. This is typical of the f****** BBC. You’re going to lose your job over this, I’ll make sure of it’.

It came as it was claimed he handed himself in to BBC bosses about the row and admitted he had ‘forcibly manhandled’ the producer.

He may come face-to-face with Mr Tymon at a BBC disciplinary hearing likely to be held next week.

Top Gear’s co-stars Richard Hammond and James May looked ’embarrassed’ and were forced to sit with him to ‘calm him down’, one witness told MailOnline.

The millionaire presenter is said to have verbally abused then ‘smacked’ the producer in the face in the ‘dust-up’ over being offered a ‘cold platter’ instead of a 8oz steak and fondant potatoes.

Before the row hotel guest Bob Ward, 60, had asked Clarkson for a picture but  he said: ‘No, not after the day I’ve had’.

Mr Ward, his wife Denise, his brother Alan and sister-in-law Sue then watched in horror as Clarkson exploded with rage when he was told the kitchen was now closed.

He told MailOnline: ‘We were having a drink in the bar and could hear Clarkson screaming at someone.

‘He was saying: ‘This is not f****** good enough. This is typical of the f****** BBC. You’re going to lose your job over this, I’ll make sure of it’

‘He then asked if someone could get him a Chinese, but he was told no because the hotel is in the middle of the Dales and miles from anywhere.

‘He was just effing and blinding constantly, which is not on in a family hotel like that. The staff didn’t know what to do, or what to say, but they did nothing. If it was one of us we would have been thrown out.

‘Then James May and Richard Hammond came in and stood next to us at the bar. They looked very embarrassed to be honest.

‘I said to James May: ‘Have you had a bad day?’, after what Clarkson had said to me when he said no to a selfie, but he said, ‘no, not at all’. They were going to sit next to us but then changed their mind and sat next to Jeremy, probably to calm him down’.

The following morning the Top Gear crew went filming but Clarkson stayed behind, spending time on his laptop or outside on the terrace, suggesting he may have already been suspended then.

After the row he reportedly phoned Head of TV Danny Cohen, despite their reportedly fraught relationship, because upset Top Gear staff were ready to report it themselves.

‘It is staggering that Jeremy thought it was sensible to bring this to the attention of Danny Cohen, who hates his guts,’ a source told the Sun.

The millionaire yesterday changed his Twitter profile to read he was ‘probably’ the presenter of Top Gear and was asked if he feared the sack and said: ‘Well it’s coming, isn’t it?’

24 hours ago his biography said: ‘I am a presenter on the BBC2 motoring show, Top Gear’.

Receptionist Sue Ward, 54, also saw the run-in and told Sky News: ‘He said he (Oisin) hadn’t done his job properly, it was ridiculous that there was nothing to eat, obviously there was lots of expletives in between all this, and that he would be losing his job, he would see to it that he would lose his job.

‘Even someone who’s really inept at their job should be told properly, in a proper manner,’ she said

‘But the fact that it was in a public place, I didn’t want to listen to that language.’