JEREMY Clarkson was ­accused of “crossing the line” last night after a ­tasteless joke about Lenny Henry being black.

The Top Gear ­presenter, who ­has a track record of saying anyone he ­offends lacks a sense of humour, was under fire for plain racism.

He complained an energy-saving mode on his new TV made the screen so dim “every programme looks like it is being presented by Lenny Henry in a cave”.

Clarkson’s BBC bosses refused to comment on the line, which ­was in his Saturday newspaper column.

But there was a hail of criticism. Grenada-born war hero Johnson Beharry, 31, who won the Victoria Cross fighting for Britain in Iraq, said: “Remarks like this just aren’t funny. They ­legitimise racism. People think it’s acceptable to poke fun at people without thinking about the ­consequences. Clarkson needs to be stopped from saying things like this.”

Race campaigner Lee Jasper, said: “It starts off with Clarkson making stupid racist comments and it ends up as playground taunts and racist slurs on the street.

Scathing: Comic Lenny Henry

“People take a green light and think, ‘Well, if Clarkson can have a joke at the expense of someone’s race then so can I.’

“It’s totally gratuitous because it’s not necessary. The whole point is Clarkson is naturally funny. There is no need to resort to racism.

“He has provocatively and ­deliberately crossed the line.”

Labour MP Denis MacShane said: “Clarkson’s full-on innuendo is unpleasant and offensive and out of tune with multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Britain.

“It’s like a blast from the south of the US when the Ku Klux Klan thought these jokes were funny.”

Clarkson, 51, and comic Lenny, 52, were co-presenters on the charity telethon Comic Relief in 2007.

A year later in a speech Lenny launched a scathing attack on the “Alf Garnett” generation of ­programme makers and claimed racism still existed in TV.

Clarkson, spotted in bomb ­disposal gear while filming for Top Gear in Gravesend, Kent, last week, has had a series of run-ins sparked by his controversial “jokes”.

Korean car firm Hyundai ­complained about Clarkson’s ­“bigoted and racist” claim that their staff had “eaten a dog”.

He also caused offence with mock Nazi salutes talking about German design of a new Mini.

And Clarkson has ­apologised to the Mexican ambassador for saying his people are lazy.