Clarkson should NOT have hit the producer, plain and simple, but I do think BBC had the opportunity to be a bit smarter about how they handled this situation, particularly since Oisin Tymon did not report the incident and was seemingly interested in working it out. After all he has as much or more to lose than Clarkson here.
It's absolutely the BBC's role to protect its staff, but personally I think the BBC could have left the decision with Oisin to determine whether he felt the incident should be classified as a fight or an assault, and then proceeded accordingly. A fight at work, although not preferable, is not the end of the world and happens in workplaces around the world every day without people losing their jobs.
If Oisin felt that Clarkson should be punished, then yes, the BBC would likely have been obliged to throw the book at him. On the other hand if Oisin was happy to see the issue amicably resolved, the BBC could still have leveraged the incident to impose whatever restrictions they deemed necessary in Clarkson's new contract. That would have allowed them to save face, Top Gear to stay intact and all those involved to keep their jobs.
The end result now is: Top Gear is living on borrowed time, BBC will soon be down 50 million/yr, Clarkson (along with probably Hammond and May) will successfully find work elsewhere and Oisin Tymon is production poison who will not find work with big talent ever again after his Top Gear role becomes no longer necessary. Nobody wins.
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