The Stig has been sacked according to Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson has said The Stig, the shows enigmatic white-suited, black-visored stunt driver, has been sacked. The news is not a huge surprise as Ben Collins, the self-confessed racing driver behind The Stig, has been looking at an uncertain future ever since he revealed himself at the High Court recently.
The BBC had been trying to keep Mr Collins from revealing himself by getting an injunction against a biography he has written. They failed, however, and now the word knows that The Stig was a 33-year-old former Formula Three racing driver from Bristol.
Speaking at an auction he was attending, Mr Clarkson told an interviewer, from an Oxfordshire based community service channel, that he had been hurt and shocked by Mr Collins’ decision to reveal himself in an autobiography. He added that he had liked Mr Collins, but it was hurtful to realise that even when he came round for a drink, he was writing a book. Mr Clarkson went on to say that Mr Collins was sacked, he was history.
Publishers HarperCollins have allegedly given Mr Collins a £250,000 advance for his memoirs. James May, one of Top Gear’s other presenters, on hearing that Mr Collin’s had revealed his identity joked on the BBC that he would be taking his own legal action because he had in fact been the man behind the mask for the last seven years.
It is unlikely that one of the BBC’s most popular programmes will be permanently damaged by the revelation. Mr Clarkson said that there were thousands of people ready to step into Mr Collins’ shoes.