Some Say He Is The Stig

If you're British, or you're a car enthusiast, you've probably heard of the TV show Top Gear.  The show began in 1978 on the BBC, reviewing cars, and talking about motoring in general.  But the BBC axed it in 2001 due to poor ratings.  The presenters at the time signed on with other TV channel and launched Fifth Gear, while arguably one of the most popular past presenters of the show Jeremy Clarkson, approached the BBC with a proposal to re-launch the show with his own creative perspective.

In 2002 the new Top Gear was born, still running successfully to this day thanks to a great revamp.  It's been sold to over 100 countries and shows here in America on BBC America.

The show includes a racing driver called The Stig, and his identity has, until now, always been kept a mystery.  When The Stig tried to publish the story of his seven years on the show, the BBC tried to file an injunction against the publishers in order to conceal the identity.  But apparently, at least according to HarperCollins, there has been a victory for free speech; The Stig's identity is a mystery no more.

The Stig has allegedly been played by racing driver and movie stunt driver Ben Collins for the past seven years, and there seems to be quite an uproar in the British tabloids regarding the release of this information.  In fact the previous racing driver played The Stig for a year before being fired when his identity was revealed.  It will be interesting, at least for fans of the show, to see how this plays out.  It's actually pretty surprising to me that this has remained a secret for seven years.  But I'm guessing that a new Stig is going to be born out of this controversy, which is quite a shame.