Entertainment For Lively Minds
Who honestly cares that we know the identity of The Stig?
Posted by Five-Centres on 1 September 2010 - 1:58pm.
I mean really, who cares? It could be anyone. The fact that it's someone I've never heard of makes even less difference. Not that I watch Top Gear.
I don't know what all the fuss is about. The BBC trying to block the publication of a book that reveals his identity is absurd (and costly). I think they care far more than we do.
Or do they?
- More from Five-Centres.
- Login or register to post comments
-
I don't
I'm something of a motor racing nut and the identity of the stig has been an open secret for years (I won't name him, but let's just say the tabloid rumours are correct).
In fact, many drivers have donned the white overalls. The main stig runs a company which occasionally provides other drivers when he is unavailable, plus many manufacturers insist on using their own test driver.
The first stig (the black one) was of course Perry McCarthy, as revealed in his autobiography.
If many drivers have donned the white overalls...
... to appear as The Stig, doesn't that render all those lap times null and void? I could never do a lap in 1:34 in a 6 litre V8 Meecombe Aubrey XR-3000.
Me neither!
I didn't mean any old driver! I meant other racing drivers, whose times would be close enough to make little difference. Plus, it's an entertainment show primarily, so the lap times aren't to be taken as seriously as a proper test.
But this is the Internet age
We have to know everything.
I'm the Stig
And so is my wife
The Stig
I always assumed the disguise was to ensure that they could put pretty much any suitably qualified driver behind the wheel.
Isn't it one of those things....
...that's simultaneously utterly trivial and quite fascinating? I wouldn't be surprised if it's of great interest to the BBC legal department. The name The Stig is probably owned by the corporation and they don't want anyone going off and making money out of it without their consent. BBC history is full of examples where they let people wander off with ideas that were their copyright.
A Stig yesterday
My 8 year old ...
... desperately cares. He thought The Stig really was Michael Schumacher. Bless!!
Two
hoots.
I can see why Auntie gave it a go
As David Hepworth says above, the character is a BBC creation, and they are due any income from it. They have an obligation to act - whatever the BBC can earn from such characters reduces the burden [in theory anyway] on the license payer. I don't give a toss about Dr Who or Strictly Come Dancing but I'd expect the BBC to protect the income they would be due form any spin off activities. If they hadn't acted no doubt the queues would be forming to demand to know why they weren't protecting their commercial interests etc etc.
I can only assume Ben Collins thinks that whatever he may earn from his book deal will be more than what he now won't earn supplying drivers to Top Gear, who will no doubt have another character ready in time for the new series.
I'm available if needed. I might need a larger driving suit though.
But
the first Stig i was ever aware of was Stig of the Dump
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stig_of_the_Dump
1963 children's book by a chap called Clive King ... i would be willing to bet cash money that the inspiration for driver Stig's name came from King's character? So where does that leave the BBC *IF* the Top Gear makers were, ahem, inspired by the original Stig anyway?
I'll take that bet....
A 'stig' is a new pupil at Repton School, the alma mater of Jeremy Clarkson and the producer of Top Gear, Bridget McCluskey.
Dunno whether the Repton tradition predates the Clive King classic.
here's a lot shorter in real life than
he is on tv!
I find it a bit pathetic....
that what is a harmless bit of fun enjoyed by viewers of that programme, has to be uncovered for a twopenny ha'penny book. I rarely watch Top Gear (and Clarkson would be the first against the wall come my revolution) but this chaps income stream, whoever he is, could come to an end as he is "outed" as The Stig. They delved into his company records (not illegal, i know) in order to get proof of this revelation! He is not an MP skimming funds from the taxpayer, it's part of a fricken entertainment...sums up some people in this country who ruin other peoples enjoyment to make a quick buck. Sad and pathetic.
This chap's income stream
Isn't he outing himself as The Stig in his autobiography? The possible damage to his income would seem to me to be mainly self-inflicted: when he was "outed" previously - due to no fault of his own - the BBC stood by him and he kept his job as (a) Stig. Or have I got this backwards?
I may have got it wrong, but...
the report I read said his company accounts had been uncovered.Presumably if he was writing the book he would already know who he is and the details of his own company! But i stand to be corrected.
The full story
is at the Telegraph.
Just had a look
and the Collins Autosport Accounts in the public domain say absolutely diddly squat about Top Gear or anything else for that matter,so I'd be interested to know what has been seen or "made available".
Given what's in the Telegraph story Mr Collins doesn't seem to have hidden his identity too diligently. Looks to me like a set up job to help book sales.
also this autobiography
unless it actilaly is a list of the cars he's driven is going be thrilling isn't after some preamble about being born what else will there be in it apart from "Oh and I am the stig".
I thinks it's a whodunnit
Oh. Change of plan.
Le Stig Mysterioso
Never mind Stig, I wanna know who 'Dirk', 'Nasty' and 'Barry' are...
Whoever they are...
...I think they're probably stuck in a rut... best let it be...
As for this Stig - and I speak as someone who loathes Clarkson and all that he represents, never watches the show, nor gives a hoot who this person is/was/will be [I hate it, indeed, that I actually know the gist of what's being talked about here!] - is it not, in fact, a CLUE hidden in plain sight?
Is it not the case that 'The Stig' is an anagramatic brand name representating a revolving pool of three idiots who fancy themselves as fast drivers? Some kind of pun about never going into reverse?
Yes, 'The Stig' is in fact nothing more than 'The Gits' - Clarkson and the other two.
Now we can all go to bed and turn off the lights.
I'm betting
that the name will be meaningless to most of us anyway.
also as someone just pointed out
it's not "who is the Stig?" but "who was the Stig?". As presumably they will get a new one now.
Why cant he just
reform The Police again and have done with it?
Wasn't his real name
Gordo Sumer?
No chance of a reunion, I don't think Ady Summers would be interested.
I think he needs a new theme-tune.
Something like The Etertaier by Scott Jopli.
And thinking of Gordo Sumer..
I've always thought he's a bit of a cut.
There's only one Stig for me
Some say ...
...he runs a company called Collins Autosport. Some say he has done the stunts in a James Bond movie. He is even in the middle of a court case involving the BBC and HarperCollins. All we know is, we used to call him the Stig!
In my world
The Stig is Mickey Dolenz, as Clarkson (Nesmith), May (Tork) and Hammond (Jones)are quite obviously the rest of The Monkees and I will not be told otherwise.
so it's not
Justin 'Mr Tumble' Fletcher then?
Justin 'Mr Tumble' Fletcher MBE
Reading's finest I'll have you know.
Anyone who counts Clarkson, Hammond
and May as is mates would be better off keeping it schtum as far as I'm concerned. Top Gear is almost as bad as X Factor.