BBC puts the skids on Stig’s bid to write autobiography

THE BBC is fighting to keep Top Gear’s mystery driver The Stig from revealing his identity.

The corporation has launched a legal bid to stop the faceless show favourite — who speeds around a race track with a blackened visor — writing his autobiography.

BBC lawyers claim he is subject to a confidentiality agreement and unmasking himself would spoil viewers’ enjoyment of the BBC2 programme, which is one of the channel’s most popular.

Only a handful of executives and Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are said to know who he is.

The Stig famously takes to the track in an assortment of cars, as well as training celebrities to set lap times in Top Gear’s popular ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ racing segment.

According to the BBC, his autobiography breaches “agreed contractual and confidentiality obligations” relating to the programme“.

Clad in race overalls and a helmet, the driver’s identity has long been a closely guarded show secret, spawning T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “My Dad is The Stig”.

Several racing drivers have been linked to the role, including former Formula One world champions Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher.

The Stig is thought to be unhappy that other presenters are able to earn considerable sums from promotional products — as Mr Clarkson made £800,000 alone in a year from the programme as the BBC continues to cash in on Top Gear’s global brand value.

The programme was revamped in 2002 from a factual motoring magazine into its more humorous, audience-driven format.

The current Stig is the show’s second. The original, Perry McCarthy, was dropped after his identity was discovered.

Last year, reports said The Stig is Ben Collins, a 33-year-old former Formula Three, Le Mans, GT and Nascar racer from Bristol.

His identity was put forward to the media after a builder told how he found The Stig’s trademark suit and gloves in a cabinet while carrying out work in Collins’ home.

Others believe that four people in fact play the role of The Stig on a rotational basis.

Last year Michael Schumacher was “unveiled” as The Stig after an episode, but the BBC later insisted it was only a publicity stunt and that the driver’s identity would remain “a mystery”.

Clarkson gave The Stig his name, in a nodding reference to his school days, when new students were always called “Stig”.