Sacked Stig slams BBC 'hypocrisy'

[Realist]

Sacked Stig slams BBC 'hypocrisy'


The man sacked from his role as The Stig on Top Gear has accused the BBC of hypocrisy after he claimed they were the ones who first blew his identity.
Ben Collins revealed he began working on his memoir when he feared his stint as the anonymous driver was on the skids.
Breaking his silence after a BBC legal bid to block the book failed, he told The Sun that the court battle was "ridiculous".

The BBC tried to prevent publication of his autobiography, claiming it had a confidential arrangement with the 35-year-old driver.
Collins told the paper that the corporation "wanted to bully me out of contention".
He said: "It is a travesty that a state-funded broadcaster gagged my free speech. It was hypocritical to suggest I'd done any more to reveal myself than they had."
He said an arm of the BBC had been responsible for putting his name in the public arena two years ago in a feature speculating about The Stig's identity in the Radio Times, which is published by BBC Worldwide.

He said his name was published as one of the potential candidates which led to him being recognised.
"I was astonished. I was being outed by the very people I worked for. Yet I knew nothing about it," he said.

Collins said he had made every effort to hide his identity, keeping covered up at all times and eating on his own away from the crew during filming.

Source: http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/articles.a...ntid=154634629

Regards

[blaggard]

BBC aims. . . . . . . . . and shoots itself in the foot!

[MsDG]

Yeah, yeah... I get it. You've got a book coming out. Now fuck off on lets get on with the Purple Stig!

[tom999]

Yeah, yeah... I get it. You've got a book coming out. Now fuck off on lets get on with the Purple Stig!

Yep, more noise about his book.....

[stu99]

I gotta say I don't really think it was necessary to try and block his exposure, it only served to waste more of the licence fee. They should have got Anne whats her face in there - "you were the Stig, goodbye"

Anyone who had an interest or was really that bothered knew it was him as he was named in the H&S report from the Hamsters crash.

If he was planning on spouting off then his contract must have been coming to an end for some reason, either naturally or otherwise.

[greaseweasel]

I think its a good opportunity to freshen the show up a bit. Maybe try and alter the format slightly.

I liked the whole Stig thing, but didn't really care who it really was, and its all a bit tired now anyway. Also Ben Collins was pretty unknown (by the general public) until this so he can't bitch too much, its going to make him a lot more wealthy through all this publicity.