BBC lawyers fight The Stig's bid to lift lid on his identity

Hah. I'd love to do that. I'd get some karting overalls and rent a helmet if I had to
Sadly, i'm a thousand miles away

It kind of reminds me of "V for Vendetta"...
 
Any publicity is good publicity?
 
jenna42 said:
But he isn't a star of the show. The Stig is.
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No, he is a star of the show. The Stig is the character he played.

I think he did a great job too. He brought a subtle personality to the Stig that he could convey with a simple turn of the head and a little comic timing. His Stig was many times more entertaining that the black Stig. I hope they keep him on. I haven't read every link that has been posted on here, but i've heard no indication that James, Richard or Jeremy feel that he has betrayed their trust by doing this. For all we know, they may be on Ben's side.
 
stiggie said:
No, he is a star of the show. The Stig is the character he played.

I think he did a great job too. He brought a subtle personality to the Stig that he could convey with a simple turn of the head and a little comic timing. His Stig was many times more entertaining that the black Stig. I hope they keep him on. I haven't read every link that has been posted on here, but i've heard no indication that James, Richard or Jeremy feel that he has betrayed their trust by doing this. For all we know, they may be on Ben's side.
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THIS.

And though I reckon James isn't able to talk about the details, you'd almost think even a tiny bit of disappointment or resentment would have seeped through during one of his many interviews today. Instead, he was...playful.

Maybe I ought to take my own advice and not speculate. ;)
 
stiggie said:
No, he is a star of the show. The Stig is the character he played.
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I have to disagree with you Stiggie. The Stig character is the "star", he just plays The Stig (apparently). The Stig chases sheep and doesn't know anything about ducks, I'm sure Ben Collins doesn't (chase sheep) and is quite well informed on the matter of ducks. He is no more The Stig than the guys in these costumes are Mickey Mouse and Humphrey B Bear:

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stiggie said:
I think he did a great job too. He brought a subtle personality to the Stig that he could convey with a simple turn of the head and a little comic timing. His Stig was many times more entertaining that the black Stig. I hope they keep him on. I haven't read every link that has been posted on here, but i've heard no indication that James, Richard or Jeremy feel that he has betrayed their trust by doing this. For all we know, they may be on Ben's side.
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I too think he has done a great job as The Stig, but I think it is unfair on Black Stig to make comparisons .. the character was not nearly as developed or honed back then as it is now.

Unfortunately, if they do keep him on (as The Stig) .. the character will have changed. There is nothing "tame" about forcing a public utility to The High Court ... or by reneging on a NDA (for that matter). :lol:
 
GerFix said:
Unfortunately, if they do keep him on (as The Stig) .. the character will have changed. There is nothing "tame" about forcing a public utility to The High Court ... or by reneging on a NDA (for that matter). :lol:
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This. Even if I knew who the peson was in the overalls before this and really didn't care, the sort of "mystique" that was always there has disappeared for me personally. It's kind of hard to explain, but every time I see the Stig at the moment (which is pretty often, given I have 2 Top Gear Live posters in my room!), I just think "Jeez, he sold out.. to HarperCollins...."

In other words, if it were me, I would have waited until Top Gear finished.... then published this, done appearances at events as the Stig, etc. Now it just looks like he's impatient IMO- yes, he is entitled to profit from the personality he developed, but choosing not only how to do so, but when is crucual to your success and image, official non-disclosure agreement or not.

EDIT- on the whole "was there a non-disclosure contract/clause/whatever" thing, my opinion would be that there was, but the court case was over the interpretation of it- I would imagine the contract would clearly state that if his identity as the Stig was released he would be sacked, but there may have been some legal iffy-ness over whether this agreement could stretch to him releasing the info himself through a non-BBC entity, if he could profit from the whole thing via another company/non-BBC-approved method, etc. The whole "can this phrase in the clause/contract be interpreted this way" crap that most court cases of this manner are about.
 
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To really mess with everyone's heads, they should change Stig's name to either James or Ben in series 16 ;)
 
tone76 said:
To really mess with everyone's heads, they should change Stig's name to either James or Ben in series 16 ;)
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"Some say he's reneged on a non-disclosure agreement and that he is dissatisfied with his BBC remuneration package. All we know is he's Benjamin Tarquin Collins of 23 Oswald Mosely Terrace, Bristol, BS1."
 
EllieZee said:
And though I reckon James isn't able to talk about the details, you'd almost think even a tiny bit of disappointment or resentment would have seeped through during one of his many interviews today. Instead, he was...playful.
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He was very playful. Which I thought was made of win. :)

tone76 said:
To really mess with everyone's heads, they should change Stig's name to either James or Ben in series 16 ;)
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:lol:

GerFix said:
"Some say he's reneged on a non-disclosure agreement and that he is dissatisfied with his BBC remuneration package. All we know is he's Benjamin Tarquin Collins of 23 Oswald Mosely Terrace, Bristol, BS1."
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"So what good is served by telling them that this man ? if that's what [The Stig] is ? is just some bloke from Bristol? It's an absurd notion anyway. I'm from Bristol." (James's Telegraph column; February 2, 2009)

Just sayin'. ;)
 
GerFix said:
I have to disagree with you Stiggie. The Stig character is the "star", he just plays The Stig (apparently). The Stig chases sheep and doesn't know anything about ducks, I'm sure Ben Collins doesn't (chase sheep) and is quite well informed on the matter of ducks. He is no more The Stig than the guys in these costumes are Mickey Mouse and Humphrey B Bear.
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Completely agree with you on this one. I don't give a hoot who is in that costume, and I'm not remotely interested in his autobiography. We all know the Stig entity is not even human and can't be defined. :rolleyes:

I've formed a weird bond with the tall one, the shaggy haired one and the small one, I've come to love their personalities and the quirks, and the Stig was never a part of that investment and that circle. So what he has a distinctive walk... To me he's a prop and even though he can suck moisture from ducks, he's nothing more. He's not given us anything to care about.

So now that we know with certainty who plays the character, is it even worth the bother...?
 
I really enjoy this Stig, though. Prop, schmop--the dude can drive and does very well at the kinds of nonverbal gestures that make up the character. Compare Usual Stig with Schumacher's turn at playing Stiggy. Sure, Schumi didn't spend much time with his helmet on for that episode, but even his nod "no" at the start of the interview wasn't...gosh, at that specific balance between over-playing it (nodding too hard to where it looks silly, as you might do to emphasize smaller gestures in stage productions) and under-playing it (being too subtle for it to translate well on TV--e.g. Schumi's nod). I know that's being quite anal, but it's something I've noticed. He's not just the guy who can drive fast--he's an actor, too.

I don't know the terms of the NDA or the backstory behind this move, so I'm going to reserve judgement until the dust settles a bit. I'm genuinely interested to hear his take on being the Stig, even if I'm disappointed that it had to come about like this.

So, back to speculation, then. It's been pretty obvious for quite some time that Collins is the main guy behind the Stig. It's been out on the Internet and there was a paper article "outing" him at least a year ago with that house painter/racing suit under glass piece, so it's not exactly a secret anymore. Could this have affected the terms of the NDA (for example, if it said that Collins has to go if anyone outed him at all, thus making his continued employment with the BBC one big grey area)? Could this have affected him in any other way, such as with his family or with whatever he's racing elsewhere? The last thing some team is going to want to hear is that they're short a driver because Stiggy flipped a Kia in the off-season.

Again, I don't know any of those details, so I'm not going to come down hard on the guy just yet. I hope TG keeps the character of the Stig going (even if they change colors again) despite all of this NDA weirdness, though, because he's one of my favorite TV characters...pretty much ever, honestly. The whole bit is wacky and wonderful and I love seeing all the cars get thrashed on like they should be. I don't even think it would matter if they kept Collins, so long as there wasn't any bad blood between him and the others on the show. He's been "outed" (albeit less publicly) for well over a year anyway.
 
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GreenBullet said:
According to amazon.co.uk the book will be available tomorrow (Sept 2nd):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-White-Suit-Ben-Collins/dp/000732796X/ref=amb_link_157757187_3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_r=1VHJWVFWMR7G7DQKRR6Q&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=212847707&pf_rd_i=the%20man%20in%20the%20white%20suit
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I wonder if the audio book will be available in Morse Code? :lol:

emil_t said:
the stig made first page on yahoo.com all over the world.
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While browsing that page I came across this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_britain_blair_s_book_extracts

We all know what Clarkson thinks of Tony Blair ... is it at all possible that the timing of the release of these 2 books (Collins' manual and Blair's memoirs) is less than coincidental? An attempt by Top Gear to knobble sales of Blair's book in final retribution for the M4 Bus Lane (and other crimes against humanity)? :think:
 
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GerFix said:
I have to disagree with you Stiggie. The Stig character is the "star", he just plays The Stig (apparently). The Stig chases sheep and doesn't know anything about ducks, I'm sure Ben Collins doesn't (chase sheep) and is quite well informed on the matter of ducks.
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Seriously?

I'm pretty sure that Daniel Craig doesn't really shoot people and blow up hotels in the desert, but he is still the star of Quantum of Solace. I've never heard of Bruce Willis ever really flying a space shuttle onto an asteroid to drill a nuke into it, but he is still the star of Armageddon. As far as I know, David Tennant doesn't really travel through time in a blue box. Does that mean that he wasn't the star of Doctor Who? Like James Bond, the Armageddon-oil-drilling-guy-whose-name-nobody-remembers and the Doctor, the Stig is a character. The person who plays him and brings life to the character is the star.

brydie76 said:
In other words, if it were me, I would have waited until Top Gear finished.... then published this, done appearances at events as the Stig, etc.
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The public's interest starts drying up the moment a show goes off the air. Jeremy, James and Richard have all written several books and made other DVDs or TV series to cash-in on the success of TopGear. Ben deserves his chance to do the same.

GerFix said:
"Some say he's reneged on a non-disclosure agreement and that he is dissatisfied with his BBC remuneration package. All we know is he's Benjamin Tarquin Collins of 23 Oswald Mosely Terrace, Bristol, BS1."
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:rofl:
 
i would say that best solution would be that top gear has new the stig. the stig should be green (just for teasing greenpeace) or pink which would be perfect. some former f1 driver like r?ikk?nen or couldhard
 
^^ the confidentiality thing won't be worth squat if we know who he is before he signs it :|

They should hire an Australian touring car driver from the 1970's ... none of them could speak .. let alone write :)
 
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