The Mystery Man In The White Suit

The Stig is a racing driver who appears on the British motoring television show, Top Gear. Cast as the 'tame racing driver', he is portrayed as a silent, anonymous, possibly non-human, presenter of the show, whose primary role is to post Power Lap times on the Top Gear test track and train celebrity guests to lap it in the 'Reasonably Priced Car'. He also makes various other appearances on the show, as do his similarly anonymous 'cousins'. The character was the creation of presenter Jeremy Clarkson and the show's producer Andy Wilman who came up with the idea for the revamp of Top Gear from its old format which ran from 1977 to 2001. 'Stig' was a nickname for new boys at their old school.

For years now the show producers kept the identity of the man inside the locker. To be honest with you, for me, this was made the show even more interesting, besides seeing the super trio Clarkson, Hammon, and May. There have been two Stig characters used on Top Gear - 'Black Stig' and 'White Stig', differentiated by the color of their overalls and helmet. Black Stig was used for the first and second series from October 2002 to July 2003, before falling out with the show's producers. He was written out of the show in a stunt in the first episode of series three, being launched off of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. In the next episode, new White Stig was introduced, and has featured for the next thirteen series, from November 2003 to August 2010.

The BBC has always refused to officially confirm the identity of the actor who plays the Stig. As a result, the identity of the Stig has been speculated on at length by the press, fans and racing personalities since the beginning of the show, becoming one of the most popular internet searches ever. Black Stig was first named by a newspaper as Perry McCarthy between the second and third series. After leaving the show, McCarthy identified himself in his updated autobiography, and is now generally named as the first Stig even by BBC media, although McCarthy has stated Julian Bailey also stood in for him also. In the era of the White Stig, several people have been linked with the role, even a returning Bailey. It has even been speculated that there is no permanent actor, with evidence at least of specialist Stigs used, such as Dan Lang, a Swedish snowmobile cross driver. Early suspicion fell on Damon Hill after an appearance on the show in 2005.

In January 2009, after sustained speculation and investigation by the press, suspicion mounted around one possible candidate, leading to Ben Collins being definitively named in the press as White Stig, although he denied it. In series thirteen in June 2009 the show revealed the Stig was Michael Schumacher, but this was quickly debunked as a stunt. In August 2009 it emerged the White Stig intended to write an autobiography, leading to a legal dispute between the show, and publisher HarperCollins, while Collins was further linked to the role with more reported evidence. On 1 September 2010, after failing to have the book prevented, the author was named as Ben Collins, with publication of The Man in the White Suit expected in September 2010. The BBC however still refuse to officially confirm if Collins "either was or remains" the Stig, simply acknowledging he is the author of the book who claims to be the Stig.

As one of the fans I was totally disappointed with this drama. I was always hoping that they kept the Stig identity as something sacred and let people play with their own thoughts about who the man was. But I can not blame them either as Mr. Collins greed was led him to make this, in my own perspective, stupid decision. Guess he was tired to be in the shadow and dying to taste some of that sweetness of sixty minutes of fame which for me, bad, worse even, decision! But hey, everyone has a right to be seen once in a while, don’t they? The main thing is that he was not that German driver. Oh how happy I am!

^_^


Sources : Wikipedia, Google