The Top Gear Story by Martin Roach Page B

Williams and BMW F1 before injury ended his career. Perry was once dubbed ‘racing’s unluckiest driver’ but went on to build a hugely successful career in Le Mans. His reputation for being passionate about his chosen sport was confirmed when he once returned to a race circuit just nine days after his appendix had ruptured. He qualified for that race but was apparently withdrawn by his own team’s doctors when they noticed his stitches had burst and his overalls were soaked in blood. During his career, he suffered some big crashes, including one at 170mph that his hero Ayrton Senna said he was lucky to have survived. McCarthy already knew Wilman and Clarkson and so when they approached him with the idea on that fateful night, he was delighted to be asked. At this stage, the secrecy was just ‘a bit of fun’ and he has since opined that no one could have ever imagined that the character would capture the public’s imagination as it has.
    McCarthy has since revealed that there had been plans to have him as a presenter on the show a few series in, not masked and hidden, but unfortunately this never transpired. He also quashed rumours that there were several Stigs in those early series, stating that it was always him apart from two occasions when other commitments prevented him from playing the role, at which point Julian Bailey – a former Formula 1 driver who raced for the Tyrrell and Lotus teams – stood in.
    Perry enjoyed the cloak-and-dagger requirements of the job. Speaking to the Mirror in August 2010, he gave some fascinating insights into his role as The Stig: ‘At first, it was great fun. I lost count of the times I’d be standing in a bar andsome guy would be going, “Of course, it’s Michael Schumacher.” I never said anything.’
    He has also said that he often played the role 24/7 when working at the BBC. So, he would go in full costume into the BBC canteen and even keep his visor in place when trying to drink coffee through a straw or shovel sandwiches in through the small opening. Perhaps best of all, as Gambon suggested, Perry often spoke in a French accent – albeit faked – for extra mystery.
    Almost straightaway, the ‘Who is The Stig?’ conundrum caught the imagination of the viewing public and within a few episodes of Series 1, websites and chat rooms speculated frantically about his identity. The intrigue was sufficiently intense that in January 2003, the Mirror ran their own exposé claiming it was McCarthy all along. Quoting a ‘show insider’ as a source, the newspaper approached Perry about the story, but he simply said: ‘I do know who The Stig is, but I cannot comment any further.’ Besides, the talented driver himself was too busy at the time racing in Le Mans to worry about speculation, a neat reminder that The Stig is anything but a cartoon character and always a very real racer with extreme driving talents.
    However, the ‘black’ Stig lasted no longer than the first series. After McCarthy revealed his identity in his excellent 2002 book, Flat Out, Flat Broke , his contract was not renewed. By this time, he had already started to tire of the rigours of the job, though: ‘Burning round a track in a “Reasonably Priced Car” week after week soon became a chore. I always gave it 100 per cent but I was already getting tired of it.’ After a priceless Jag was tested and a complaint to the BBC followed, McCarthy became disillusioned. Remember, at the time he was racing for Audi in the Le Mans series and earning a hefty six-figure wage: ‘I’d had enough. And, I think, to be fair they’d had enough of me. I was becoming tricky to handle. They didn’t renew my contract and themoney was rubbish.’ When interviewed on BBC Breakfast News in 2010, however, McCarthy was still visibly excited by the memories of playing the character. Referring to his caricature as