Oh dear. Top Gear is turning into a little soap opera with since the man who played The Stig outed himself. Apparently, Top Gear bosses at the BBC compared him to a Dalek and a Blue Peter dog. OOF!

In his first interview since the BBC failed to stop his memoirs coming out, Ben Collins has also accused the BBC of hypocrisy and that, in fact, it was they who outed him first.

He said in The Sun today:

“People seemed to have got used to me doing a stunt or slide brilliantly. If you do it right they look easy, but they’re not. Yet Andy [Wilman, Top Gear executive producer] has since said I was the same as a Dalek or the Blue Peter dog. With respect to the Dalek operators, I don’t think it’s quite the same thing and I thought I could leave with more respect than that.”

Stig Man reckons that he only started work on his memoir when he feared his job at the show was on the line.

He says that the Radio Times (owned by the BBC) revealed his identity two years ago when they published his name as one of the potential candidates.

“I was astonished. I was being outed by the very people I worked for. Yet I knew nothing about it,” he said. “It caused a huge question over whether I was viable any more.”

Hitting out at the legal action, 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.”

A BBC spokesman said:

“Today’s interview appears in a newspaper that is owned by the same company that is publishing Ben’s book. It seems to have been designed simply to attempt to generate further sales.

“The BBC categorically refutes any accusations of bullying. Once Ben informed the BBC of his intentions, he was reminded of his confidentiality obligations and it was made clear to him that if he went ahead with the book, he would not be able to remain in his role.”