Top Gear rapped over legal drink driving
Thursday, 3 July 2008
A chilling episode of BBC motoring show Top gear has landed its presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May in hot water.
BBC watchdog "The BBC trust" has criticised the programme's Polar Special which showed the pair drinking gin and tonics whilst driving to the Magnetic North Pole.
The trust said viewers complained about "highly irresponsible" footage in the episode, which also showed an image of a frostbitten penis.
The trust said the drink driving scene, broadcast in the UK last year, "could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol".
The show's executive producer defended the pair, saying the presenters were beyond the jurisdiction of drink driving laws in international waters and that neither presenter was shown "drunk or out of control of the vehicle".
The BBC Trust accepted this, but responded by added that the scene "was not editorially justified in the context of a family show pre-watershed".
The trust fought complaints about the frostbitten penis though, saying there was "a clear editorial purpose for the inclusion of an image of a frostbitten penis, which had been shown for "a medical rather than a sexual purpose".
The BBC Trust works on behalf of licence fee payers to ensure the BBC provides high quality output and good value for all UK citizens and it protects the independence of the BBC.
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