Top Gear rapped for alcohol use
Motoring show Top Gear has been criticised by the BBC Trust after viewers complained about “highly irresponsible” footage.
The Polar Special featured hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May drinking while driving as they tried to reach the Magnetic North Pole last year. The trust said the scene “could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol”.
The show’s executive producer said they were beyond the jurisdiction of drink driving laws in international waters. The trust was also told that neither presenter was shown “drunk or out of control of the vehicle”.
The BBC Trust said the scene “was not editorially justified in the context of a family show pre-watershed”.
However, it added that at present in the UK, “it is legal to drink a small amount of alcohol and still drive”.
In the same show complaints were also made about scenes showing frostbitten genitalia. The trust said 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”.