Creation and name[edit] The idea for the character was part of host Jeremy Clarkson's and producer

Andy Wilman's concept for the relaunched Top Gear show, bringing a new format to the original version of Top Gear which ceased production in 2001. The relaunched sho w introduced a live studio audience, the Stig, a racetrack, and madcap stunts.[1 ] Clarkson is credited by the Sunday Times with having come up with the original idea for the Stig.[2] Clarkson and Wilman wanted to have a professional racing driver as part of the show's cast, but ran into difficulty finding a driver suff iciently adept at speaking on-camera. Clarkson then asked Wilman why the driver needed to speak at all, and they decided that the Stig's role would be silent. The name Stig derives from Wilman and Clarkson's time at the private Repton Scho ol, where new boys had always been called "Stig".[1][3] According to original St ig Perry McCarthy, speaking in 2006, the producers had wanted the anonymous driv er to be called 'The Gim