Top Gear's The Stig on the moment Jeremy Clarkson didn't recognise him: ‘Who are you?!’

The former ‘man in the white suit’ revealed how the presenters were kept in the dark about the identity of their racing driver for “the first year” before the secret was revealed. Only a select few individuals working on the hit production were allowed to know the identity in what was one of Britain’s best kept secrets of the noughties. 

It was the original Stig’s dramatic ending that made Ben take his role as the famous character even more seriously in a bid to save the character from a further extinction. 

He told Express.co.uk: “The Stig who was there before was there for nine months, his identity was revealed and he was absent off the end of an aircraft carrier.”

Despite being asked by friends on numerous occasions whether he was the famous driver, Ben’s secret was not officially revealed until 2010.  

However, he revealed that he believed it was the “beginning of the end” of his time on the show two years previously.

“I was constantly pitching to the producers and the best they did was the Britcar 24 Hours in a diesel BMW, we could have done more than that. 

“But ultimately it was not a show about the Stig, it was a show about the presenters and the Stig was a [part] of that and something to have fun with. 

“If we could have done it again I’d definitely have liked to have seen that happen. 

“We could have done some great races, we could have gone to America and NASCAR and Le Mans.”

But after eight years of doing a  job Ben admits he ‘“loved”, it was a sense of relief when he lifted off the white helmet for the final time. 

Having gone onto work as a stunt driver for movies and a driver coach, Ben’s next focus is as an author with a new book on the history of Britain’s classic Aston Martin in the pipeline. 

He said: “When I realised the game was over, it was a feeling I’d not expected, which was a sense of relief. 

“But I had been doing the job for eight years at that point, I suppose greedily the longer I did it the longer I wanted to stay.

“I loved the job although towards the endI was beginning to feel it was time to go.”

source: express.co.uk