Friends Don't Let Friends Drink Gin and Tonics Driving to The North Pole
It's not even 9am, and it looks like we have a theme for the day: irresponsibility. Reuters reports that "A special edition of the [Top Gear] programme, aired in July last year, featured the show's three presenters in a race to the Magnetic North Pole. Two of them, Jeremy Clarkson and James May, were driving a heavily-modified Toyota [Hilux] pick-up truck and were shown drinking gin and tonics as they did so. It prompted one viewer to complain that the footage was 'grossly irresponsible.'" The show's producers had one word for the allegation: bollocks [paraphrasing]. They claimed they'd filmed the segment in an uninhabitable area of the North Pole. Just in case the Inuit population took offense that that suggestion, the BBC's Bad Boyz pointed out that they were in (on?) international waters "where no drink driving laws existed, and that the presenters were not shown to be drunk or out of control." Not to mention “that at present in the UK, it’s legal to drink a small amount of alcohol and still drive.” So that's alright then. Actually, no. " The BBC Trust upheld the complaint [made in APRIL] saying that drinking while driving "could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol." So.. that's that then. Oh wait; the complainant was also peeved that the programme featured a bit about “parts of the anatomy and injuries to them that could shock." That's a reference to a frostbitten penis to you and me. Over to you Autoblog…
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The most dangerous thing I saw on that bit was May using a knife quite incorrectly, while Clarkson was driving cross country. At least when May looked down the shot gun barrel they all yelled at him.
Sounds like the same kind of people who complain about pictures of puppies sitting in police hats.
Wait a minute, are they also suggesting that I shouldn't be drunk and high while driving around shooting gophers out the window of the truck on my buddy's private farm land? Not that I've one that sort of thing. Just wondering in case the opportunity arises. That was a great episode.
I'm with Ash