Tiff Needell becomes the Stig
Fifth Gear presenter Tiff Needell has been seconded to Top Gear to play at Stig and teach Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle to be a star in a reasonably priced car.
No, we haven’t got our stories in a twist. We know that former White Stig Ben Collins has been given some airtime as himself on Fifth Gear. Not that he’s fared brilliantly against Fifth Gear’s pair of seasoned and experienced drivers – Messrs Needell and Plato.
But it seems Top Gear had a ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ segment to film, with Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle needing a bit of coaching to get round the Top Gear track at Dunsfold. And who do you turn to for that when you don’t have a tame Stig to call on (the ones on the Stig Farm weren’t quite ready?) to do his stuff? Simple. Tiff Needell.
Readers on this side of the Pond will probably remember that Tiff was a frontman on Top Gear before it got canned in 2001 as old and stale before emerging renewed in 2002 in the current format with Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and … Jason Dawe (James May didn’t arrive until series two of ‘New’ Top Gear).
So Tiff got drafted in to do the tutor bit so Danny Boyle could make his way round the track with the benefit of a bit of coaching from someone who really can drive a car. Not that this is the first time New Top Gear has found a use for Tiff’s exceptional wheel skills, as anyone who’s been to the MPH Show / Top Gear Live will know.
But it seems rather unlikely this will be Tiff’s permanent gig.
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