Tough on Sir Stirling

On April 13 I dared to take a half-hour from scribbling about cars to watch the Wipe Out quiz show on BBC1. One of the answers the panel had to sort out from the incorrect ones concerned which sportsmen had received knighthoods. The footballers on the screen were soon eliminated as Sirs. When an attractive girl had but one correct answer to find, someone having guessed Jack Brabham and got that right, the name was “Stirling Moss”. Obviously she had won? But no, she was eliminated, Bob Monkhouse saying that this driver, great as he was, was not a knight!

Stirling had to wait a long time for his recent knighthood, which is so richly deserved. I waited for the BBC to correct what seemed an insult to a British racing driver in particular and to motor racing in general. Nothing! No explanation next day on the programme either… Wipe Out described by the cheerful compere Bob Monkhouse as “today’s”, and billed as teaching facts to the viewers, had in fact been filmed eight months previously. No correction or apology followed. Stirling is unlikely to be much troubled, but motor racing was badly served.