BBC show 'endorsed dangerous driving'

A Ruby Wax programme that showed the former Formula One world champion Damon Hill driving at high speed while using a telephone has earned the BBC a rebuke from a television watchdog.

Viewers complained that the scenes on the BBC1 show Hot Wax set a bad example to many by featuring dangerous driving.

The Broadcasting Standards Commission agreed and decided that the effect was "to endorse and make light of potentially dangerous and irresponsible driving".

It upheld the complaints although it noted that there had been "some attempt" in the broadcast to condemn the dangerous driving.

The programme featured the Gumball Rally, a fun event in which contestants were seen driving at high speeds on British and European roads despite having had little sleep. Hill, who has retired from Formula One, was one of the drivers seen. The BBC defended the programme and said the offbeat show "maintained a firmly sceptical tone about an event that encouraged such bad behaviour".

BBC2's Top Gear: Value Special also landed in trouble. It had complaints upheld after featuring an item on one of the Great Train Robbers, which the BSC felt appeared to "glamorise" his role in the crime.