Word: bbc
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...uninitiated, the BBC show Top Gear might seem an improbable hit. Consider the premise: the weekly, hour-long program features "three middle-aged men fooling around using cars as props," says Jeremy Clarkson, one of its presenters. "That doesn't sound very exciting, does it?" Perhaps these guys are easy on the eye? "They're a bit fat, and they dress like s___," says Andy Wilman, Top Gear's executive producer. "You don't look at them and think, it's Ocean's Eleven coming toward...
...version is already in the can, and a Russian series is set to air early next year. With a live arena show about to tour the globe, the aim is to "create the world's biggest motoring entertainment brand," says Wayne Garvie, director of content and production at BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster's commercial...
...doesn't hurt that the presenters sometimes crash headlong into trouble. Behind the wheel of their Toyota pickup in the race with a dog-pulled sled to the North Pole last year, Clarkson and fellow presenter James May sipped gin and tonics, earning a rap on the knuckles from BBC trustees. Earlier this month, in a segment designed to find out how hard life is for truckers, Clarkson, at the wheel of a truck, said: "Change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day." More than...
...Clarkson is key to Top Gear 's on-air attitude, but he and Wilman are also crucial when it comes to squeezing cash out of the brand. The men work closely with Global Brands, the BBC Worldwide unit set up last year to exploit some of the broadcaster's most marketable shows. Merchandising spin-offs - from Top Gear-branded cakes to video games - need the pair's approval long before the goodies hit store shelves. And rather than pay Clarkson and Wilman out of the cash that comes from TV licenses, BBC Worldwide last year took a stake in Bedder...
...country's leaders have grown rich from the land's bounty, even as most Burmese struggle just to feed themselves. Roughly one-third of civilians live below the poverty line. Last month, many Burmese, who get their news from clandestine radio broadcasts, were shocked by a BBC Burmese service report that claimed a daughter of junta leader Than Shwe had spent more than $80,000 on a gold shopping spree in the city of Mandalay. Than Shwe himself brooks no dissent. The offense of Saw Wai, the poet who was sentenced to two years in prison? Writing a love poem...