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 Images splashed across the pages of British newspapers showed
the show's co-host, U.S. actor Matt LeBlanc, speeding and
spinning a car with a professional driver along a deserted
Whitehall, the road near Parliament which is home to government
offices as well as the Cenotaph.
As the car performed 360-degree turns, clouds of smoke from
burning tire rubber dramatically obscured the 96-year-old
memorial in one long-range TV camera shot.
"It does not look good at all," Evans told listeners of his BBC
Radio program. "On behalf of the Top Gear team and Matt, I would
like to apologize unreservedly for what these images seem to
portray."
Retired army officer Colonel Richard Kemp said the filming on
Sunday was an error of judgment and that Westminster Council
should never have allowed it to go ahead.
The council in turn said the BBC producers had gone beyond what
was agreed and had never given approval for the car to carry out
wheelspins down Whitehall.
The BBC later said it would not broadcast footage of the
Cenotaph in the episode.
"The Cenotaph was at no point intended to feature in the program
and therefore will not appear in the final film," it said in a
statement.
"We would like to make it absolutely clear that the Top Gear
team has the utmost respect for the Cenotaph, what it stands
for, and those heroic individuals whose memory it serves so
fittingly."
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The episode is the latest controversy to be generated by Top Gear
which has offended Mexicans, Argentines, Germans, Indians, truck
drivers, cyclists and environmentalists among others over the years.
Last year, the BBC decided not to renew the contract of former
presenter Jeremy Clarkson, whose blunt banter and swagger helped the
show become a global success but also generated controversy, after
he punched a member of the production team, leading to the hiring of
Evans and ex-"Friends" star LeBlanc.
Sunday's stunt also upset finance minister George Osborne who was
working nearby on his annual budget statement to be delivered on
Wednesday.
"Trying to write my Budget, despite noisy episode of @BBC_TopGear
being filmed outside on Horseguards Parade. Keep it down please," he
said on Twitter.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
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