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Never fans of understatement, the presenters of the motoring TV programme Top Gear charged across London's Tower Bridge in a stretched version of an armoured personnel carrier to launch a £20 million ($36 million) world tour that will act as a template for other BBC "superbrands" to be taken on the road.
After recently agreeing pay deals tying them to the programme for years to come, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will present their live show in London and Birmingham from October before taking it around the world - with a proposed pit stop in the Middle East.
But the announcement comes at a sensitive time for the BBC's commercial arm, with its increasingly vociferous band of critics bound to say their choice of PR stunt is all too appropriate as they complain of the corporation's determination to park its tanks on their lawn.
Domestic fans will pay up to £105 to see the 75-minute live show, where the presenters will play host to up to 16 "segments" including a live Top Gear lap challenge - where a member of the audience will race around a purpose-built track - and lead the debate over which cars should make it on to Clarkson's "cool wall".
Top Gear is the first of up to 20 global "superbrands" that BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, has targeted as potential revenue-generating machines across television, the internet, publishing and live events.
The live show will visit 10 cities in its first year, including Johannesburg, Sydney, Auckland and Hong Kong. Each location will host at least 10 shows, with Top Gear Live playing to a total of more than 300,000 people. Deals for a second series of dates, including appearances in Moscow, Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi, are on the verge of being signed.
Clarkson said the idea for a live tour was born last year when the presenters were performing in South Africa. "There was a huge demand from all over the world for us to go and perform. This is an opportunity to come and watch us three cocking about," he said.
Hammond said he wanted to "push the boundaries of cocking about in the show". He added: "I've had a brilliant idea. It must be possible for us to build a hovercraft. We will also be playing football on the grandest scale, with cars."
The motoring programme already has a substantial global fan base - including a huge following in Bahrain - after being sold to more than 100 countries. The brand has also been applied to everything from magazines to children's books and toys, and CDs to video games. Now there are plans to turbocharge its growth, establishing a global online presence with the relaunch of its web portal next month and doing deals to make localised versions around the world.
But BBC Worldwide has increasingly come under fire from rivals as it has been reorganised to achieve ambitious targets and started acquiring stakes in independent production companies around the world.
Tony Elliott, founder of the Time Out listing magazines and travel guide group, has reported it to the UK's Office of Fair Trading over its £75 million acquisition of a majority stake in the guide book publisher Lonely Planet and Alex Graham, chief executive of Wall to Wall Media, producer of Who Do You Think You Are?, accused it of practising a "cultural version of sub-prime lending".
BBC Worldwide this year unveiled record profits of £117.7 million and its chief executive, John Smith, has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan.
Executives argue that it has been charged by the government with exploiting the BBC's assets abroad in order to return profits to the public service arm and that its contribution will become ever more important as the licence fee comes under pressure.
Adam Waddell, managing director of Top Gear for BBC Worldwide, said the priority was to maintain its integrity and it had turned down many approaches that he felt would have compromised the brand.
He insisted there was no conflict between the BBC2 show, funded by the licence fee, and the commercial exploitation of the brand overseas. He said the global tour would take place during a gap in filming and confirmed that the three presenters had a financial stake in its success.
