Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and James May have been rapped by the BBC for drinking at the wheel during a TV special.

Show presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May were seen sipping gin and tonics during their attempt to become the first people to drive a car to the Magnetic North Pole.

The duo used a Toyota Hilux heavily modified by Arctic Trucks, while Richard Hammond raced against them in a sled pulled by dogs.

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And at one point, May asked Clarkson to "slow down while I cut the lemon".

Producers of the show defended the footage, saying the item was filmed in an uninhabitable area of the North Pole.

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The executive producer said it was filmed in international waters, the presenters were not shown to be drunk or not in control of the car, and they were beyond the jurisdiction of any drink-driving laws.

But the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) said 10 per cent  of the pre-watershed show's audience were under the age of 16.

It said: "Given that some children might regard the presenters as role models, the scenes could be seen to glamorise the misuse of alcohol.

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"The Committee did not think that the scenes of drinking while driving were editorially justified in the context of family entertainment.

"As such, the Committee concluded that there had been a breach of the guidelines and that, in future, repeats of this programme should not be shown pre-watershed unless the scene was edited out."

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It’s not the first time Top Gear has courted controversy.

In July last year the team were criticised by environmentalists after they drove across the Makgadikgadi salt pans in Africa.

And after Richard Hammond’s 288mph Dragster smash, Clarkson offended a brain injury charity by asking if his pint-sized co-presenter was a “mental?”

Clarkson also ended that episode by saying “Do please remember… speed kills.”

The ESC rejected complaints about the staging of shots in the Top Gear: Polar Special, which was broadcast last summer at 8pm on BBC2.

A viewer complained that the show did not distinguish between the North Pole and the Magnetic North Pole.

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But the ESC said: "The presenters had undertaken a continuous journey to the Magnetic North Pole and the use of cutaway shots had not misled the audience but had provided a greater variety of pictures which amounted to acceptable artifice."

It also rejected complaints that broadcasting footage of frostbitten genitalia was irresponsible.