A shiny Lincoln Navigator SUV with New York tags rolled up in front of Whitmire City Hall yesterday and three men stepped out.

Two have foreign accents and the other carried a Venti-sized Starbucks to-go cup.

They’re not from around here.

But Mayor Tim Carroll knows the drill.

Sometimes Carroll gets a little nervous, but overall, interviews are becoming easier.

“It’s getting better,” he says.

More than a dozen news companies across the state have interviewed Carroll since hearing of Whitmire and the closing of its biggest industry, Renfro.

That’s because Renfro’s closing represents what’s happening elsewhere.

Or at least that’s why Brian Gottlieb picked Whitmire.

Gottlieb, producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s BBC News, is the one with the Starbucks cup and no accent. He’s worked with the BBC for six years and formerly with PBS’ The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

He and the BBC News Washington, D.C. crew flew to Columbia Monday and interviewed Gov. Mark Sanford. Then they rented a car and were in Whitmire a little after 10 a.m. yesterday.

“I think we wanted to find an example and a way to illustrate how the economic downturn is impacting small communities,” says Gottlieb.

Gottlieb balances a notepad in the palm of his left hand, jotting notes behind the camera where Australian-born cameraman Allen McGreevy stands.

All the while, BBC’s Jamie Coomarasamy interviews Carroll on a Main Street sidewalk outside City Hall.

Coomarasamy, wearing a navy suit, burgundy tie and royal blue shirt, pauses the interview three times because of extra noise.

First, a man nearby drives off. Then a helicopter buzzes overhead.

“Maybe they’re looking at Renfro,” says Carroll laughing. Carroll says Whitmire never has helicopters flying around.

“That’s our other camera crew,” Gottlieb jokes.

After another nearby car leaves, the taping continues.

For around 45 minutes under the warm morning sun, Coomarasamy asks Carroll questions about the town, like, if anyone has shown interest in the Renfro building, if there is any current plant activity there and what the town needs at the moment.

“We need a business and a plant,” says Carroll. “This is probably the worst time we’ve ever been through. This is the first time we’ve been without industry.”

On the phone last week, when BBC scheduled the interview, they also asked if Carroll was a republican or a democrat.

But then and during the interview, Carroll kept his answers neutral, especially when answering questions about the governor and President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan.

He didn’t want to say anything that would keep the town out of the running for stimulus money.

After Carroll’s interview, BBC also interviewed former Renfro employee Heath Hood at Hood’s Whitmire home.

BBC planned another interview, but the other Renfro worker changed his mind.

“I hope it went great. I hope they get the word out,” said Carroll after the taping. “I tried to push that we have a good work force.”

NAPA manager Alfred Belk watched pieces of the interview taping from his Main Street storefront window.

He says he welcomes the BBC’s coverage in hopes of new town business.

“Anything to bring business to our little town is good,” he says. “Years ago, we put all our eggs into textile, and now it’s starting to hurt us.”

Since Renfro’s closing, Belk says NAPA business in Whitmire is down only about 5 percent from this time last year.

“We’re still doing pretty much what we did last year. We’re a little off, but not much,” says Belk.

While Carroll says the news interviews can be “kind of aggravating,” he too welcomes the opportunity a national broadcast could bring.

“The more news we can get about the plant and everything, the more chance we have for something to be back in there,” he says.

The broadcast featuring Whitmire will run on BBC Thursday at 7:10 p.m. on BBC America.

Locally, BBC news can be viewed through broadcasts on South Carolina’s ETV channel or on BBC America.