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Movies & TV

10th Jan 2020

BBC to dedicate a night to the iconic Billy Connolly with three documentaries

Paul Moore

Billy Connolly

A legend. Set record because it airs tonight.

It’s Friday, we’re all broke after Christmas, there are two weather warnings in place.

What else are you going to do this evening? Well, the Late Late Show and The Graham Norton Show are back with an interesting selection of guests, the brilliant 1917 is now in cinemas – you can check out our review here – and there are some very good films on TV.

However, if you fancy a laugh and a look back at the life of one of the greatest comedians of all time, BBC Two is the channel to watch.

That’s because they’re dedicating an entire night to ‘The Big Yin,’ better known as Billy Connolly.

Starting at 10pm tonight, Billy Connolly: Life, Death and Laughter follows the iconic comedian as he returns to Glasgow’s famous Kings Theatre – where his journey into comedy first began – to talk life, death and laughter.

The feature looks back on Connolly’s past and ahead to the future, covering all elements of his unusually packed existence – how he got started, his approach to comedy, his Scottish roots and how Parkinson’s disease is the latest thing he is having to laugh at.

Later on this evening, Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland airs at 11.05pm with part one taking a uniquely ‘Billy’ approach to biography – part shaggy dog tale, part self-portrait, with a lot of jokes, personal archive and a few famous faces thrown in between.

The second part of the documentary – which airs immediately after the first episode finishes – finds the comedian back in the Scotland of his childhood, where he reveals that knitted woolly swimming trunks were not a figment of his imagination.

That’s a good night in if you’re a fan of the legendary comedian.

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