Billy Connolly’s Big Send-Off

2 × 60"2014

Billy Connolly embarks on a hugely personal and enlightening journey looking at our attitudes towards death, exploring how we deal with it whilst also addressing his own feelings and beliefs. This poignant yet entertaining trip takes him from a funeral convention in Austin to a Drive-Thru funeral parlour in LA, via a Voodoo ceremony in New Orleans. Billy also chats to his old friend Eric Idle about the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life being an unexpected funeral hit. Billy explores both the business of death and his own personal response: how he’d like to go and how he’d like to be remembered.

WINNERRoyal Television SocietyBEST PRESENTER2015
“There can be no finer companion on a chummy talk about our journey towards death.”
Euan FergusonThe Observer
“Billy Connolly’s intimate portrait of death was a triumph.”
Jack Wallis SimonsDaily Telegraph
“The most poignant and funny television of the week.”
David StephensonSunday Express
“Trademark warmth... but with the extra clarity and poignancy brought by a ticking clock.”
Matt RuddSunday Times Culture