World Tour of Scotland
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| World Tour of Scotland | |
|---|---|
 DVD box-set cover |
|
| Genre | Documentary / Comedy |
| Creator(s) | Billy Connolly Nobby Clark Steve Brown |
| Starring | Billy Connolly |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 180 minutes (30 min/episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
World Tour of Scotland was a six-part television series - the first of Billy Connolly's (thus far) four "world tours" - originally broadcast by the BBC in the winter of 1994. It involved his touring around his homeland of Scotland for 54 nights during the early part of '94, beginning in Greenock and visiting cities and towns and performing live on stage to audiences. However, this, like all his other tours, involved more than just shows: he visited numerous places of historic and scenic value, as well as some places that resonate with his own upbringing.
While at Dundee Law, Connolly gave a straight reading of William McGonagall's poem The Tay Bridge Disaster within sight of the Tay Rail Bridge. During the course of filming, a blizzard happened, and about two inches of snow fell.
Contents |
[edit] Episode guide
[edit] Episode One
The series began with Connolly aboard a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry sailing down the west coast.
- Glasgow
- Dover Street, the street on which Connolly was born
- Provand's Lordship
- The tenement building where Connolly lived between the ages of fourteen and twenty
- Glasgow Cross
- Necropolis
- King's Theatre (concert venue)
- Auchingillan scout camp
[edit] Episode Two
[edit] Episode Three
- Blair Athol
- Highlands
- Inverness
- Culloden Moor
[edit] Episode Four
- Ulbster, Caithness
- Wick
- Orkney Islands
- Ring of Brogar (referred to by Connolly as the Standing Stones of Brogar)
- Kirkwall
- Scapa Flow (to which he travelled on the fishing boat Triton)
- Lerwick, Shetland (including two performances in the same night at the Garrison Theatre, the latter took him into the next day)
[edit] Episode Five
- Arbroath (where he sampled a smokie)
- Dundee (including footage from his performance at Caird Hall)
- Scottish Borders, Kelso (including Connolly out on his racing bike)
Connolly almost ventured into English territory at the end of the fifth episode when he cycled past the "Scotland" sign in Roxburgh. "I've come a bit far here, I believe," he says, after screeching his bike to a halt. "And me out without my passport. It is a Scottish tour, after all. One thing confuses me, however," he continued, as he prepared to retrace his route. "If this is the border with England, and this is the border with Scotland, what happens in [between]? Maybe it's owned by the Manx government, or something. I don't know. Perhaps you can build a house here and never pay tax again."
[edit] Episode Six
[edit] Music
The music featured in the series is available on Connolly's 1995 album Musical Tour of Scotland.
| Billy Connolly |
| Selected Filmography |
| Indecent Proposal (1993) - Pocahontas (voice only) (1995) - Muppet Treasure Island (1996) - Mrs. Brown (1997) - Still Crazy (1998) - The Debt Collector (1999) - The Boondock Saints (1999) - Beautiful Joe (2000) - The Man Who Sued God (2001) - White Oleander (2002) - The Last Samurai (2003) - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) - Fido (2006) - Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (voice only) (2006) - Open Season (voice only) (2006) |
| "World Tours" |
| World Tour of Scotland (1994) - World Tour of Australia (1996) - World Tour of England, Ireland and Wales (2002) - World Tour of New Zealand (2004) |
| "Musical Tours" |
| Musical Tour of Scotland (1995) - Musical Tour of New Zealand (2004) |
