Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Billy Connolly | UK cert 15 | UK RRP £21.99 | Runtime 82 mins | Directed by Nic Morris
Since that evening many, many years ago when I first saw Billy Connolly reducing chat-show host Michael Parkinson to tears, I've been a massive fan of this hairy Scottish funnyman.
I was fortunate enough, back in the late 1990s, so see Connollly perform live at the Sydney Opera house, and he had me – and the rest of the audience – reduced to tears of laughter. Now here on DVD is a London gig from his 2010 UK tour, and what it proves beyond a doubt is that age is, in no way, wearying him and making the Big Yin less funny than he was in his younger days.
Connolly is renowned for not so much telling jokes as spinning long-winded, hilarious yarns. And it never ceases to amaze me where he finds his material. In this show alone, Billy riffs on getting old, his hatred of GPS systems, the BBC's Radio 4, huskie dog farts, bravery, submarines, radio ventriloquists, tattoos, the Beige Society and dwarves (sorry, "little people").
Here's a guy who can even do 20 minutes on the trouble he had just getting to the gig that night. He manages to take the ordinary, mundane rituals of everyday life and find the funniest side possible. And then share that with an audience in such a way that you feel you're simply sitting in a pub, having a yarn with an old mate.And that's fine by me.
EXTRAS None, sadly ...