Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Billy Connolly | UK certification 15 | UK RRP £19.99 | Runtime 180 minutes | Directed by Barnaby Coughlan
Former Python Michael Palin started it, but now they're all doing it. From Paul Merton visiting China and India to Stephen Fry in America and Ewen McGregor going around the world, celebrities are now all mad for hitting the road and filming it for TV.
Billy Connollly himself is no stranger to filming his travels. In the past he's travelled through England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, as well as Australia and New Zealand. But all those times he was also performing his stand-up shows, so the travelogue was interspersed with snippets of Billy's balls-out, full-on routines. He also travelled to colder climes for the 1995 special A Scot In The Arctic, in which he spent 10 days in the Canadian North West with only a banjo and a small camera as a diary for company. In Journey To The Edge Of The World, Billy is travelling through Canada again — a 10-week voyage from ocean to ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of the North West Passage. He starts in Nova Scotia and travels north, then west, then finally south to finish on Vancouver Island.
Along the way, Billy takes in some absolutely breathtaking scenery and meets a fascinating (if often eccentric) range of people — from fake Scots and fake Vikings to some geniune, native Inuit. His enthusiasm is, as always, contagious and he genuinely seems to love what he's doing and is thoroughly enjoying himself. But I do sort of miss the stand-up routines of his earlier series. Still, the guy's getting on now — he's in his late 60s — so it's pretty impressive that he's getting out and about (aboot?) making these shows in the first place.
EXTRAS *** Just Billy's Personal Travelogue, a collection of extra footage that didn't make it into the final shows, and some behind-the-scenes moments. And a lot more swearing than made it into the final shows too, which is nice — Billy isn't really Billy unless he can say fuck.