Billy Connolly s Big Send Off

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Billy Connolly explores the last taboo, death, in a brand new documentary series commissioned by ITV.

In Billy Connolly's Big Send off [WT], the comedian and actor sets out to gain an insight into the rich variety of attitudes, belief systems, rituals and customs relating to death that are woven into different cultures and communities.

Billy's quest takes him inside locations and into the company of people across religious, cultural and social boundaries, to discover, with his trademark charisma and curiosity, what death means to different communities and the diverse ways it is marked.

Along the way, Billy also looks into the business of death and candidly shares his thoughts on his own death, how he would like to go, and how he would like to be remembered.

From the eye-openly commercial aspect of death at a convention of funeral directors in Texas to a pet cemetery in San Francisco, and from a drive-thu funeral parlour in Los Angeles to the popularity of memorial t-shirts in response to the rising murder rate in New Orleans, Billy immerses himself in the different ways death is present in society.

And on a more personal level, Billy visits his favourite graveyard in his hometown of Glasgow, shares stories of funerals that he has attended, including of friends such as Keith Moon who died suddenly and how it felt to be there when his father passed away. He speaks in depth about being diagnosed with prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease as well as revealing how he relates to death and his views on the afterlife. He also talks to his close friend Eric Idle about the bittersweet humour that can be found in talking about death, jokes about plans for an unconventional grave, and duets with the Monty Python star in a unique version of Always Look On the Bright Side of Life.

The 2x60 series is produced by Burning Bright Productions, the company that made key ITV Factual series, including Poaching Wars With Tom Hardy, Ray Mears Close Encounters, and Joanna Lumley's Search for Noah's Ark. The series producer is Nicky Waltham and series director is Mike Reilly, who produced and directed Billy's last ITV series, Billy Connolly's Route 66, which was a critical and ratings hit. The executive producers are Clive Tulloh and Billy Connolly.

Billy Connolly's Big Send-off is commissioned for ITV by Jo Clinton-Davis, Controller of Factual, with Richard Klein, Director of Factual.

Richard Klein said: Death comes to us all, that much we know. And yet still it can come as a shock, to realise that. In this series Billy, sometimes playfully, sometimes profoundly, but always humorously, explores the world of traditions, attitudes, funerals and headstones that one way and another we will all have to deal at some point in our lives.

Jo Clinton-Davis said: Billy Connolly's a big fan of life, he's effervescent, energised and inspired by it, but he's also genuinely fascinated by the way we as humans treat death, a subject that is quite literally the ultimate universal experience yet so often avoided.

Clive Tulloh, Burning Bright Productions Managing Director and the series' Executive Producer, said I can't think of a better person to tackle this subject, Burning Bright is thrilled to be working with Billy Connolly.'

LINK:	http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/billy-connolly%E2%80%99s...
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