Movie set to reignite Bigley row

Billy Connolly, who was vilified in the press for his comments over executed British hostage Ken Bigley, is to decapitate a character in his next film.

The 63-year-old comic will slice off a zombie’s head with a shovel in the new a new comedy horror movie Fido, which starts filming in Canada today.

It is a role likely to reignite the barrage of criticism he faced when, in a comment on blanket media coverage of the hostage crisis, Connolly told a London audience he wished those who captured Bigley “would just get on with it". Days later he was beheaded.

In Fido, Connolly plays the 6ft 4in domesticated zombie of the title alongside fellow actors Dylan Baker and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The film is set in a stylized Fifties-looking world in which the dead have risen from their graves – only to be tamed with an electronic collar which allows them to be employed in menial jobs or as pets.

The plot centers on Timmy (K' Sun Ray), whose pet zombie Fido eats the cranky next-door neighbour when his collar goes on the blink, causing her to become a zombie too.

They fight to the finish, which is when the decapitation scene occurs, when Connolly's character "chops off her head with a shovel and buries her in a flowerbed." according to the website of co-producers Anagram Pictures.

Peter Block of fellow producers Lions Gate said: “Fido is a terrifically entertaining project… quirky and scary and one of our favorite scripts of recent years.”

After the story of Connolly's comments broke in October last year, the comic branded journalists ‘slime’ and denied ever  making the comment. In a statement at the time, he added:  "Billy is saddened by any distress these false reports have caused Mr Bigley's family."

Published: 9 Jun 2005