Connolly tackles Northwest Passage

Billy Connolly is embarking on a new travel series, navigating the Northwest Passage.

He has just begun a two-month trip negotiating the 3,200-mile Arctic route between the Atlantic and the Pacific – which previously thwarted Francis Drake and James Cook.

The adventure is being filmed for a four-part ITV series, Journey To The Edge Of The World, due to be screened in primetime next year.

Connolly has previously toured the UK, Australia and New Zealand for the BBC’s World Tour series. He also filmed a documentary for the BBC in 1996, spending a week alone in the Arctic Circle.

Connolly told the Sunday Times: ‘I have a personal liking for the Arctic since I was there before. I love the silence.

‘It is the most extraordinary corner of the world. It’s every bit as dramatic as going deep into water, it’s every bit as foreign as that when you find yourself confronted with enormous space and a silence that you think you can hear.’

The Northwest Passage claimed hundreds of lives until it was first travelled by sea by Roald Amundsen in 1906, although global warming has made the passage more accessible today.

Connolly set off from Nova Scotia last week. His trip means he will miss his traditional role as laird of the Lonarch Highland Games near his Scottish estate, but last week he did attend the New Brunswick Highland Games in Canada.

It was the comedian’s first Highland Games abroad and he told organisers it was ‘absolutely smashing’.

Published: 3 Aug 2008