In My Own Words to look at his career with ‘unflinching honesty’

Billy Connolly is to look back at his career in a significant new BBC film.

The comedian is one of the stars to be profiled in a new strand of documentaries called In My Own Words – a series of interviews  with creative talents that sets out to explore what 'fires their imaginations, and the forces that have shaped their extraordinary lives’.

The Big Yin’s episode will feature personal archive and rarely-seen performances as well as classic stand-up and ‘unflinching honesty’. The BBC describe it as ‘an illuminating, poignant and thoughtful programme’.

The other subjects of the strand are writers Jilly Cooper, Jackie Kay and Hanif Kureishi plus artist Alison Lapper.

Suzy Klein, the BBC’s head of arts, said: ‘This country boasts some of the most super-charged creative minds anywhere in the world - our artists, writers, actors, comedians and poets are second to none.  But we rarely get the chance to get up close to them and discover what fires their imaginations, and the forces that have shaped their extraordinary lives.

‘In this fresh, contemporary series of unmediated interviews, we will get inside the creative minds of some of Britain's leading lights - prepare for a thought-provoking and often emotional ride.’

The Connolly episode is made by Whisper  and directed by Mike Reilly, who has a long history with the comic, dating back to the 2011 travelogue  Billy Connolly's Route 66.

He also directed the Billy Connolly's Big Send Off, about attitudes to death, the travel shows Tracks Across America, Great American Trial and Made In Scotland, and the Gold retrospective series  Billy Connolly Does…

In My Own Words  will air this autumn.

Published: 11 Jun 2024