Travellin’ light
Road trips are a good way to learn bits about any place you travel to. Ask any inter-railer or backpacker. It’s even easier to learn stuff if you have a guide, although don’t let Coach Trip be your only example of how that might work. Our enthusiastic guide, all along Route 66, like a court jester mixing information with entertainment (infotainment is not a new thing), is Billy Connolly.
Billy Connolly is an odd fish, having carved out his own non-conformist way, previously sporting his green beard, dressed in motley and even now in the land of supersize garnering attention for his remarkable customised motorbike. As an outsider to pretty much everywhere he may well be the perfect tour guide, enthusiastically embracing the culture of wherever he goes yet never abandoning his own very ‘other’ identity in the name of integration. As he says to an artist in Chicago: “Rubbing people the wrong way is a good thing I think”. And he doesn’t mince his words when it comes to his opinion of the Trump Tower surrounded by more considered architectural landscapes.
“As an outsider to pretty much everywhere, he may well be the perfect tour guide”
His energy and editorial are both reasons to call this Billy Connolly’s Route 66, rather than simply Route 66 As Travelled By Another Celebrity. His fascination is with the detail, from the shocking existence of The Negro Travellers’ Green Book, which he is assured many times saved a person’s life, to why the lovely Amish man he meets is not allowed pockets on his shirt.
Admittedly there are times when you feel like you may be travelling with a petulant middle-aged teenager. Upon meeting with survivors of a massive tornado, picking through the pieces of their homes for treasures, he remarks upon their incredible good spirits.
When told that his conversation pal’s mother is already positively restyling a rebuild in her head he likens her to his wife at home and her designs. This smacks of either trying too hard to relate to people he cannot relate to, or simply missing the point for a weak jolly gag. After years’ of being a millionaire stand-up I’d say it was the first, grasping for relatable material as his life becomes less and less relateable to his audience, but still this feels a step too far.
However, in the main this is travelling with the best uncle ever, full of wide eyed wonder at sidewalk giants and peach pie recipes. It’s the possible gaffs and slightly sharp edges that stops this being just another tourism advert. And like Billy said, he quite likes rubbing people up the wrong way.
Billy Connolly’s Route 66, ITV1, Thursday 15 September
