Legendary Scottish comedian, actor, writer, musician and raconteur Billy Connolly is pulling brow-raising anecdotes from his 50-year career for a new TV series, Billy Connolly Does…, premiering on UKTV’s Gold channel on February 24. London-based animation house Kong Studio was tapped to bring the stories to life, as narrated by the 79-year-old retired stand-up.
“I’m really looking forward to sharing a few of my favorite moments from over the years… it’s been brilliant, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride!” said Connolly, who has appeared in beloved movies from Muppet Treasure Island to The Boondock Saints to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Animation fans will recognize him as the voice of Fergus in Brave, and from The Ballad of Nessie, Open Season and Pocahontas.
“Billy Connolly is one of the world’s great storytellers, so we were thrilled to be asked to help bring his stories to life,” said Kong co-founder Tom Baker. “Being the renaissance man, not only is he a dab hand on the banjo but he’s also an accomplished visual artist. This helped establish the style of the animation.”
The show was commissioned by UKTV’s Iain Coyle, the Head of Comedy Entertainment in partnership with Moonshine Features. Each episode focuses on ‘The Big Yin’s’ musings on a given topic, like work, travel, parenthood and love. All the interviews took place at Connolly’s Florida home, filmed by his frequent collaborator, director Mike Reilly.
“How do you improve a Billy Connolly story involving a boring salesman, a rock’n’roll roadie and a bowl of trifle?” posed Reilly, co-Creative Director of Moonshine. “Animate it.”
The first thing to pin down was the design of Connolly himself — the avatar needed to be instantly recognizable. With Connolly being an accomplished artist himself, the Kong team had plenty of material to work with. Kong, inspired by Connolly’s line drawings, went to work replicating his signature hair, iconic lycra and banana boots
“We needed something quick and expressive but also identifiably Billy Connolly — and we got this all from the great man’s signature. He does a little caricature of himself when he signs stuff. This small detail gave us a great insight into how he sees himself,” noted Baker. “It’s a given he was center stage of every anecdote, so once we had a Billy that looked good, the rest almost drew itself. “
