Billy Connolly tours Route 66

Comedian rides iconic rode for ITV documentary

SHOWING tonight on ITV1 is the start of Billy Connolly's four-part series exploring the 2,488 miles of America's Route 66.

The comedian will travel the world's most famous highway on board a Boom Lowrider LR8 Muscle trike. The journey begins in Chicago from the top of Sears Tower to the speakeasies where the city's gangsters did business during the prohibition era.

Typical of Billy's motorcycle tours, he intersperses the interesting with the oddball by visiting the home of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois before going off-route and heading to Amish country, where he takes a horse-drawn buggy ride.

A crash whilst filming nearly put paid to the documentary as he lost control of the trike. Describing the accident to the Daily Mail, Connolly said: "We came to the end of Route 66 and there was a [steep incline] with gravel. My bike has got three wheels and I went up and round.

"I was using cruise control on the throttle and it jammed on and I slipped the clutch. The trike came over on top of me and broke my rib."

Tune into ITV1 at 9pm for Billy Connolly's Route 66.