Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail comes to an end

Telly Today: Television highlights for September 19th. This Thursday brings us the final episode in the series of Brassic, its the last of Billy Connoly’s American road trip and over on Channel 4 we can play ‘tag’.

One to Watch: Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail, ITV, STV and UTV at 9pm

Billy Connolly’s Great American Trail has been an epic three-part travelogue that has seen Billy venturing far off the beaten track into the places many have heard of but have rarely seen, as he followed the migratory trail of the Scots through America.

Starting in New York and finishing in the heart of America, Nashville, Tennessee. The series has been bursting at the seams with music, football, gangsters, whales, real life moonshiners and not one but two, mad, bad and terrible presidents who both had Scottish parents!

In tonight’s last episode it begins deep in Virginia on the trail of bootleggers dealing in the illegal drink moonshine.

From there Billy follows the trail of the underground railroad and the amazing woman who led hundreds of slaves to their freedom, meeting one of the family members keeping her memory very much alive.

Then stopping off to encounter the baffling sight of a farm filled with giant sculpted heads of all the American Presidents. From there it’s onto mining country…..and the town that’s dealing with the biggest epidemic in American history, the opioid crisis.

They say that all of country music can be traced back to one family, the Carter family, and, in a pinch yourself moment, Billy visits  the home of the family that put country music on the map. Then it’s to the backroom of Manuel Cuuevas’s atelier, the flamboyant designer who put Elvis in that goldsuit, Cher in bell bottoms and dressed the Beatles.

Ending in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry and the hallowed stage where Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash performed.

Brassic, Sky One at 10pm

In the last escapade of the series, Vinnie is horrified to discover that the boot of a car he’s spontaneously nicked contains stolen antiques belonging to Terence McCann.

Threatening him with horrific violence, McCann tasks Vinnie with returning the antiques and finding the individual who stole them. But it’s easier said than done. Especially when Vinnie finally locates the oddest item – McCann’s prized Antique dildo – clamped in the jaws of Petunia, a stubborn farm dog.

As Vinnie and the lads scramble to find the culprit, Dylan has his mind on other things and is shocked to discover another devastating secret that Erin has been hiding from him.

Hairy Bikers – Route 66, BBC Two at 8pm

On the second leg of their Route 66 adventure Dave and Si set out to discover what lies beneath the legend of this iconic road. At a biker bar in Missouri, they learn of a much older route: The Trail Of Tears, A path taken by the Cherokee and other tribes after being forcibly removed from their homelands. Then, after a spot of fishing on the Big Piney River, the Bikers cook up Blackened Fish and Dirty Corn for the bar’s regulars.

Heading west, Dave and Si visit a roadside museum described as a love letter to Route 66. The current owner, like her father before her, is passionate about keeping the magic of the fabled road alive.

In Tulsa Dave and Si realise that since leaving Chicago they have travelled as far south as west – which inspires a visit to the city’s best known soul food joint. Here they learn of one of the darker chapters in American history – the Greenwood Massacre.

World Chase Tag – 2019 World Championships, Channel 4 at 11.55pm

If you’re staying up late Channel 4 brings one of the world’s fastest growing new sports to TV for the first time. Chase Tag is a high-octane version of playground ‘It’ or ‘Tig’, as one Chaser and one Evader face off in a 12×12 metre quad of scaffolding and ramps.

Each match is made up of 16 one-on-one chases in which the Evader must survive 20 seconds without being tagged to win a point. The action is frenetic and spectacular as the athletes display extraordinary acrobatic ability to leap, dive and tumble their way through the steel course at high speed, one instinctively scampering for survival while the other aggressively hunts them down.

The event features eight teams competing for the title in a knockout format, including the reigning world champions from the UK, the European champions from France, and teams from Japan and USA.