MILKING IT THE BIG GRIN
Billy laps up his memories of being a bottle boy thanks to team from Wishaw dairies Sir Billy Connolly enjoyed his trip down Memory Lane thanks to the team from Thomson Dairies
The cream of Scottish comedy, Sir Billy Connolly, relived his youth last week when he climbed behind the wheel of a Wishaw dairy’s new electric milk float.
Researchers from 7 Wonder Productions, who are filming a documentary for the BBC about The Big Yin’s colourful life, approached Thomson Dairies after reading in the Wishaw Press about the Etna Industrial Estate firm’s shift from plastic cartons to traditional glass milk bottles.
Although famed for his years as a Clyde shipyard worker, Billy also worked in the 1970s as a milkboy, doing rounds from Drumchapel to Bearsden.
Last week, the production film asked Thomson Dairies to bring their vintagestyle eco- friendly electric float, which delivers to customers in the Wishaw area, to the set in Drumchapel to help Billy take a trip down memory lane during filming.
The comedian, who reminisced about hanging off the back of the float while delivering milk in glass bottles during his early morning winter rounds, climbed into the cabin of the Thomson’s float.
Thomson Dairy workers, who met Billy, said he was “grinning like a Cheshire cat and couldn’t take the smile off his face,” as he relished the chance to turn back the clock to his days as a milk boy when he delivered the white stuff in glass bottles.
Good humoured Billy, donning a long tartan coat, chatted and joked with workers about his childhood memories inspired by his reunion with Thomson Dairies’ traditional milk float.
He also congratulated the firm’s director, William Thomson, for the company’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint by adding the first electric float to its fleet, delivering more than 90 per cent of new customers’ pintas in reusable glass bottles.