So, by a remarkable coincidence, 'my friend' had exactly the same issue with failed headlights (but still operational sidelights) as I did last night.
My friend noted that it was 2130 and almost dark, and that he was 100 miles from home.
He also did not want to spend two hours waiting for a recovery truck when the car started and drove just fine, bar the lack of light output.
My friend therefore decided that he was going to place faith in the universe and see if he could make it home by closely following lorries and/or cars if necessary, on the basis that they would be able to see where they were going and therefore enable 'a clear path' to follow with much reduced chance of driving into anything.
Upon leaving the petrol station, my friend chanced upon a lorry going round the roundabout it was sited on, going in the right direction, followed by two cars.
My friend followed this convoy and both cars peeled off in short order, leaving him directly behind the lorry.
He followed said lorry for about 15 miles in the direction he wanted to go, and then another lorry pulled onto a roundabout and followed my friend and the lorry.
At quite literally the second roundabout after this occurred, not a minute later, the first lorry turned off in the 'wrong' direction at one of those roundabouts that goes under a dual carriageway and has on-/off-slips.
My friend was slightly concerned at this point but thought he would go up the slip road, pull onto the 'hard shoulder' and see if he could sit and wait for another lorry or car to come along, which he could then tag onto.
Lo and behold, the lorry that was following took the same route, meaning my friend was waiting for about 15 seconds before being back on the move in the right direction
At the end of this dual carriageway both my friend and the lorry went to join the motorway - the only junction for about 20 miles - but the sliproad was shut!
The lorry went round the roundabout again (at some speed!) and my friend followed closely, in order to avoid getting separated by evil traffic lights on the roundabout, and the lorry then set off on the diversion route - which my friend knew was going to be long, twisty and potentially complicated, but at least he would get to probably the next junction on the motorway.
My friend followed that lorry for miles and miles, but then had a moment of crisis (not in a good way) when the lorry took a route different to what appeared to be the diversion route.
Feeling a bit stressed by this, my friend circled the (large) roundabout before realising the signpost in the direction the lorry went had one of the 'black shape on yellow background' diversion route symbols that lorries use, and therefore realised the lorry was going in the right direction.
But... the lorry had properly sped off in the 20 seconds my friend was faffing!
My friend decided that speed and faith was what was required, despite no streetlights, so set off at some considerable speed and tried to remain over the centre line of what was (fortunately) a short dual carriageway section, in order to avoid a fiery death in the pitch dark.
This section of road was perhaps only a minute long but felt like forever - but the universe was benevolent, and the lorry was seen coming into the next roundabout in the distance so my friend kept the boot in and caught up just as the streetlights for the roundabout section ran out.
My friend then stuck closely to the lorry through villages, sweeping bypasses, twisty country bits, resurfacing works with no centre lines or roadside marker lines... all the way to the onslip to the next dual carriageway, which the lorry took in the right direction and continued to do so, despite a fork in the road (that would otherwise have stranded my friend on a major A-road with no hard shoulder until another vehicle came along) and many opportunities to turn off.
This continued until two junctions before the one my friend wanted to leave at - but the lorry was still going in broadly the right direction and my friend could use an alternative route once they were closer to his home, so he took the chance and followed it.
Alas, that road was closed at the roundabout before the one my friend wanted, but at that roundabout the lorry peeled off into the services. My friend therefore circled the roundabout and parked up out of the way and under a streetlight, then broke out the map.
While doing so, a Hi Viz chap in a van who had been setting up the roadworks/diversion signs happened upon my friend, and offered an alternative, short route through some quiet villages that would take my friend pretty much directly home.
The next 5 or so miles were somewhat slower and more cautious, with some sections with no lines at all and a couple of cars coming meaning the need to stop and stick an indicator on to avoid running off the road because of being blinded, but my friend got home safely two and a half hours after setting off
My friend is not an airy fairy tree-hugger hippy, but my friend also believes that the universe must have been looking out for him - to chance upon a lorry going in the right direction just as he left the petrol station, then have another lorry join just before that first lorry took a turning in the wrong direction, and then have that lorry quite literally do the remainder of the entire 100-mile route my friend needed to do (bar the last five miles of empty country roads) seems too remarkable to be believable or coincidence.
So if the universe is listening, my friend is very thankful
EDIT:
TL;DR - 'My friend' managed to drive 100 miles in 2.5 hours in the dark with no headlights, thanks to unbelievable timing in getting behind and following just two lorries for the whole route bar the last small bit.
