LEGENDARY comedian Billy Connolly has opened up about facing death and living with Parkinson's.
The Scottish star revealed that he has seen the funny side of death and has come to terms with his illness.
Connolly was diagnosed with prostate cancer and Parkinson's on the same day in 2013 and has since recovered from cancer.
Now in a new BBC show, Connolly is opening up about his life and health struggles in a series called 'In My Own Words'.
📢 Billy Connolly, Jilly Cooper, Jackie Kay, Hanif Kureishi and Alison Lapper announced as the first subjects in new BBC series In My Own Words "Prepare for a thought-provoking and often emotional ride" Find out more ⤵️https://t.co/QIf1LkzL7S
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) June 10, 2024
Billy Connolly opens up about death
Speaking on the show, Connolly shares how he laughed off his diagnosis: "Yes, it was a funny week I had.
"On the Monday, I had hearing aids. On the Tuesday I got pills for heartburn, which I have to take all the time, and on the Wednesday I got news that I had prostate cancer and Parkinson's.
"The doctors told me on the phone, ‘Look we have had the results and it is cancer.’ I said ‘Oh, nobody has ever said that to be me before’."
Revealing the first thing his wife did, Connolly added: "My wife Pamela (Stephenson) was standing behind me and gave me a cuddle. I was not unduly worried."
Connolly had previously joked in an interview with The Mirror that his Parkinson's must have been caused by appearing on Michael Parkinson's chat show so much.
Telling the paper: "I just thought ‘I have got Parkinson's. I wish he [Michael] had kept it to himself!’ It was easy [making fun if it].
"You just confront it and make decisions based on it. You just have to think ‘Don't think you are being badly treated [in life] or you have the bad pick of the straws. You are one of millions’. Just behave yourself and relax.
"You then realise it [death] is not the big thing everyone has made it out to be. It is nothing. It is just a sudden nothing."
Billy Connolly to star in new BBC One show
BBC's new show 'In My Own Words' will see Connolly discuss his friendship with comic Robin Williams, open up about his struggles with alcohol and his thoughts on how good he is as a father.
The comic will also share what it was like growing up in Glasgow in poverty, sharing that he and his siblings had to sleep in a recess off the kitchen and wash in the kitchen sink.
Sharing: "It was not a happy time. It was a dark time. It was very violent and I was beaten up by my aunts. It had a profound influence on me. I felt kind of abandoned as a child and trapped.
"I was brought up in a home and it was hellish. It is not the way to treat children. It is funny to see people on children today when they say ‘It is not right to hit a child... but a little slap.’
"It does not work. It was cruel and it was not right. I was longing to be an adult. I kept thinking ‘Where is all the fun?’ I read books at school where kids were having fun with their parents but, for me, it was not there."
Billy Connolly: In My Own Words starts on BBC One on Monday, September 2 at 10.40pm.
