‘I’m slipping away but I’m not afraid’
Billy Connolly on fighting Parkinson’s
COURAGEOUS Billy Connolly has filmed what could be his last major TV appearance after saying of his Parkinson’s battle: “My life is slipping away.”
The legendary Scottish funnyman is seen in the second part of his BBC documentary series, Made In Scotland, in reflective mood tomorrow night.
He declares: “There is no denying it, I am 75. I have got Parkinson’s and I am at the wrong end of the telescope of life. I am at the point where the yesteryears mean more than the yesterdays.”
Later in the programme as he reflects on his mortality, he adds: “I’m near the end. I’m a damn sight nearer the end than I am the beginning. But it doesn’t frighten me, it’s an adventure and it is quite interesting to see myself slipping away.
“As bits slip off and leave me, talents leave and attributes leave.
Energy
“I don’t have the balance I used to have, I don’t have the energy I used to have. I can’t hear the way I used to hear, I can’t see as good as I used to. I can’t remember the way I used to remember. And they all came one at a time and they just slipped away, thank you.
“It is like somebody is in charge of you and they are saying: ‘Right, I added all these bits when you were a youth, now it is time to subtract’.
“I can’t work my left hand on the banjo. It is as if I am being prepared for something. Some other adventure, which is over the hill. I have got all this stuff to lose first and then I will be on the shadowy side of the hill, doing the next episode in the spirit world.”
Connolly, nicknamed “The Big Yin,” was a Glasgow welder who went on to become a global star after an appearance on Michael Parkinson’s BBC talk show in 1975, which he says “changed his life”.
Married to psychologist Pamela Stephenson, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013. He continued to tour for a few years afterwards with his High Horse stand-up show playing into 2017 but he says it got tougher and
he could no longer stride around on stage in his trademark style.
He says: “I hadn’t stood anywhere since I got Parkinson’s and I discovered that I got kind of rooted to the spot and became afraid to move.
“Instead of going all the way to the front of the stage and prowling along the front the way I used to do, I stood where I was.”
Connolly, who has turned 76 since the show was filmed, says he has cut back all work since his Parkinson’s got worse.
But he adds: “The fame remains and I have never known anything like it. People saying how nice it is to see you and how good you are looking. What is wrong with that?”
Billy Connolly: Made In Scotland concludes tomorrow night on BBC Two at 9pm.