Big Yin bags a fourth degree... but says his wife won’t approve
HE was the boy who ‘didn’t do homework’ but who went on to collect a string of honorary degrees.
And as he picked up a fourth in Glasgow yesterday – from the University of Strathclyde – Billy Connolly revealed his academic wife disapproves of the accolades.
In his home city days after his knighthood was announced in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, the Glaswegian comedian admitted psychologist spouse Pamela Stephenson ‘frowns’ on the degrees.
He said: ‘I never wanted to attend university. The only time I was in one was to deliver coal. I delivered some publications here [Strathclyde] when I was a messenger for John Smith’s Bookshop but that’s as near as I ever got. I’m the little boy who didn’t do his homework.
‘If I had got a degree I would hate me if I was sitting there, having worked my bum off, to see this lout going up to get a degree for nothing.
‘My wife has a PhD and she frowns on these. She doesn’t really approve.
‘It’s nice, I like to take it in the mood it was given to me.’
The Big Yin received an honorary doctorate for his contribution to society during a ceremony in the city’s Barony Hall.
Wearing a suit, bow tie and red graduation gown, he asked: ‘Do I look smart?’
The star will celebrate his 75th birthday this year and 50ft murals of him have been put up in Glasgow to mark the milestone. Yesterday, he joked: ‘I’m starting to wonder if they know something I don’t, with all these prizes piling in, especially the lifetime achievement stuff.
‘It’s absolutely wonderful... it’s lovely’