Billy fearless and peerless

THE Big Yin may have given up stand-up and retired to Florida, but he’s still the funniest man on telly.

Or anywhere else. Billy Connolly Does mixes old clips with new anecdotes, all sautéed in mischief and joy.

Connolly recalled a night on the razz with Keith Moon, who told him: “I’ve given up drinking. I’m only having brandy suppositories.”

And a hotel where a salesman, boring on about B-roads, was rewarded by Billy’s roadie Kenneth shoving a big bowl of trifle down the front of his strides.

“Justice carried out à la road,” he chuckled.

Then there was the time Gerry Rafferty – “a nutter” – used the speakers on their SNP-supporting promoter’s car roof to warn the citizens of Gourock that a truck carrying poisonous snakes had overturned. The Baker Street star advised the public to assemble at the town hall. It was 3am – and they did. Irresponsible? Yes. Wicked? Maybe. Funny? Beyond doubt.

Clips of Billy’s drunk walking routine were hilarious.

Now teetotal, Connolly admitted that alcohol doesn’t make you clever, adding: “I found that out when I was in a phone box in London and I couldn’t get out.”

We got confessions – punching hecklers, punching paparazzi – vintage footage and homespun wisdom. Billy was always fearless, original and near-the-knuckle.

All reasons why he’d be cancelled in this strange age where humourless berks censor our greatest comedies and slap warnings on Dad’s Army.

They see offence where none exists. There were even complaints about Ant and Dec’s drag act – and not because it stank and drag has been done to death either.

These people are to entertainment what Putin is to peace-keeping, trampling over popular opinion and destroying everything in their path.

Laughter can’t be regulated. As Billy says: “Life can be funny, if you give it half a chance.”