Billy Connolly talks Parkinson's and death in My Absolute Pleasure documentary

Billy Connolly: My Absolute Pleasure will visit the comedian in his Florida home on December 26.

In the show, the Big Yin speaks of his terminal illness as he retraces his career of comic, musician and actor, back to his difficult childhood and his start in the Glasgow shipyards, The Scottish Sun reported.

He said: “You have to have a Glasgow attitude and say, ‘Oh you think you have me beat? Well, try this for size!’

“I just deal with it. If I fall, I fall. I made the decision to stand back from stand-up because of my illness.

"It was affecting the work that I do. The sharpness was gone. It rounded all the corners.

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“But I’ve got absolutely no regrets. I feel great. I think about death a lot. Not an excessive amount. I think about it every day.

"I’ve seen people die and it’s OK. It’s not painful. You just go away. You exhale and it’s gone. It’s nothing to be frightened of. It’s just the next step.

“Buddhists think you come back as a recreation of someone else. I don’t know — I’ll settle for whatever they’ve got.”

The 79-year-old is now basking in the sunshine of Florida Keys, where he shares the family home with wife Pamela Stephenson-Connolly, 72. 

Although the entertainer seems perfectly at ease in the tropical islands, which he says are full of like-minded young-at-heart people, he joked it wasn’t his decision to move there initially.

Billy Connolly in 2019. Credit: Pamela Stephenson

“I didn’t settle in Florida Keys, my wife settled in Florida Keys. She sold my house and moved. And then she gave me the option, would I want to come or not?

“It’s a good place. A lot of old hippies live here and people who refuse to be old. It suits me lovely. 

“People do yoga here and you can stand and hate them as they bend backwards — the bs!”

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However, Billy’s idyllic existence has not been unaffected by the disease, diagnosed in 2013.

“Parkinson’s has taken a lot from me,” he said. “I can’t play the banjo any more. It’s just a noise. I can’t yodel any more — I used to like yodelling. I can’t smoke cigars.

“As it goes along it’s taken more and more of what I like. And it’s kinda painful. 

“I have to behave in a certain way so my children don’t think I’m a dead loss. I want them to think: ‘He does well with what he’s got’.”

This year, the comedian also launched his first-ever autobiography, Windswept & Interesting.

Billy Connolly on stage at the Pavilion, 1980

Born in 1942 in Anderston, Billy was left by mum Mary at the age of four, while his dad physically and sexually abused him.

From a young age, Billy was aware that his family situation was problematic and was determined to change it. 

“About ten or 11 years old, I was really unhappy then,” he said. “I grew up in a very ‘though shalt not’ society.

“The people who brought me up didn’t like the jolly things in life. But I wanted a party like everybody else. It wasn’t too much to ask. 

“It was a tough upbringing but I survived it and it was made great by my friends. I could tell by their houses and their atmosphere and families that it could be done right.

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“Whatever was wrong, was wrong with my family. It wasn’t wrong with the world so I learned that if ever I got married I’d live like them, that I’d be lovely and cheery with them.”

Billy went on to have five children, Cara and Jamie, with his first wife, Iris, whom he married in 1969, and Scarlett, Amy and Daisy, from his second marriage. 

His career kicked off after he quit his job as a boilermaker in Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Linthouse.

But it was his appearances on Michael Parkinson’s chat show that granted him fame in the Seventies.

Among other risque gags, the joke of the Glaswegian man who buried his murdered wife’s body with her bum sticking out so he could park his bike shook audiences.

“The bum joke shocked the pants off people,” he said, “you’ve got to rattle the box every now and again, give the world a shake.”

Billy Connolly with wife, Pamela Stephenson

The documentary also tells the story of how Billy and Pamela met on the BBC2 show, Not The Nine O’Clock News, where she interviewed his future husband while impersonating Janet Street-Porter.

He said: “I thought she was a cracker and I thought she’d be hanging out with university guys cos that’s who she was working with. 

“Then she came to see me in Brighton and I realised I was to her taste.

“Pamela went to my room with my key and phoned me from there. She said, ‘Isn’t it time you came upstairs?’ I did and we’ve been together ever since.”

Previously a fellow comedian, Billy often recalls as Pamela assumed the role of psychiatrist, helping him come to terms with his childhood trauma.

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Billy Connolly: My Absolute Pleasure follows Billy and his family in their newly adopted home.

In the show, he also shares his favourite stand-up routines, some of which have never before seen on TV.  

The documentary has been branded a "natural follow-up" to It's Been A Pleasure, which marked Billy's decision to step back from stand-up after a remarkable comedy career spanning over 50 years.

My Absolute Pleasure airs on Sunday, December 26, at 9.30pm, on ITV.