In My Own Words, Billy Connolly, BBC 1, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer

In My Own Words, Billy Connolly, BBC 1, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0022mr1/in-my-own-words-series-1-billy-connolly

Billy Connolly seems to have been about forever. He’s the face and voice of Scotland. The face of Glasgow where he grew up and worked on the Clyde as a welder. That working-class grounding, he claimed, made him the man he was. He’s Parkinson disease (the bastard should have kept it to himself) and prostate cancer. He’s dying. But he doesn’t fear death. Ironically, it was Parkinson and his talk show in 1975 that made him. Recently, there have been more documentaries on Billy Connolly’s life than Tory changes to the NHS since Dr Findlay’s Casebook. This is his last good hurrah (probably be another documentary on about him next week).  

 2024 Florida.

The tenements if you lived there was a great place. It was like a vertical village. You all knew each other. People thought it was a violent place. But it was great. The buildings were great.

My childhood isn’t a happy time. I was beaten up a lot by my aunts.

That’s Flo. She looked after me until my adult life. She was my guardian. Physically, guy would want to beat me up and she’d appear in the middle of it and sort them out.

1962, Billy starts his apprenticeship on the Clyde. The welder is king in prefabrication. Billy holds up his arms. I’m a comedian, but essentially, I’m a Clydeside worker who got lucky.

1973. Billy makes his first telly appearance. Billy Connolly and Tom Harvie on slide guitar, Full House. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to sing someone else’s songs. I got through it. It wasn’t a prize-winning performance.

1975 Parkinson. That made me. I became a star.

That was the day I got married to Iris. It’s a time in my life I’ve cut out and left. I got married in the government office and we got a horse and cart to The Scotia. I’d a gig in Kilmarnock that night.

Something happens to you from the dressing room to the stage. I thought I better change. I’m gonnae have to move on. It’s frightening thing.

That’s Jamie and Tara. We were very successful. We’d a house on Hyndland Road. But I was about to blow it, with alcohol.

You say that but you were incredibly prolific?

You feel like you can do anything. And some people go on to do everything. I did my best. But I got drunk and flung myself around. And it was a waste of time and energy. But it happens to a lot of people. They don’t know how to get rid of the feeling of being successful. It makes you lonely. Picks you out as a person with a big light on them. And it’s difficult to live with and you handle it in different ways. Some people join monasteries, others get drunk. I got drunk.

1980. This is Your Life.

Kenny Everett. He told me we were doing a sketch. So I was completely shocked. 1962 worked on the QE2. There you got the description, ‘The Big Yin’. By the guy in charge of your section. John Dalglish. This guy was a total fraud. I didn’t know him in the shipyards and I didn’t know him now. He came on and bluffed it. From your position, they’re trying to grab a bit of nothing and it’s quite frightening at times. As they strip your life away and give you this other life. It’s kinda creepy. Wife and children, Jamie and Cara.

It wasn’t the nicest thing to happen to me. My life was a mess at the time. My wife, Iris, and I weren’t getting along.

Love is easy. It’s the easiest thing on earth. It just falls on you and devours you. And all  you can do is return it. It’s all the other things that are difficult. But then again sometimes the world comes along and takes it. You’re a welder who plays the banjo on a Wednesday night. Then a year or two later you’re the best known person in your country and you’re supposed to behave the same. And all these different pressures are on you. And to make it even worse, Pamela was on the show.

Pamela came to a show in Brighton and said I’m going to bed. And that was it. Pamela came and fame came. And the papers went crazy. They were following me and running after me in the street.

1985. Billy gives up alcohol.

Marriage to Pam didn’t change me. It saved me.

I thought I might lose my wildness, but it’s not. It’s pretendy wildness. And so I don’t have any regrets. I’m perfectly happy.

1985 An Audience with Billy Connolly. When a television programme gets old, people watch it and count the dead people. Peter Kay said he was watching it with his dad. And he was out of his chair and laughing at the carpet.

1989. Breaking America. How important was it?

It was important to me. It seemed to me, rightly or wrongly, if you didn’t have America, you didn’t have it all. It was my dream. It was a colossally big target. I’m not surprised people give up. But I couldn’t.

Head of the Class 1992. Sitcom. I was the school teacher. It wasn’t all that good. But I made a name for myself in town. I made a lot of good friends.

Robbie William’s Interview 1998. New York. And I was really curious to see if it’d work.  

 It was a lovely thing to meet him. I’m not alone There are other people like me trying to be funny without telling jokes. When he took his life it was the saddest day. He phoned me and said, ‘Let’s have dinner?’

And during the dinner, he said, ‘I love you?’

I said, ‘Thanks very much.’

He said, ‘Do you believe me?’

I said, ‘Of course, I do.’

I thought that’s weird. It’s not like him to say that. He was dead at the weekend. I always felt that was him saying goodbye. It was a sad day in my life. Because I saw his whole career. And it was stunning. He was like a rocketship. He just took off. He was the best ever.

Do you think it’s fair to say, ‘therapy changed your life?’

Yeh, I’ve met many people who know what happened to me. And they come up and say, ‘It happened to me.’

I say ‘how you doing?’

And they say. ‘No so good.’

I say, ‘forgive the person.’

They say, ‘I find it too hard.’

‘Try harder.’

Sit the person in an invisible chair in your house and ask them, ‘why did you do it?’

Then sit yourself in the chair and answer. ‘You’ll be amazed at what you find.’

They’re dead now. It can’t be there fault. You must try harder.

Your manager, John, used to refer to your movie career as your expensive hobby?’

‘That’s right. He thought it was a waste of time.’

I loved it. I did 54 movies. That took nearly 50 years to do.

1998, Mrs Brown.

‘That was the moment. That was the movie. I stretched myself. And I think I did OK.’

It was a hurdle I had to pass to be an entertainer of a certain stature. And I did it.

1997. Your prostrate joke. Two Night Stand.

When you go along with speaking your mind, you can take yourself by surprise.

2016 High Horse. At this point I’m gonnae explain my health issues to you. It’ll explain you symptom spotting. Billy’s Final Tour. I’ve got Parkinson disease. And I wish tae fuck he’d kept it tae himself, but there you go.

Was it hard doing that?

No it was easy. Doing something as big as that. Just confront it. Stick to the front of it and be with it. Make decisions based on it and don’t think yer being badly treated. You’ve got the bad pick of the straws. It’s no like that. Yer one of millions. Behave yersel. Relax. You realise it isn’t the big thing you take it to be death. It’s nothing… For you, the war is over.

The arc…the stage has been good to me and it held me up in the end.

You’ve seen your life pass before you in the last few days. How’s it been?

It’s great. It’s embarrassing watching the early stuff. I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. Very satisfying watching the later stuff when I’d got a grip of it. And I was working for me. Where at the beginning I was working for … and I was hopeless. It’s good to get good. It’s lovely watching yourself age. It’s not a scary process…Looking at the world with these eyes. It’s a joy.

What do you feel proudest of?

I feel proud of making Glasgow laugh at itself. I’ve taken the uncomfortable bits and made fun of them. And it’s worked. I’m delighted to have reached this stage and the audience have come with me. We did the trip together.

I’m an example of people who didn’t listen to the teacher when she told them they were rubbish. And they would come to nothing. I was told that on many occasions. And I loved meeting them for a reason. I liked to see them squirm.

Notes.

1. Iris Pressagh (1969–1985): Billy Connolly's first wife. They were married for 16 years before divorcing in 1985.
2. Pamela Stephenson (1989–present): Pamela is a psychologist, comedian, and actress, best known for her work on Not the Nine O'Clock News. They married in 1989 and have been together since.

Children:

1. Cara Connolly: His eldest daughter, born from his marriage to Iris Pressagh.
2. Jamie Connolly: His son from his first marriage to Iris Pressagh.
3. Daisy Connolly: His daughter from his marriage to Pamela Stephenson.
4. Amy Connolly: Another daughter from his marriage to Pamela Stephenson.
5. Scarlett Connolly: The youngest daughter, also from his marriage to Pamela Stephenson.

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