New Billy Connolly series as family refutes ailing health

A new series from comedian Billy Connolly, 75, is on the way in the UK as reports over diminishing health in a battle with Parkinson’s disease are refuted.

On Saturday, Michael Parkinson, 83, told UK TV chef James Martin: “The sadness of Billy now is that wonderful brain is dulled.

“I saw him recently – he’s now living in America – and it was very sad, because I was presenting him with a prize at an award ceremony. We had an awkward dinner together, because I wasn’t quite sure if he knew who I was or not.

“To know someone as long as I knew and loved Billy… It was an awful thing to contemplate, that that had been taken from him in a sense.”

But Connolly hit back, saying “I would recognise Parky if he was standing behind me — in a diving suit.”

His wife Pamela Stevenson also weighed in, saying: “Mike Parkinson is a daft old fart – doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Billy’s doing great and still funny as hell.”

Indigo Pictures, producing his Coming Home series for the BBC also said, “We have been busy filming with Billy over the summer and can report happily that he’s on top form – as sharp and hilarious as ever.”

Coming Home is described as a ‘unique and intimate portrait of Connolly’s Scottish homeland, and will carry extra poignancy because of the comedian’s struggles with Parkinson’s disease.’

Parkinsons Australia

Source: Chortle