Billy Connolly recalls very violent attacks in childhood

BAFTAs: Billy Connolly opens up on Parkinson’s after award win

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Series two of the Gold series Billy Connolly Does… is set to return on Thursday, March 30 and will take another unprecedented look at Billy’s home and his life. In the new series the comedian speaks about the trauma his school teachers had inflicted on him as he explains he was often physically attacked.

Opening up in the first episode, he recalls: “School was very violent indeed. I had a psychopath called Miss McDonald – Rosie McDonald. Big Rosie, they called her, as if she deserved affection.

“Her speciality was placing pencils under your knuckles, between your knuckles and the desk, so as to induce extra pain when she whacked you.

“She would thrash me for nothing, for showing interest in pigeons outside the window, for glancing away when she was talking. She was a sadistic b*****d.”

Billy has always made it known that he grew up in one of the poorest parts of Glasgow and feels that is the reason for his determination and drive during his adult life.

When he was four his mother left his father for another man whilst he was serving in the Royal Air Force in Burma.

Billy has previously admitted that his dad’s sisters, aunties Mona and Margaret, always left him terrified to come home to the cramped house they lived in.

He explains in the series: “My life at home was hell. There were awful things going on. I was being preyed upon and my aunt was a nightmare. If I went home from school, she’d be there.

“I couldn’t sit and do my homework with her roaming about. My aunties could f***ing inflict twice the pain without lifting their hands – by humiliation.

“All the time: ‘Stupid. You’re thick, you’re stupid.’ To humiliate someone is a desperately bad and wrong thing; it’s worse than hitting somebody.

“Humiliation is forever. It takes you so long to get over it; it takes your whole life.”

In the new series, the Big Yin takes a reflective look at his heroes and villains from over the years, what he thinks about fame and showbiz, and growing old disgracefully.

The second series comes after Billy opened up about his Parkinson’s disease and how it had been “getting worse”.

He was diagnosed in 2013 and told his wife, Pamela: “The challenges lately have been medical. They are getting worse.

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“I will have to weigh it up and see how bad it gets. Play it by ear.”

Sir Billy Connolly previously claimed despite a successful comedy and acting career over 60 years, he felt like he never had an “I’ve made it moment”.

He told the Mirror: “I’ve never considered myself having made it. You’re never quite there. It’s like [being] rich.

“I grew up in such doubt of myself with my family situation. It never really goes away.”

Billy Connolly Does… series 2 airs Thursday, March 30 on Gold.

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