Billy Connolly to be awarded freedom of Glasgow

Published on Wednesday 2 June 2010 21:51

HE IMAGINED Jesus as a Glaswegian drunk and said should the city ever suffer a nuclear attack it would look exactly the same as before.

• In the early 1970s, comedian Billy Connolly made his name by selling out Glasgow theatres. Picture: TSPL

The relationship between Billy Connolly and his home town is to be bound ever tighter after the Lord Provost announced yesterday that he is seeking to award the comedian the Freedom of the City.

Bob Winter, Glasgow's Lord Provost, is to ask the council to bestow the city's highest honour on "the world's best-known Glaswegian" later this month.

The title is in recognition of the 67-year-old's "outstanding artistic contribution in comedy, film and music as well as his tireless charity work".

The Lord Provost said yesterday: "Billy Connolly is arguably the world's best-known Glaswegian and is truly deserving of the Freedom of the City."

The Lord Provost will submit a motion to the council at its meeting on Thursday 24 June stating: "This council resolves to confer the Freedom of the City on Billy Connolly in recognition of the distinction he has brought to the city by his outstanding contributions in comedy and drama; on consideration of his many charitable works and in recognition of his pride in being a Glaswegian."

In being nominated for the award, the comedian is joining such distinguished names as former South Africa president Nelson Mandela and footballing luminaries Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson.

The Lord Provost said: "Billy has been a great ambassador for the City. The 'Big Yin' as he is affectionately known has moved seamlessly from folk music, to comedy and acting.

"A true Scottish and Glasgow great, as well as a Hollywood film-star, he also works selflessly for charity, including Comic Relief. Billy has also contributed to local causes, for example staging benefit concerts to help the uninsured who suffered loss during the 2002 East End Floods, and raising funds for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice with a charity cycle ride from Glasgow to London and a charity concert."

He added that Connolly had confronted difficult issues such as his childhood abuse and alcoholism with "with unflinching honesty".

The comedian was born in the Anderston area of the city and worked as a welder in the city's shipyards before embarking on a career as a folk singer and comedian, in which he mined Glasgow's character for humour.

He made his theatrical debut in 1972 at the Cottage Theatre in Cumbernauld with a show called Connolly's Glasgow Flourish, which was followed by The Great Northern Welly Boot Show. In 1974 he sold out the Pavilion in Glasgow and one year later performed 14 sell-out shows in just 12 days at the Glasgow Apollo Theatre.

In the past decade the city's institutions have bestowed a number of honours upon him. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Glasgow. However, he said one of his favourite moments was when he was awarded his seat at Celtic Park. He and Rod Stewart are the only two people who have seats for life at the ground.

A spokesman for Connolly's production company declined to comment.

JOKE CORNER

&#149 "The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll look exactly the same afterwards."

&#149 "I've never understood people who wear wigs. In Glasgow they say: 'Why pay good money for a wig when you can get the same effect by putting glue on your head and sticking it in a barber's midden?'"

&#149 "My parents used to take me to Lewis's department store in Glasgow. They were skinflints: they used to take me to the pet department and tell me it was the zoo."

&#149 "I love the naivety of al-Qaeda. For trying to bring a religious war to Glasgow. You're 400 years too late, guys! You've not even got a football team for Christ's sake. I think that we should give Partick Thistle to al-Qaeda. If only for the joy of hearing them read out their team sheet on Saturday."