Close mate Michael Parkinson says Scottish comic Sir Billy Connolly now struggles to recognise his friends.

Connolly revealed five years ago that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

“The sadness of Billy now is that wonderful brain is dulled,” Michael Parkinson said.

“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 awards ceremony.

“We had an awkward dinner together because I wasn’t quite sure if he knew who I was or not.

“But we were walking out after the presentation to go down and have our picture taken, and he turned to me and put his hand on my shoulders.

“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.

“He was just a genius and the best thing that happened to me on the show.”