Peter Kay spoke about his comedy hero at the Lyric Theatre in SalfordMark Jefferies Showbiz Editor and James Holt Senior Live and Breaking News Reporter
21:58, 01 Dec 2025Updated 21:58, 01 Dec 2025
Peter Kay spoke about his comedy hero at the Lyric Theatre in Salford(Image: BBC)
Comedian Peter Kay has revealed he speaks to his hero Billy Connolly but the says the Scottish stand up is ‘not doing so well’. The Bolton-born comic was asked about his heroes and told how he is lucky enough to have met all of them, including Connolly.
Connolly was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013 and retired from live performances five years later. The 82-year-old comedian has largely stayed out of the public eye following his diagnosis.
In an interview at the Lyric Theatre, in Salford, where he was being interviewed by Sara Cox, Kay said: “I met Billy Connolly. I still keep in touch with Billy Connolly now and he’s not so good now, but he would still message and that.
“I think a lot of comedians in this country would not be doing what they did if it weren’t for him. I think so much of it is influenced by him, heavily. Amazing.”
Sir Billy Connolly(Image: PA)
His comments were met with warm applause at the theatre, where a recording was being made of a Radio 2 special. Kay also said he had a lovely exchange with another comedy hero. He said: “I have been really lucky because I have met them all. I met Ronnie Barker. I’d always absolutely adored Porridge, used to watch Porridge. Oh. Anyway, I wrote to him, and he wrote back. I mentioned I loved Porridge, and I’d said how much it meant to me.
“One day, this letter came, and it said ‘prison’, and I thought ‘who’s written to me from prison?’ And I opened it, and it was Her Majesty’s Prison Slade, and he’d written to me in character as Norman Fletcher.
“And he wrote about – I were crying me eyes out – he wrote about nicking this paper from the library when MacKay wasn’t looking and Barrowclough, and he wrote this two-page letter all about being in prison.”
Kay is also a big music fan and loved meeting Billy Joel who he adores, the Mirror reports. Speaking on Radio 2, he explained to Sara Cox: “I’ve always loved Billy Joel, ever since me dad bought a 12-inch of Uptown Girl and he’d come back with a four-track EP, Uptown Girl, My Life, Still Rock and Roll to Me and Just the Way You Are – come home with it from town on bonfire night, 1983. I were thrilled to bits.
“And ’cause me dad liked him and I liked him, you kind of bond with him. I’d seen him live, I’d been up and down to London on the coach seeing him and then he came, 2007 he did a tour, I went to every single show and I got to meet him and we just got on really well.
“And the maddest thing was, I had all these LPs that I’d bought, second hand, from X Records, and I had these LPs and he were in Glasgow, I went up, I said ‘listen, if I bring me LPs, would you sign them?’ And he said ‘yeah, no problem.’
“So, I brought them all up to Glasgow and I sat in his dressing room, and he wrote messages on each – ‘this one’s cr*p’ – he wrote, ‘this one shouldn’t have been made’, ‘this was to pay for divorce number one’. He put messages on these – ‘I like this one, this isn’t bad’ and oh, I absolutely treasure them!”
Peter Kay was appearing on Radio 2 as he promoted his new book ‘Peter Kay’s Diary: The Monthly Memoir Of a Boy From Bolton‘. He has also extended his tour and the final shows next year will see proceeds from his Better Late Than Never shows going to 12 cancer charities.
During the interview with Sara Cox he also spoke about his battle trying to lose weight. When Sara asked if he ever tried to lose weight, the comic responded: “Only for the first 48 years, and they lied. Yeah, I had to eventually, because you start thinking about your health and things like that, don’t you? But I tried everything, flaming weight loss groups. I did quite well at one point.”
* Peter Kay’s Diary: The Monthly Memoir Of a Boy From Bolton is out now, Sara Cox is on Radio 2 on weekdays 4-7pm.