GLASGOW'S funniest ever man says he always wanted to make people laugh but never set out to deliberately shock anyone.
Billy Connolly makes the revelation in a new BBC Scotland documentary Billy and US which will air for the first time tonight.
The 77-year-old funnyman's new six-part series sees him reflecting on his life and career with the help of archive material of his five-decade career.
READ MORE: The Big Yin Billy Connolly named Greatest Glaswegian by Evening Times readers
Sir Billy told the documentary: "I just did what I thought was funny. But looking back I can see that by sending up what was around me at the time, I might well have ended up breaking down barriers and taking down the odd taboo."
In the first episode, the Big Yin discusses his childhood in Anderston and talks about how, in post-war Glasgow, beating your children was seen as normal.
"People were beaten for the slightest things," he says. But Connolly says that amid the darkness he always found humour in the strange and inconsistent things adults would do and say.
"I seemed to spend my time standing apart from it, looking at it. It's easier to deal with that way," he says.
In the programme, Billy recounts how he went back to his early primary school for a TV show after he had become famous in the 1970s.
He found his name had been "removed from the books" at the Catholic infants school he had attended because his comedy material joked about religious subjects such as the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.
The documentary shows Connolly being quizzed by school children in the late 1970s about why he presented Scotland and Glasgow in such a bad light.
"I'm a comedian, I'm one guy, how can I give a nation a bad name," he says.
"When I speak to school kids, I always try to get them to think for themselves and be proud of where you come from but don't let it be a leash around your neck."
He says his comedy about psychopathic teachers was just his experience of school.
"It was traumatic," he says. "It lent itself to comedy. The big boss and the wee man."
The first episode of the new series airs tonight at 10pm and is part of BBC Scotland's Big Yin season.
In the coming days, the BBC will screen classic shows featuring the Big Yin, including Who Do You Think You Are?, Down Among The Big Boys and the BAFTA Tribute to Billy Connolly.
Billy and Us is on BBC Scotland tonight at 22:00 and on the iPlayer.
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