But Billy makes no mention of Bigley

Billy Connolly has admitted his comedy can overstep the mark – and says he does pay attention to criticism which tells him he’s gone to far

However, he made no mention of his most notorious controversy, when he appeared to be urging the captors of hostage Ken Bigley to ‘just get on with it’ and behead him.

Writing on his website, Connolly said: ‘I do listen to criticism from time to time, and I think “well, maybe that was too close”

‘I’m not in the business of wounding people, [but] sometimes you can get too near.

‘A woman wrote to me when I was doing a thing about a deaf and dumb guy, and she criticised me for that. She said she fell about the floor watching me, but said she was in great pain because her son was deaf… she found it very painful. So I wrote to her and said I won’t do it any more.’

Connolly has never publicly apologised for his comments about Bigley while on stage at the Hammersmith Apollo, which he claimed were misrepresented by the press. Days after his furore, the Briton was dead in Iraq.

Also in website piece, 63-year-old Connolly says he has no plans to retire.

‘"I spend an awful lot of money living this funny lifestyle because it makes me very happy and it makes my family all jolly and happy so I'll just keep on doing it until I die… or until the people don’t come back and see it any more.

‘I always saw myself as working till I was old. Maybe it was a naïve way of looking at it, but I always thought it would be a long job. I thought that’s what comedians did, and I still think they should.

Published: 12 Apr 2006