Billy Connolly 'had therapy for nerves'

Billy Connolly has admitted that he suffers with stage fright.

The comedian told The South Bank Show Revisited that he eventually had therapy to help him cope with his nerves.

"It suddenly dawns on you when you've had a career for a few years that you are actually going out there and saying you are the funniest man in the room," he said.

"Well, in my personal case you get used to it and there is a natural flow to it and then it comes back twice as hard as before. You know the fear and the angst. Just recently it came back with thunder when I did the Irish tour. I thought, 'Oh my God, I can't do this, I will die'."

Connolly continued: "I went to see a shrink in LA, a lovely woman who was a pal of my wife. She just asked me questions that I had no answers to and the whole thing went, 'Shhhhhh'."

He also revealed that he suffers from the worst nerves before performing in his hometown Glasgow.

"They will let you fart around for five minutes but then you had better turn it on because they are proud of you," he explained. "It is like a football team and you are George Best."

The South Bank Show Revisited airs on April 4 on ITV1.