If I had alcohol now there's no telling how my body would react. I just can't risk it

Sir Billy Connolly has been sober for almost 40 years but he has to remain ever-vigilant about booze, even at breakfast time.

-  SANJEETA BAINS

The 81-year-old comedy legend says: "I was in a hotel in Arran in the Clyde and I ordered porridge for my breakfast.

"I'd stopped drinking about a year before and was still missing it.

"The waitress said, 'Would you like porridge royale? how does that sound?' And I said that sounds pretty damn good from where I'm standing.

"So I was waiting for my porridge royale, wondering what it included, spoonful with whisky!

"I'll never forget it. Every nerve in my body went 'That's it! Ha Now you're talking! Get it down you!" Yet Billy and when it came, I had a and it was porridge made knew he'd have to go for a alcohol-free brekkie or be back in trouble.

He adds in his new UKTV series Billy Connolly Does...: "When you give up drinking, your body goes on guard. So as soon as you taste it, your body goes 'Stop, nee-naw nee-naw'.

"I said to the waitress, you will have to get me some regular porridge."

The Big Yin reckons his Irish-Scottish heritage is a factor in his drinking problems.

"Celtic races, they've really got it bad," he says.

"They've got a want - a need for that fiery liquid. I don't know why it should be.

"You're tested all the time, it's like 'Have a drink it'll relax you after you work and it will.

"And then you become another guy... suddenly you're in another world.