I thought there was a thread from a few years ago when Connolly was diagnosed with Parkinson's, but I can't find it. Happily, a search brings up dozens of references to his musical work, but this one is simply intended to note the decline in his health and his approach to what comes next in his public life.

Pat Kane: Why the Big Yin deserves big, big love as Billy Connolly fades from our sight:

There's not much more that a certain generation of us can take of the public dimming of the Partick supernova known as Billy Connolly, due to his advancing Parkinson's and cancer. But as he continues to accept his invitations and his celebrations, so must we deal with it.

As the supreme comic of human frailty and our subversive bodies — always something leaking, smelling, sticking out or needing covered up — you might have wondered what Connolly would do if his own body started to profoundly rebel. New material, new routines? Well, new opening music: in any future performing plans (and there are some), he wants the opening track to be Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On. As manifested by his participation in last month's BBC love letter to the Big Yin, Billy and Me, Connolly also seems to want to be something much more dignified: a ruminative, tie-dyed, inspirational icon. Around which many are gathering, to pay deepest respects. At least two of the three giant Glasgow wall murals of Connolly commissioned by the BBC, and announced this week — I will pass over Jack Vettriano's efforts in silence, though of course Billy would be more generous — are worthy of Connolly's energy and inventiveness.

I'm not sure if this thread belongs above or below the line, it's a bit of a mongrel. I was thinking of the Terry Pratchett thread about his health when I started this.

The story of his diagnosis in a hotel lobby.