Scottish comedian Sir Billy Connolly unveils four new drawings for sale
Sir Billy Connolly has unveiled four new artworks for sale.
The much-loved Scottish comedian, 80, has been a keen artist since 2012, and has unveiled the new drawings through the Castle Fine Art gallery.
The pieces have been launched through his Born on a Rainy Day art series and are being sold for £1,250 each – though they can be bought as a set for £4,500 framed or £3,300 unframed.
The pieces are named Pontius Tries Pilates, One Armed Juggler, Nightmare and Drunk Donkey.
“The Big Yin” said he always wanted to give Pontius Pilate a “keep-fit name”, adding the idea came to him when his wife joined a pilates gym.
Pontius Tries Pilates
He added: “I said it would be funny to call it Pontius Pilates, then I thought people would be offended by that, so I fiddled around and I got Pontius Tries Pilates.
“He’s just a guy trying at the gym, trying his best. I don’t understand the whole gymnasium culture, but he does and he’s good.”
On his One Armed Juggler drawing, Sir Billy said: “He’s an example of the fact that most of the figures in my work are doing things that don’t matter. Just doing the things they do, thinking they’ll do you good – I’ve spent my life doing that.”
One Armed Juggler
He added: “You see guys in their 60s out running in the evening and you think: ‘Get a chair. Get a chair and a bottle of beer and switch on the telly; who are you kidding?’.
“But all my guys are doing that, they’re trying to be part of it wherever ‘it’ is.”
The Nightmare piece is inspired by Sir Billy’s own bad dreams, which he says he never really remembers upon waking up.
Nightmare
He said: “But I’m famous for shouting in the night and singing and laughing; my daughter has seen me; I’ve never remembered it.
“And I was directing a play in my sleep. I was talking to the actors and then I would become the actors, singing songs.”
His Drunk Donkey piece hearkens back to his earlier days when he lived in Scotland.
He owned two donkeys who he says he would let “wander about the place eating grass”.
Drunk Donkey
The comedian says the animals are “lovely” and “friendly”, comparing them to dogs.
He added: “They cling to you, they’ve got a real tie to human beings. Donkeys are funny animals but it’s an endearing kind of funny.
“Our donkeys used to escape over the wall of the garden, run down to the village and the villagers would bring them back.
“Donkeys always look drunk and behave drunk. This one’s a friendly looking guy and I think he’s been drunk a few times because he’s got a beer belly on him. And he’s got the drunk legs.”
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Sir Billy was first inspired to start drawing while on tour in Canada.
He said: “I’d never drawn in my life until this point, but I just started drawing weird islands and carried on drawing.
“I asked my wife to tell me if they were getting better and she said ‘definitely’.
“My manager sent them to the gallery, and now I make pictures and they’re lovely to me.
“And the fact that other people like them and want to live with them in their homes blows me sideways.
“To have somebody who wants a part of your mind in their life – I thought my wife had been the only one to fall for that, but it turns out that she’s not alone.”
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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
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