Comedian Billy Connolly ​defiantly refuses to let his battle with Parkinson’s disease get him down and he insists he isn’t afraid of dying.

The Big Yin, 72, who was diagnosed with the degenerative brain condition, prostate cancer and had two hearing aids fitted in the same week in 2012, said: “I am doing as well as can be expected. Some people get grim, but I do not.

“Funny doesn’t go away it just changes slightly, maybe some people get grim but I don’t. I think it is an attitude – you say screw it, let’s get on with it.

“You cannot sit at home wondering about your symptoms. It is not going to go away."

During a radio interview ahead of his Canadian tour, Billy added: “It has never crossed my mind that I am gonna die. What is dying anyway? It is just a light going out?”

The star, married to psychologist Pamela Stephenson, was given the all-clear from cancer last October. Complications during surgery to remove his prostate left him with a life-threatening blood clot.

Most recently Parkinson’s has robbed him of being able to play his beloved banjo as it makes his hands shake uncontrollably.

(Image: Reuters)

And the condition is also a cruel daily reminder of his old pal Robin Williams , diagnosed with it just before he committed suicide.

Billy said: “It depressed me terribly. You don’t find a way out of it. You find a place to put it where you can access when you want it. Like your mother or father’s death you never get over it, you just find a place to put it.”

Billy said he and Robin were livid at being diagnosed. “We were both angry about things,” he added.

“For instance the guy who gave me the final diagnosis that I had Parkinson’s said it was incurable. Now I think that is terrible; he should have said we have yet to find a cure...leave me a little light on in the corner for Christ’s sake.”

But Billy, who has also appeared in scores of Hollywood films, added: “A lot of comedians whine and moan too much. The whining is overwhelming and deafening sometimes – shut up and laugh.

“From an early age I wanted to be a comic and went to theatres. It has its own particular magic and the comedian was always the highlight for me. And I always wanted to be one. It was better than a knife thrower or juggler.”

In pictures - Billy Connolly through the years