Even blood clot didn't stop Billy Connolly's jokes, wife Pamela reveals: Comedian made wisecracks while being rushed to hospital for potentially life-saving treatment

• The blood clot resurfaced while he filmed Billy Connolly's Big Send-off
• On the same day he was told he had Parkinson's and prostate cancer
• Pamela Stephenson reveals she still gets jealous of her husband's co-stars

Published: 21:19 EST, 27 June 2014 | Updated: 06:19 EST, 1 July 2014

Pamela Stephenson has told how she rushed husband Billy Connolly to hospital with a potentially deadly blood  clot – while he cracked jokes about her.

Bundling the veteran comedian into a taxi, she then became the butt of his gags as poor roads made the mercy dash bumpy.

Ignoring the pain he was suffering, the Scottish funnyman turned to her and said: ‘Uh-oh, he drives just like you, Pamsy!’

Even though he was going through so much pain, he never stopped being his hilarious, curmudgeonly, adorable self, Pamela Stephenson, who has written a play, Brazouka which involves Brazilian dancers, for the Edinburgh festival, revealed about her husband Billy Connolly

Former Strictly finalist Miss Stephenson, 64, was speaking for the first time about Connolly’s brush with death – which followed surgery to remove his prostate after he was diagnosed with cancer.

She told the Mail’s Weekend magazine: ‘I said, “Billy, I’m saving your life here, stop going on about my driving!”

‘Even though he was going through so much pain, he never stopped being his hilarious, curmudgeonly, adorable self. Fortunately I don’t take it personally; I just think  it’s funny that he’d choose that moment to run down my driving.’

Quick-thinking by the actress turned psychologist may have saved the life of her 71-year-old husband.

Unable to get doctors to listen to her initially, Miss Stephenson eventually got through to an intern who told her to get the father of five to a hospital immediately.

The medical problem resurfaced when he was filming this ITV documentary about how we deal with death called Billy Connolly's Big Send-Off

Doctors dealt with the clot, but the problem resurfaced later when he was filming his ITV documentary about how we deal with death, Billy Connolly’s Big Send-Off.

Luckily their daughter Amy, 28 – a researcher on the show – recognised what was happening and he was taken back to hospital.

‘Thank God Amy was with him,’ said Miss Stephenson. ‘She recognised what was happening and they  got him back to hospital to deal with  the clot.

‘He’s had all his check-ups and he’s in great shape now.’

It was Miss Stephenson who also persuaded him to see a doctor in September last year which led to what he has described as his ‘funny week’ – in which he was prescribed a hearing aid, pills for heartburn and told on the same day that he had Parkinson’s and prostate cancer.

But she found the strength to deal with the emotional impact on her close-knit family – the couple’s three daughters Daisy, Amy and Scarlett, and Connolly’s son Jamie and daughter Cara by his first marriage.

‘It was important to be strong for Billy and our family, very much so,’ said the former Not The Nine O’Clock News star.

‘That’s what marriage is about: you have your ups and downs and you have to see each other through them. I also understand the psychology of illness, and I knew it was not going to be easy on me either. Let’s face it, he [Connolly] was a terrible patient! But you can’t blame someone for that when they’re going through something that you’re not.’

New Zealand-born Miss Stephenson, who has recently written a play, 'Brazouka' which involves Brazilian dancers for the Edinburgh festival, describes herself as ‘a glass half-full person, while Billy’s a bit the other way, so we have a good balance’.

‘The Parkinson’s is mild but Billy still worries about it,’ she added. ‘It’s actually bigger in his mind than it is in reality; he’s always watching for symptoms.’

In the wide-ranging interview Miss Stephenson also revealed she still feels jealous if her husband works with attractive female co-stars and disclosed that former Comic Strip colleagues Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders once said ‘mean things’ about her.