Billy Connolly told a lovely story about his mother on the Late Late Show

"Stop telling the truth about your age, I've been lying about mine!"

Beloved comedian Billy Connolly was a guest on Friday night's edition of The Late Late Show, where he detailed a touching story about his mother, one laced with both humour and poignancy. Connolly, who has retired from live stand-up comedy due to Parkinson's disease, was chatting with Ryan Tubridy to discuss his new memoir; Windswept & Interesting. One subject that the book touches on is Connolly's relationship with his estranged mother, who left her family when Connolly was just four years of age. "I don't have an ounce of feelings that she abandoned me," Connolly said in a 2009 interview. "She tried to survive." Asked on the Late Late if he ever thinks about his mother at this particular stage of his life, Connolly responded: "Yes, I do. She died about four years ago. I often think about what she would make of it all. She had a lovely sense of humour. "She wrote me a letter once, saying, 'Could you stop telling the truth about your age – I've been lying about mine!' So, I thought, that's good." Tubridy brought up an occasion in which Connolly's mother came to see him after one of his shows and what that moment meant to him. "It was lovely," Connolly said. "I didn't recognise her. She had to tell me who she was. And I gave her a hug and I put my nose in the back of her neck and I remembered Peter McDougall's writing in a play, he said – 'You never forget your mother's smell' – and he was bang on. "It just went – ding! It was the most extraordinary feeling. She was a nice woman." Four years on from her passing, Connolly offered his general perspective. "I think of her in a nice light," he told Tubridy. "She had a happy life. That's good." You can watch a clip of the interview below. Clip via The Late Late Show