Billy Connolly: Close friend Robin Williams called me to say goodbye days before he took his own life

Billy Connolly has revealed how his close friend Robin Williams called him just days before taking his own life.

The comedian, who revealed he had early signs of Parkinson's in 2013, said Williams had telephoned him to thank him for his advice on the disease with which he had also been diagnosed.

Billy told The Daily Mirror: "He phoned me a week later, just days before it happened, and he said ‘it’s brilliant it’s working’.

“During the call he kept telling me he loved me. I said ‘I know’. But he kept repeating it saying ‘do you really know I love you’. I was thinking what the f*** is he on about.?

“After his death I thought ‘oh my God he was saying goodbye’.”

The comedian, who had known Williams for 30 years, told the newspaper he was in Malta with his family when they found out the news of his death.

“He is a stunning guy... You notice I don’t speak about him in the past tense? It’s still not sunk in, I keep expecting him to walk in,” Billy said.

The Mrs Doubtfire actor was found dead at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area last month.