Sir Billy Connolly has said he is losing his hearing and has “started to drool” amid his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The comedian gave an update on his health during an appearance on Chris Evans’ Virgin Radio Breakfast Show on Thursday, where he also spoke about how he now walks “unsteadily”.

However, Billy told the presenter he refuses to be down about his health, saying: “I’m quite happy taking my medicine and getting along with it.” 

Billy said: “I’ve started to drool which is a new one on me. This disease, it gives you a new thing every now and again that you have to deal with, and drooling is my latest.

“I walk unsteadily and my hearing is going and it’s bizarre that bits of me are falling off but it’s interesting.”

The 76-year-old was diagnosed with the disease in 2013 while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, and announced his retirement from live performances five years later.

He has now said he has “no plans” to take to the stage again, explaining his Parkinson’s would “affect his performance” too much.

“I don’t think the way I used to,” he said. “I may perform at some other point but I have no plans to. And I’m quite happy taking my medicine and getting along with it. 

“I don’t really know if the performance bit has gone because I have to get into the performance mode to see that. I’d have to walk on to the stage and I’ve never done that.

“And steadily more symptoms come and it’s incurable. It’s not going to end. As a matter of fact I had a Russian doctor in New York who said, ‘You realise this is an incurable disease?’

“And I said, ‘You got to get a grip of yourself, stop calling it an incurable disease, say we have yet to find the cure. Give the guy a light in the tunnel’. Incurable is such an awful thing to say to somebody.”