The Irish scrum half on on the Big Yin

MY HERO is the Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, because I'm always very amused and entertained by him, and the fact that he can make any situation seem funny, whatever it is. And I also admire him because he is not bound by normal conventions.

I got interested in him as a child because my dad John had a few tapes of his at home, and he often played them in the car. Even though I didn't understand a lot of the humour when I was younger, the fact that my dad found it funny had a big effect on me. As I got older, I went around and looked for every type of videotape and cassette of his I could find.

Billy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 1942, making him 64 years of age. His family background was very poor.

He spent five years on an apprenticeship to become a welder, but after working at it for 10 weeks, he decided that it definitely wasn't the career for him.

I can understand that because I didn't know I was going to have a career in rugby when I left school in 1996, because the sport was only turning professional then. I studied chemistry instead and kept playing rugby, and then when I was 21, I got an offer of a Munster contract and then an Irish one.

Billy formed a folk-pop duo called The Humblebums and worked with two musicians and made a couple of albums with them. One of them, Gerry Rafferty, had a big influence on Billy becoming a comedian, as he used to make brilliant prank telephone calls while waiting to go on stage. When they broke up, Billy went back to being a solo folk-singer, but the funny introductions to his songs became increasingly longer.

How he changed into becoming a comedian was that the head of Transatlantic Records saw some of his performances and suggested to him that he focus on becoming a comedian. And he never looked back, and has become one of the most successful comedians around today.

He can talk about absolutely anything and make it seem funny, and the good thing about it is that it doesn't even have to be politically correct. He's been talking about subjects like sex, masturbation, blasphemy and flatulence right back as far as the 1970s, and he makes no apologies for it, because that's just the way he is. But by doing that, he was able to take the stigma out of these normally taboo subjects. It's the mark of a great comedian, in my opinion, when you can get up on a stage and be like that, in front of every different type and race of people, and your audience is going to find it funny.

Billy's irreverent humour can get him into trouble at times though, such as the infamous incident in 2004 when he made a quip about Iraqi hostage Ken Bigley being beheaded, right before he actually was beheaded.

I was impressed by the fact that Billy went from being a folk singer in Scotland to a celebrity living in LA, making his way out of the slums of Glasgow along the way. And he was also a heavy drinker in his day and is now a non-drinker, and the one thing that has never changed is that he still loves performing. I've never been to any of his gigs, amazingly enough, but it's one thing I really regret not having done. I'm going to make a conscious effort when I have a bit of spare time to get to one somewhere.

Billy can even make simple things funny and he always looks like he's having a ball.

You can see him laughing at his own thoughts before he's even said them out loud, which sets the crowd off again. He's a guy who can just stand up and talk to people on stage, even though he found it very difficult in the beginning. He always said that the worst part for him when he started off was the very beginning and end of a show, because he was so nervous and uncomfortable and didn't know what to say.

He's become used to it, and from my point of view, his experience was an encouragement to me, as I could completely identify with how he was feeling. I used to struggle at the beginning with having to stand up in front of people to speak, whether it be a question-andanswer type of thing or whatever. I also gained confidence from doing it again and again.

Billy has been married twice and has five children. His second wife, Pamela Stephenson, was also a comedy actress, although now she's a well-known psychologist. I read a bit of her biography, and she seems to be a very different character to him these days, and is very serious.

Billy has endured for decades as a comic, and always manages to keep his material fresh, which is no mean feat. He also branched out into acting, and has made numerous TV appearances, and has had a lot of film roles, including a part in the recent film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

For me, I like seeing a guy who is not restricted by media boundaries, and just thinks for himself. I think it's a great characteristic to have, and a fantastic way to live your life.

Peter Stringer recently launched AdeZ, the new fruit and soya drink from Unilever