After entering journalism as a graduate trainee at the Liverpool Daily Post, Connolly then moved to the London Evening Standard where he interviewed, among others, many 1960s and 1970s rock stars and cultural icons, including the Beatles, Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley.
He was due to interview John Lennon on the day the ex-Beatle was murdered, an event he wrote about in the BBC radio play Unimaginable.
[7][3] He also wrote and directed the feature-length documentary entitled James Dean: The First American Teenager, while his television drama series have included Honky Tonk Heroes, Lytton's Diary and Perfect Scoundrels.
He has also written several radio plays, including Lost Fortnight (which is about Raymond Chandler in Hollywood),[9] the series Tim Merryman's Days of Clover, and Sorry, Boys, You Failed the Audition,[10] as well as several short stories for various publications, which are collected in A Handful of Love.
[citation needed] In 2020, he contracted COVID-19, and spent almost six months in hospital, including 103 days in intensive care, an experience he turned into the BBC Radio 4 play Devoted.