Jim Davidson Why Glasgow saved me in my darkest hour

Comedian found comfort in city during tough times.

Jim Davidson says he’s grateful for the way Glasgow helped him to live normally during the worst year of his life.

The comedian moved to the city shortly after being charged over alleged sexual assaults on 10 women. Nine months later, all charges against him were dropped.

And, speaking before his appearance at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and the publication of his tell-all book, Jim, 60, said the people of Glasgow allowed him to walk the streets without bothering him during that nightmare period.

He recalled: “I was there most of last year. It was handy to get away from London. It was a bolthole when Operation Yewtree policemen were dropping out of the air.

“It was nice to keep out of the way in my favourite city. I have family connections there but I go because I like Glasgow. The first thing I did was go across to the pub to see what the boys had to say. People didn’t bother me. I had a great year in Glasgow. I still have the scars on my liver to prove it!”

Jim’s father was from Bridgeton but when the comedian and wife Michelle, 43, made the move north they chose a flat in Glasgow’s west end.

He says they were treated with such kindness by Glaswegians, that he’d love to return to the city to stay.

“There’s every chance I’d move there. My wife loves it and made lots of friends. The trouble is, when I get there people ask if I support Rangers or Celtic and I say Charlton Athletic. To go to all the home and away games would cost a fortune!”

Although he maintains he is not bitter about what happened, Davidson says he was unfairly caught up in Operation Yewtree, the investigation set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

“I think I was the straw that broke the camel’s back. People were saying: ‘Oh no, not Jim Davidson, that’s ridiculous.’

“It turned out that it wasn’t underage sex that I was accused of, so why I was lumped in with the paedophile mob I have no idea.”

On January 2 last year, just before he was due to enter the Celebrity Big Brother house, he was arrested by police.

“I thought surely they can’t believe these statements, they were so flaky and not me. I thought there must be something else going on.

“I wondered how this would look in the newspapers, and how it would affect my work, but as soon as I saw what I was accused of I relaxed a little. Then I started to think it was ridiculous and wonder whether it was some sort of witch-hunt.

“I was one of the scapegoats where the pendulum had swung too far back the other way, from doing nothing about Jimmy Savile to arresting me.”

On the day of his arrest he started making notes for his own peace of mind. The result was his book, No Further Action: The Darkest Year of My Life, to be published next week.

“On day one I tried to recall everything the policeman had said and wrote my notes down. I was phoning ex-wives to see what we’d been doing on a particular day, phoning roadies, most of who can’t remember huge chunks of their lives!

“I asked my drummer if he could remember going to the Falklands in 1983. He said: ‘I can remember going and I can remember coming back, but what happened there, I’ve no idea at all.

“I’d wake up in the middle of the night with sweats thinking there are demons working here and no matter what evidence I find I am still going to be found guilty. I’d look at my notes and they would reassure me that the facts remain the facts.”

During the period the charges were hanging over him, Jim continued to work.

“I had an underlying feeling that the people who came to see me wouldn’t believe it either. Then at the end of the year I went off and won Big Brother. You couldn’t make it up!”

His experiences provided plenty of material for his shows.

“I’d just tell audiences about it and they’d all laugh. I got lots of people saying they’d never believed a word of the allegations.”

Jim says his time away in Glasgow and all that he went through over that period made him a different man. Though not perhaps in the way most people would imagine.

“I’m not bitter because I don’t blame anyone. But now I do hate being accused of anything. Ridiculous things like ‘you left the milk out of the fridge’. I’ll say ‘no I didn’t and I can prove it!’.”

“It made me realise you don’t know what is round the corner. It’s taken me 12 months to get back on track and I found it very difficult to rejoice. People said I should but it was so awful and there was no finale. It just stopped and that awful year was still there when I looked back.”

A year after the charges were dropped, Jim is performing at this year’s Fringe.

For an entertainer known for filling large theatres and hosting primetime TV shows, working in venue that holds 200 will be a big change.

“I wanted to do it a while ago but they told me I was too famous, which was really their way of saying ‘we don’t want you to come’. So I went and did the Playhouse instead and made a DVD there. I enjoy working in Scotland, I love it.”

Jim wants to change perceptions about him.

“I’m hoping to come and remove whatever baggage people have about me. After winning Big Brother I have this huge younger audience and I’m looking forward to entertaining them. They don’t seem to have any prejudice about me.

“Yet I pick up the paper and see Frankie Boyle having a go at me. He’s never seen or met me but seems to get some pleasure out of ridiculing my style of comedy or me. The people who want to come and see me don’t seem to listen to that.”

He says fans and critics alike will be welcome in the audience adding: “I hope the people with negative thoughts come along and hopefully those thoughts will then go away.”

Until 25 August, Assembly Hall, Edinburgh. Box office: 0131 226 0000