Comic Jim Davidson talks love of the Midlands ahead of shows

You can give me Wolverhampton any day of the week. I love it. I used to play at the Civic but now I'm at The Grand. The days of filling the Civic have gone. But I love it."

The funniest is Telford, of course.

"Oh God," he says, remembering the time he was banned after a row with a local hotel. His memory is as clear as day. He had bad service, so he says, and threw the world's biggest hissy fit.

Oh, and he didn't like the roundabouts either. But then, who does?

Telford, however, holds a permanent place in his affections. Having sworn in 2007 never to visit the town again after HotelGate, he returned in 2013. It was the day after he'd been arrested as part of Operation Yewtree on charges that were later dropped. And he remains grateful for the warmth that local fans showed him.

"We all like to be liked. But I love it in this part of the world. I like them and they like me. Telford, Cannock, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, I just adore it.

Jim's heading back to Staffordshire and Shropshire early in the new year to play and Lichfield's Garrick Theatre on February 8 and 9 Shrewsbury's Theatre Severn on January 25.

His new show is called 40 Years On and celebrates four decades of showbusiness.

"It starts with growing up in south east London and the first half ends with winning New Faces in 1976. The second follows on and ends with me winning Celebrity Big Brother 38 years after I won New Faces. I'm taking the mickey out of myself.

"I'm very much looking forward to sharing 40 Years On with audiences in theatres across the country. The piece is an honest and raw reflection of my life over the last 40 years both in the spotlight and personally.

"Much of my life has been lived out with the nation watching, so what better way to set the record straight and hear the stories but from my perspective and in my own words. It's all about how life is different as you get older."

And how is life different, when you're Jim 'Jimbo' Davidson?

"You take less risk as you get older. You try to find the easiest path. You don't come off stage and think where's the nightclub? That's what I did in the 1970s. And I talk about that. I talk about the extravagance of chartering my own aeroplanes to fly from Blackpool to London when I was 23. But when you've been married and had five wives and loads of houses and drinks bill you can't to do that any more.

"These days, I come out of the theatre and go and get a curry and a pint of Cobra beer. I don't stay overnight. Hotels are rotten in this country."

"I've never considered myself to be controversial and neither do the people that like me. It's controversial to some of the people in the press and more often people who read the press but don't see me. I get attacked: Tory, fattist, wife-beating, homophobic. And you never change those people's views. I'm working class and I'm a Tory. That's what it is.

"I love the Midlands. Some of my best wives have come from there. Roy Wood is a great mate of mine too. He should have been dead years ago. He's got a liver the size of Walsall, bless him."