Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson is a British comedian, actor and television presenter from Greenwich, England, born in 1953. He is best known for presenting the television game shows Big Break and The Generation Game, and for his long career in stand-up and light entertainment.

Early life and entry into performance

Davidson attends St Austen’s School in Charlton. He is chosen to appear in Ralph Reader’s Gang Show at the Golders Green Hippodrome when he is 12. He later gets into show business after filling in when a regular comedian fails to turn up at a pub in Woolwich. He becomes a regular on the London comedy circuit.

Television career

Davidson first auditions for Opportunity Knocks in 1975, but is unsuccessful. He later auditions for New Faces, wins the show by one point, and then finishes second in the overall contest. That success leads to numerous television appearances, including What’s On Next and several series of The Jim Davidson Show, which runs for five full series and wins him the TV Times award for Funniest Man On Television.

He appears on Tiswas in 1977 and says that he is the first Phantom Flan Flinger on the programme. He also stars in the sitcoms Up The Elephant And Around The Castle and Home James. His one-man show Stand Up Jim Davidson is recorded on stage at London’s Royalty Theatre. He is later associated with Big Break and with succeeding Bruce Forsyth as host of The Generation Game.

Stand-up and stage work

His touring work develops from his London comedy circuit material for pub and club audiences. He presents this stage act as adult entertainment and performs it in a style described in the material as blue language and explicit swearing. This also leads into his adult pantomime work, including productions titled Boobs in the Wood and SINderella, both of which play to sell-out audiences.

Business interests

Davidson has business interests in seaside entertainment venues. He sets up a company that buys or leases several seaside theatres and piers, including the Winter Gardens building in Great Yarmouth, which he converts into a nightclub. He later sells the company after a loss of £700,000 on a pantomime production of Dick Whittington and a meeting with the Inland Revenue in 2003.

Personal life and autobiographical writing

Davidson’s personal life attracts frequent tabloid attention. The material refers to multiple marriages, substance abuse and admissions of domestic violence. In his autobiography The Full Monty, he writes openly about a turbulent relationship with his wife. In his second autobiography, Close to the Edge, he writes about four marriages and a six-year battle with alcoholism. The text also notes a threatened assault connected to his admission of battering Alison Holloway, and a telegram from Sir John Mills on the occasion of Davidson’s fourth marriage, asking: “Will It Last?”

Public image

Davidson is widely associated with blue comedy and tabloid controversy as well as mainstream television work. The material also notes that in 2006 he refuses to play Great Yarmouth for the first time in 14 years.