Comic Davidson tells of ‘tough’ Glasgow dad
COMEDIAN Jim Davidson’s has told how his “tough” Glaswegian father celebrated his birth by telling his mum to give the “little b******” a drink of whisky.
Speaking during ITV’s Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, the 64-year-old told of life with his struggles to determine who his father was while growing up in London.
The Celebrity Big Brother star was brought up by his mother, from Cork i n Ireland, and his Glaswegian father, who he described as a tough man who drank too much.
But there were nagging doubts the star’s father could have been another Scotsman he referred to as Uncle Bill after Jim discovered a painting he received as a birthday gift from Bill had been signed “abu” meaning father in Arabic.
Piers asked whether Jim thought his dad knew who Uncle Bill was, and he replied: “‘Give the b****** a drink from me’ If he did know it would explain a lot wouldn’t it?”
He added: “It all depends what mood I’m in, how I want to tell myself or how I’m going to be today, I’m Uncle Bill’s son or I’m dad’s son. All I know is there’s a lot of Scottish blood flowing round here and I blame that for all the trouble!”
The TV host went on to speak candidly with Piers about his life and career, opening up about his alcohol and drug problems, five marriages and being arrested as part of Operation Yewtree.
He admitted to taking up to 250 pills in a weekend and having sex with up to 12 people at one time but he was never concerned it would put his life in danger.
The star, who has performed for the likes of Prince Charles, said: “Well it didn’t do the Rolling Stones any harm. And that’s what I’m thinking, so this is the norm.”
However, Jim did deny rumours he was a drug deal- er in his early teens, growing up in East London as the youngest of five siblings.
He said: “Well let’s get that right, I was the one they sent to get the pills out of the gang because I wasn’t frightened of all these gangsters and people. It was only amphetamine.”
Jim recalled being told he used alcohol as a “medicine” to go about his daily tasks, until one evening he came home to fourth wife Tracey.
He said: “I remember crawling up the stairs to Tracey and I did say to her, ‘unless you get me help tonight I’m going to die’. And she called her friend who was a doctor and I went into the drinks clinic.”
However, his addiction problems are not the only controversy Jim has faced. Throughout his career he was been called a racist and homophobic – which he denies – and “pretty traumatic” allegations of sexual assault which resulted in his arrest – which, he says, had a damaging effect.
But Jim prefers to look back at his happier moments, like collecting his OBE in 2000 where he proudly stayed true to his roots.
He said: “The Prince of Wales said to me, ‘I’ve never seen you in a kilt before Jim’, I said, ‘No Sir I’m wearing it for my father’, and he said, ‘is he here?’ I said, ‘no Sir he’s’ [points upwards] he said, ‘oh dear’. I said, ‘no he’s not dead, Sir, he’s nicking the lead of the palace roof’.”
T he episode airs on STV tomorrow at 9.50pm.