Jim Davidson, No Further Action, Grand Opera House, York, November 9

RESURRECTED comedian Jim Davidson is following up his book account of his annus horribilis in 2013 with a 54-date British tour under the same name, No Further Action.

On the road since September 5, the 60-year-old comic will play the Grand Opera House in York on November 9, on the back of a sold-out debut run at the Edinburgh Fringe, his landslide victory in Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother and the paperback publication of his book.

The show has expanded from an hour on the Fringe to two on the tour, because The People's Comedian, as Davidson's tour poster calls him, has plenty to get off his chest.

"I had a rough ride for a while last year, but it’s great to be back on stage doing what I love," he says. "Looking back, I’m really glad I kept a diary to document what I was going through. I found it extremely cathartic and it has helped me tell the story in the book with total accuracy and honesty.

"It’s also helped me find some humour among it all too. I always seem to find the funny side. And then, for a finale, along came Big Brother. Wait till you hear the inside stories on that.”

Last year started off with his beloved dog Benji dying and Davidson being arrested at Heathrow under Operation Yewtree; Davidson subsequently spent a year fighting to clear his name.

"The two things that kept me going throughout that year were the support of the public and my friends and the fact that I wrote down everything I was feeling, the facts as well as the demons," he says.

The writing was cathartic.

"Operation Yewtree made me aware for the first time that I had to have a serious look at myself," says Davidson.

"When I was arrested and the run-up to that arrest, when I knew that something was going on, it made me look inside myself. I had to look deep. I knew I had to defend myself, but at the same time there are many things in my life that I have done wrong. I didn’t do any of it on purpose, but I thought that no one really deserves to have me in their life."

Davidson first learned to write down problems when he was in a drinks clinic.

"I went years back because I had got into the old Colombian marching powder and was drinking too much. I haven’t touched coke since. I gave up drink for seven years," he says. ‘I still have a drink now, but as it’s Alcoholics Anonymous I drink under a different name."

His worst moment in a rotten year came when he was flying down from Glasgow.

"I was reading a book about a bloke going to prison," Davidson recalls. "I started to tremble and shake and that’s when I called Michelle [his wife] who called my friend, Goose. Goose called me immediately.

"He gave me a lecture on being truthful and being myself. I said 'Goose, there are demons in the air'. And he said, 'You just take care of the truth and God will take care of the demons'. I took his advice. It made me feel as if I’d handed over my problems to God."

He never used to fear anything, but now he is afraid of failure.

"The desire to be liked is part of who I am. So for someone with that psychological footprint it doesn’t suit any of the crimes I was accused of," he says.

"Some of those accusations were horrendous and some were trivial. One was about pinching a girl’s bum in a pub. Imagine, people I haven’t spoken to in ages, you feel so rotten ringing them up. 'Hello, remember me. What were we doing in 1983?'."

Even his ex-wives supported him.

"Before I met Michelle [wife number five], I got an OBE and three ex-wives, like The Witches Of Eastwick, all turned up. They all said, when I was accused of something that didn’t happen, they’d all be there with me and for me, and they were," says Davidson.

In the past, he was accused of being racist and sexist in his humour, two charges he denies. "I’m fed up with that a little bit, but regret is a useless emotion so it’s about what I do now and what I do with my life now rather than any mistake I might have made," says the comic, television show host, pantomime performer and troops entertainer.

What does Davidson consider a mistake?

"Before, I thought there was one set of rules for the world and another for me. I had lots of money and energy and was fun to be around. I think I wore the wives out. You can’t stay out till four in the morning every night. You can’t have a pint of lager for breakfast every day. But I do wish I hadn’t been so reckless and saved a few more quid."

His treats now are not big nights out or holidays, but spending time with his dogs, Bertie, a lhasa apso, and Oscar, a coton de tulear. "Bertie is very laid back. Oscar is a bit mad, a special needs dog, a postman biter," says Davidson.

Might they represent the two sides of his personality?

"That’s right," he says. "I wake up and say I’m feeling a little bit Bertie, but I might get a little bit Oscar later."

Jim Davidson, No Further Action, Grand Opera House, York, November 9, 7.30pm. Tickets update: still available on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york