By Royle appointment, actor and activist Ricky Tomlinson will introduce his Laughter Show in York on Wednesday in the guise of his best-known character, armchair slob Jim Royle in BBC1’s The Royle Show.

Ricky will be on and off stage all night with true anecdotes from his union days and acting career and will be joined by Tony Barton, from Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Eddie Archer from The Comedians, and the comedy show band Black Onyx, from Rock With Laughter.

When did you start doing these shows, Ricky?

“We’ve been doing it for about four years now, and we generally average between 50 and 70 shows each year.

“It started with just me on my own, telling stories about myself and my life and doing gags, but then about 18 months ago I had a heart operation and the doctor said to take it a little easier so I’ve re-structured the show.”

What happened with your heart?

“I had a four-way bypass, but then Tommy Smith, the ex-Liverpool footballer, has had a six-way bypass, and Paul O’Grady has seven stents in his heart.

“I’m still busy, still doing The Royle Family and charity work around Liverpool, opening fetes and going into children’s schools.”

And then there is your Laughter Show, Ricky. Obvious question, but why did you give it that title?

“Because it’s all about comedy! It was quite easy. I have Tony Barton as a foil, Eddie Archer is the straight patter man, a very laid back, George Burns type, and Black Onyx do comedy songs. I’ve known them for years, doing their impressions of Bassey, Streisand and Freddie Mercury.”

What do you do in the show?

“Because I have two stand-ups comics with me, I never know what I’ll do. In the programme, there are pictures of who I’ve met, and I’ll talk about working with Ken Loache on Raining Stones and Samuel L Jackson on The 51st State, and meeting Glenn Close.

“I’ve been very lucky; living in Liverpool, I know Doddy [Ken Dodd] and have dinner with him four times a year.

“But I also talk about politics, when I was in the Transport and General Workers Union and went to jail from 1973 to 1975 in the only national building strike there ever was.”

What happened?

“I was charged with conspiracy: I got two years and I did it all. I was moved between 14 prisons because we used to organise the jails.

“One of the other lads was so ill, as he was taking a sleeping drug to stop him kicking off, that when he came out he died of drug-induced Parkinson’s Disease. That case is still going on, and they still won’t release my documents as they say it ‘would compromise the security services’.

“I take the papers with me to the theatre in case people want to see it.

“I’m ready to take the case to Europe, but I still love this country; I couldn’t live anywhere else.”

What else do you talk about in the show?

“Sometimes I go off on a tangent and talk about MPs’ expenses, but at the start I always come out dressed as Jim Royle, to the music from the show, as everyone knows The Royle Family. I’ll talk about the mishaps in the show or about how Caroline [Aherne] writes, and the interaction of the cast, which is amazing.”

Before The Royle Family was first shown, did you foresee the subsequent success?

“No, when I first read the script, I said to my mother, ‘this will either be a number one hit or it’ll never see the light of day’.

“But the only reason it got commissioned was that Caroline said ‘If you don’t make it, I’ll never do another Mrs Merton’.

“Even today, if someone went into a commissioning editor’s office and said ‘I’ve got a programme about five people sitting on a sofa’, you would chase them out the door, wouldn’t you?!”

Will there be a Christmas special this year?

“I would think so!”

What keeps the magic going?

“Where Caroline is very strict is that she always gets the same crew, the same caterers, the same make-up girls, and the same producer, John Rushton, so we all know what she wants.

“The Christmas specials take a fortnight to make because we use only one camera, one cameraman, all hand held, so we might say a line six times, each time shot from a different angle.”

Looking back to the early days of your career, what was the defining moment that led to you switching from City & Guilds-trained plastering and labouring to becoming a full-time performer?

“When I came out of jail, I had a wife and two kids to support, so I was cleaning windows, but I also got an Equity card as I was doing some compering, and I’d always done things round the pubs and clubs, a couple of songs on the banjo and a couple of gags.

“Roland Joffe didn’t know that when he asked me to do a couple of lines in a Play For Today in 1981 but I ended up playing the lead, with Colin Welland and Bill Paterson…and the girl who played my wife, Val McLane, was Jimmy Nail’s sister.

“The play [United Kingdom on BBC1] was so controversial, as it was about civil unrest, that it’s never been shown on TV again – and I’ve never looked back.”

Are you enjoying performing as much as ever, almost 20 years on from that comparatively late breakthrough moment at the age of 40?

“I just love getting up each morning and going to work. It doesn’t matter if it’s a little working men’s club or a pensioners’ club, where I take my banjo and get them to sing along. I just enjoy it.”

And now for the big philosophical question: Why do we find Scousers funny?

“They all have a wit about them, but they’re probably no funnier than people from elsewhere, as people love comedy everywhere, so I think the Liverpool accent must help.”

Finally, Ricky, putting on the England manager’s hat in your guise as Mike Bassett, what advice would you give Fabio Capello for this summer’s World Cup campaign in South Africa?

“The first thing is that it’s got to be 4-4-2, but having said that, I was watching Man United v Liverpool the other day, and I couldn’t understand why so many players are continental.

“I used to be a goalkeeper, and where have all the English goalies gone? We used to have the best in the world; now no-one is coming through anymore.

“But I’ll be expecting a call off Fabio and I’ll be giving him all the advice I can.”

• Ricky Tomlinson’s Laughter Show, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £16 on 0844 847 2322 or www.grandoperahouseyork.org.uk