'The BBC gave me a million quid to go away'

WHEN Jim Davidson wants to cheer himself up, he reads the papers. "There's nothing funnier than the news," the veteran comedian tells me.

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"I just saw a headline, 'Starmer to put pressure on the Kremlin'. He couldn't put pressure on a mattress. He's a gift for comedians.

"I played Grimsby on Saturday and when I mentioned Starmer the audience all booed.

"They see Labour as turncoats. They're desperate for Reform."

Jim, 71, goes on: "The only reason I haven't joined Reform is because I'm a member of the Carlton Club" - the Mayfair members-only Conservative club - "and I don't want to be banned like Lee Anderson was."

Reform's rift with MP Rupert Lowe didn't surprise him. "He's his own man with his own ideas. He'd make a great independent MP, but having Rupert in Reform was like having me in EastEnders. I'd end up, telling them what they were doing wrong."

Jim, once TV's Mr Saturday Night, sounds as glum as Rachel Reeves at the dispatch box as we start chatting. "I've had to move the date of my wedding," he grumbles. "It's going to be March next year now. I mucked up."

Davidson, whose love-life has seen more twists and turns than a fairground Waltzer, has been renting a cottage in Hamble-le-Rice, Hampshire, since splitting from fifth wife Michelle Cotton in 2023.

"It's quirky, I like it, but it's too small for two. I found a bigger house and told my landlord I was moving out in April.

"Then the other place fell through. So now I'm going to be homeless."

Not quite. Jim's moving to Weybridge, Surrey, where his glamorous bride-to-be, Natasha, 48, resides.

Luckily "the future ex-Mrs Davidson", as he jokingly calls her, is understanding.

South London-raised Natasha recently joined his TV subscription channel Ustreme, co-presenting Girl Talk with former EastEnders star Debbie Arnold.

Ustreme, which is awash with old-school comedy favourites like Freddie Starr and Jethro, is growing too slowly for Jim's liking.