The son of a Scottish father from Glasgow and Irish mother from Cork, Davidson was born in Kidbrooke, London, and attended Kidbrooke Park Primary School, Blackheath, and St Austin's School in Charlton. Having impressed some acquaintances of his father with impressions of celebrities, he was chosen to appear in Ralph Reader's Gang Show at the Golders Green Hippodrome aged 12 and appeared on television in the Billy Cotton Band Show. He also briefly attended a stage school in Woolwich.

Upon leaving school he was a drummer for pub bands and worked as a supermarket shelf stacker, a messenger, air ticket clerk for a travel agency, a cashier for Wall's ice cream, for Rank Xerox (having trained as a reprographics operator) and as a window cleaner.

Davidson found his way into show business when as a regular in a pub in Woolwich, he undertook an act after the regular comedian had not turned up. He then became a regular on the London comedy circuit, and first auditioned for Opportunity Knocks (1956) in 1975, unsuccessfully; he was told by Hughie Green to "go away". His audition for New Faces (1973) was more successful, and he proceeded to win the show by one point, and then to come second in the overall contest.

His success was quickly followed by many more appearances on television, including What's on Next? (1976) and several series of his own show The Jim Davidson Show (1979) which ran for five complete series and won Davidson the TV Times award as "Funniest Man On Television".

Davidson's touring is developed from his original London comedy circuit show, for pub and club audiences. Aimed at a very different audience from that of his television work, it contains a lot more strong language, which he promotes as adult entertainment. This has also developed into his adult pantomime work, including productions with titles such as: Boobs in the Wood and SINderella.

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John Malkovich and Jim Davidson in Color Me Kubrick (2005)

Jim Davidson in Jim Davidson: No Further Action - Back & Live (2014)

Jim Davidson and Charlie Drake in Sinderella Live (1995)

Jim Davidson in Sinderella Comes Again (2004)

John Bardon, Jim Davidson, and Anita Dobson in Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1983)

Jim Davidson(V)

Jim Davidson(V)

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