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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask, is Jim Davidson really a nice man?

327 replies

ashamedmummy11 · 29/01/2014 19:30

I was just chatting with OH here and I said I quite liked him on CBB. Apart from a few questionable remarks to Casey he seems a reasonably nice guy. OH reckons he has a bad reputation. Is this true? If so why?

OP posts:
Beachcombergirl · 30/01/2014 08:32

After such a watchable series of cbb, it's disappointing to see rasict, sexist, homophobe JD win the show. I think Linda Nolan was spot on and I was shocked how te public turned on her. It was a total low blow of him to bring up her dead husband and a crime he commuted years ago. If the editors of the show had toned down use of footage of her anger towards him I'm sure he wouldn't have won. Who the hell voted for him? No one I know I hope.

noddyholder · 30/01/2014 08:42

Very insightful feed on twitter by a writer with experience of him in a work environment a sexist bully who no one liked. Who voted s right

Joysmum · 30/01/2014 08:48

It'll be interesting to see what winning CBB does for his career.

newmorning · 30/01/2014 08:57

Charlotte Crosby won it last year and she's hardly the most inspiring example of British womanhood so we shouldn't be too surprised about JD winning this year.

WallyBantersJunkBox · 30/01/2014 10:11

How has he had a terrible year? Confused

RedPencils · 30/01/2014 10:44

How has he had a terrible year?
He was arrested under Operation YewTree about a year ago. I think that the charges were dropped only recently. He said at the beginning of BB that he had lost work because of it (he was supposed to be Rylan's CBB year).
I suppose thats a fairly terrible year.

dawntigga · 30/01/2014 10:45

WallyBantersJunkBox because for some reason I can't work out being accused of sexual assault is, in somehow, worse than being assaulted.

CannotBeginToDescribeTheRageOverCBBTiggaxx

Pawprint · 30/01/2014 11:04

I've never met him.

However, I used to work in the TV industry and knew a director who worked with him on Big Break. He said he was poisonous and full of hate, especially towards women and gays. He once threw his (lovely) wife out of a moving car. He eventually left her for a lap dancer.

He also said that JD was totally obsessed with the military and, ironically, very clearly had an 'interest' in men in uniform.

Piscivorus · 30/01/2014 11:09

dawntigga No-one is saying which is worse, they are both dreadful but for someone in the public eye to be wrongly accused of sexual offences in the current climate must be truly awful and to deny that is ridiculous

I'm still struck by the fact that the one person whose experience of him is current says he is a nice man with a heart of gold and those who are saying racist, misogynist, etc are backing it up with YouTube videos from the 1980s. Is everybody saying that people can't change?

DarlingGrace · 30/01/2014 11:16

He was an obnoxious man, 30 years ago. He has mellowed. The way I look at it is: would he do you a good turn rather than a bad turn? If the answer is yes, then that's your answer as to whether he is a nice man or not.

I think he held back. He's spent 45 years on the circuit, a slip of a girl like Luisa is no match for some of the hecklers he will have encountered. She and Linda should be grateful to have left with their heads still attached. Had he chosen to, he could have annihilated the pair of them. He chose to walk away from most of their dreadful attempts to inflame and cause an argument.

Linda Nolan, could argue in an empty room. Quite telling that a large proportion of her family has nothing to do with her and she was the solo Nolan (family fall out again)

FloweryFeatureWall · 30/01/2014 11:16

And the one person saying he has a heart of gold couldn't possibly be biased?

He even said in the CBB house that he'd had advice on how to behave and what not to say. Several times he stopped himself talking and said he'd been told not to say things like that. As if he has a heart of gold Hmm

Chippednailvarnish · 30/01/2014 11:23

His homophobic behaviour on Hells Kitchen was only in 2007. That's hardly 30 years ago.

Thisisaghostlyeuphemism · 30/01/2014 11:40

"the one person whose experience of him is current says he is a nice man with a heart of gold"

His entire career has been built on hatred of women and blacks and there has been testimony here from loads of posters saying how he has treated them like crap and you still think he has a 'heart of gold'?

Wow. You set the bar high, huh.

newmorning · 30/01/2014 12:08

If JD 'hates women', he must hate his adult daughter and that doesn't seem to be the case.

Could it be that he hates some women, loves some women and feels somewhere in between about the rest of us?

KellyElly · 30/01/2014 12:16

He frequently comes to my place of work and certainly his attitude towards women is the same as it was back in the day, so I don't think he's changed that much.

NigellasDealer · 30/01/2014 12:21

havent read the whole thread but as i recall JD was a racist twat back in the 70s or 80s, with 'jokes' that played on the hilarious fact that many bus conductors (remember them?) were black? and it was all 'ding ding move up the bus please' in a fake Jamaican accent, and referring to black men as 'Chalky' - ha bloody ha
and please do not tell me that that was just the humour of the times, i recall plenty of comedians who did not use racist jokes to justify their canned laughter.

dawntigga · 30/01/2014 12:22

OF COURSE he's changed Daily Mirror link 2013
He offered to pee on Myleene Klass in Norway to 'keep her warm'
In 2003 he refused to go through with a gig in Plymouth because there were wheelchair users sitting in the front row, and his routine included jokes about disabled people. [NICE!]
2007 the Brian Dowling incident
2007 rape jokes at Newark Palace Theatre, which I doubt he's cut from his act.
He continues to be accused of being a sexist fuckwit everywhere he goes and women keep being warned not to be in a room with him alone. I can see how that makes him ok now.

Also, there's nothing recent because until CBB/last year he was AN IRRELEVANT ANACHRONISM.

AndBreatheTiggaxx

Lighthousekeeping · 30/01/2014 12:27

I knew someone like him. Also a nasty piece in drink. Loathed women. His star has faded but he's still doing the circuits as it's an excuse to beable to drink all day and get laid. He would not have a bad word said against his wife and daughters. Not that anyone would say a bad word against his long suffering wife and amazing daughters (which was all down to the wife I'm sure) he'd just manipulate the conversation so you did mention them and he'd use it as an excuse to explode and get right in your face. Although he wasn't racist and had a camp side so god knows how vile Jim must be a woman hating boozer is bad enough.

Sadoldbag · 30/01/2014 12:28

Wonder if dappy who has mixed raced children and who is Greek himself knows about "chalky"

Lighthousekeeping · 30/01/2014 12:31

That age group don't though do they? That's why they are all still bleating on about how great Jim is on face book.

Thisisaghostlyeuphemism · 30/01/2014 12:45

But Dawntigga, don't look at all the years of him being a nasty, racist, wife beating twat. Simply ask yourself if he would do you a good turn rather than a bad turn.

That is really quite funny.

Ubik1 · 30/01/2014 12:45

I grew up near Jim Davidson. I know exactly what sort of man he is - he represents everything I moved away from, there is no cheeky chappie cockney about him. He is extremely unpleasant.

He's also very litigious so careful Wink

enriquetheringbearinglizard · 30/01/2014 13:37

Following his autobiography one of his ex wives spoke out about her experiences with him
www.thefreelibrary.com/JIM+DAVIDSON+EXPOSED%3A+MY+HELL+MARRIED+TO+CRUEL+TV+COMEDIAN%3A+People...-a079472757

I think his CBB win has been an absolute triumph for his PR team and whoever's been coaching him for his appearance on the series. It was interesting how for the most part housemates seemed to like him, or at least say they did, apart from Linda, but how he was up for eviction so often Hmm

Piscivorus · 30/01/2014 14:17

I must stress here I am not a JD fan but am being devil's advocate. I watched CBB throughout and can see why he won as the other candidates, in my opinion, were either nondescript or easily detestable

Enrique That article is horrendous and damning but, again, is from many years ago (it refers to him as 47 when he is now 60).

sadoldbag I doubt Dappy knows about "Chalky", why would he? But again that is from years and years ago.

I don't care for that type of humour personally but large numbers of people do. In Blackpool, two of the most successful summer comedians are Roy Chubby Brown and Joey Blower who are of the same ilk.

I am curious as to whether JD could be a changed man but I guess we are unlikely to truly find that out

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