Jim Davidson today spoke of his disillusionment with the General Election, his love of Banks’s beer and his fear that he may bump into his former mother-in-law.

The veteran comedian was talking ahead of his visit to Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall tomorrow as part of his If I Ruled the World tour.

It is the latest in a long line of visits during a career spanning several decades.

Now 56, he hasn’t mellowed, just got more cynical about his country and increasingly critical about the three party leaders.

He said: “What’s going on at the moment makes me want to scream – these three fellows all up there debating and not one of them has said anything worth listening to.

“Sometimes I think I’m the only person left in this country with common sense.

“The place has gone mad on political correctness, shops are shutting, there’s too many old people and too many shell suited miserable families who need getting rid of.

“And there’s never any police about. It’s dead handy if you want to drive home drunk or rob someone’s house but there’s no point doing that because no-one’s got any money any more. The country’s rubbish.”

It will be the eighth time he has visited the city in a career which has spanned 34 years since he made his TV debut on the much-loved seventies talent show New Faces.

Since then, as well as getting embroiled in controversies, he has picked up an OBE, performed countless free gigs to British forces all over the world and done a huge amount of charity work.

He says he has a genuine affection for the Black Country, particularly Wolverhampton where his fourth wife Tracy Hilton came from. He said: “I love Wolverhampton. I know it well.”

His fourth marriage ended after 10 years and three children. The couple divorced amid revelations about his affairs.

“Now when I come to Wolverhampton I have to do the show, have a drink, get a curry and escape before the mother-in-law knows I’m here,” he joked.

“It’s a shame because it’s a great place – it’s like the biggest village in the world, everyone’s friendly and cheerful – and Banks’s beer is lovely stuff.”

Such an attitude means that Davidson is sure to receive a warm welcome.

And as he approaches three and a half decades in show business as one of Britain’s most famously controversial comics, he shows no signs of letting up.