The charges were ridiculous – I hunt’ wondered if there was a witch-

look in the newspapers, and how it would affect my work, but as soon as I saw what I was accused of I relaxed a little.

“Then I started to think it was ridiculous and wonder whether it was some sort of witch-hunt.

“I was one of the scapegoats where the pendulum had swung too far back the other way, from doing nothing about Jimmy Savile to arresting me.”

On the day of his arrest he started making notes for his own piece of mind. The result was his book, No Further Action: The Darkest Year of My Life, to be published next week.

“On day one I tried to recall everything the policeman had said and wrote my notes down.

“I was phoning ex- wives to see what we’d been doing on a particular day, phoning roadies, most of who can’t remember huge chunks of their lives!

“I asked my drummer if he could remember going to the Falklands in 1983. He said:‘I can remember going and I can remember coming back, but what happened there, I’ve no idea at all.

“I’d wake up in the middle of the night with sweats thinking there are demons working here and no matter what evidence I find I am still going to be found guilty. I’d look at my notes and they would reassure me that the facts remain the facts.”

During the period the charges were hanging over him, Jim continued to work

“I had an underlying feeling that the people who came to see me wouldn’t believe it either. Then at the end of the year I went off and won Big Brother. You couldn’t make it up!”

His experiences provided plenty of material for his shows.

“I’d just tell audiences about it and they’d all laugh. I got lots of people saying they’d never believed a word of the allegations.”

Jim says his time away in Glasgow and all that he went through over that period made him a different man. Though not perhaps in the way most people would imagine.

“I’m not bitter because I don’t blame anyone. But now I do hate being accused of anything. Ridiculous things like ‘you left the milk out of the fridge’. I’ll say ‘no I didn’t and I can prove it!’.”

“It made me realise you don’t know what is round the corner.

“It’s taken me 12 months to get back on track and I found it very difficult to rejoice. People said I should but it was so awful and there was no finale. It just stopped and that awful year was still there when I looked back.”

A year after the charges were dropped, Jim is performing at this year’s Fringe.

For an entertainer known for filling large theatres and hosting primetime TV shows, working in venue that holds 200 will be a big change.

“I wanted to do it a while ago but they told me I was too famous, which was really their way of saying‘we don’t want you to come’. So I went and did the Playhouse instead and made a DVD there. I enjoy working in Scotland, I love it.”

Ji m wants to change perceptions about him.

“I’m hoping to come and remove whatever baggage people have about me. After winning Big Brother I have this huge younger audience and I’m looking forward to entertaining them. They don’t seem to have any prejudice about me.

“Yet I pick up the paper and see Frankie Boyle having a go at me. He’s never seen or met me but seems to get some pleasure out of ridiculing my style of comedy or me. The people who want to come and see me don’t seem to listen to that.”

He says fans and critics alike will be welcome in the audience adding: “I hope the people with negative thoughts come along and hopefully those thoughts will then go away.” BRITISH Airways will continue to fly over Iraq, even though other European airlines have diverted planes amid increasing tensions on the ground.

Chief executive Willie Walsh said the route was safe, despite concerns following the downing of Malaysia Airways flight MH17 in the Ukraine.

He insisted: “We will fly over Iraq because we consider it safe.”

Walsh added the differing approaches airlines were taking to flying over trouble-spots could be confusing for customers.

Earlier this week, Emirates Airlines said it would divert planes that used Iraqi airspace.

Jeff Poole, director general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, said: “The downing of Flight MH17 raises vital questions about the safety of aircraft over conflict zones.”