In 2013, Jimmy Tarbuck had to cancel a 23-date summer tour when he was arrested in April of that year over six historic child sex assault allegations. All charges against him were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service in March this year, and now the veteran comedian and entertainer is ‘putting his feet back in the water’ with a nine-date UK tour, which stops off at the Beck in Hayes next week.

“I’ve been all over the place with it and it’s been great,” says the 74-year-old, “the audiences have been just marvellous and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.”

The nine dates are designed to be a warm up before Jimmy embarks on a 30-date tour of the country next year, and they began three weeks ago when he was invited to the Palladium, the theatre that has become his spiritual, comedy home.

“The reception I got there – I’ve never had a standing ovation when you walk on,” he says. “It was just wonderful, they took me totally by surprise. It was very gladdening for the heart, after everything that me and my family have been through.

“I wasn’t apprehensive exactly, but you do wonder how it’s going to go.”

Jimmy talks passionately and angrily and at length about what he went through in the year that he was on bail before the charges were dropped.

“People can think what they like, but I will face every one of these people, they’re liars and I think it was proven so. I don’t know what they want, if they’re looking for five minutes of fame or money, I wouldn’t know, but it’s not a very nice thing to go through, I can promise you faithfully.

“You get these people accusing you of things and then it’s up to you to prove them wrong. I’m not on my own here – Paul Gambaccini, Freddie Starr, Jim Davidson.

“And your accusers remain anonymous, which I don’t think is fair. I say let them all come out and I will face every one of them. But of course, I didn’t have to, they all fell apart. It’s all a load of cobblers.”

Jimmy and his family – his wife of more than 50 years Pauline, his actor and presenter daughter Liza and his other two children – are now putting the experience firmly behind them and Jimmy is looking to the future.

The arrest and allegations are firmly excluded from Jimmy’s new show, unlike that of his fellow comedian Jim Davidson who has made his ordeal the focus of his current tour.

“Who wants to talk about that bullshit? I don’t think people are interested, otherwise they wouldn’t come out and see me.”

Instead Jimmy’s new show focuses on the positives in his long career and life, using photos and video footage to take audiences on a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a wealth of anecdotes and memories, ranging from being in the same class at primary school in Liverpool as John Lennon, to playing football with Bobby Moore, and meeting his heroes Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, whom he played golf with on numerous occasions.

“It’s my salute to my heroes, if you like,” he says. “The last section is all about comedians – Tommy Cooper, who died on my TV show Live From Her Majesty’s in 1984, which was awful; Eric Morecambe; Les Dawson; Eric Sykes; Billy Connelly – all what I call the giants of my part of the industry.

“I’m very lucky to have worked with them all, totally honoured to have rubbed shoulders. You’re on a Royal Command Performance and you look along the line and think ‘Dear God, that’s Maurice Chevalier there’! And I’ve worked with Lena Horne, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones – you look back and you think ‘Cor, you’ve worked with a few of the greats, haven’t you?’

“Thank God, I’ve been blessed, I’ve been lucky,” says Jimmy, whose career started out at Butlin’s in Pwllheli in Wales in 1958 and who soon afterwards found himself on tour with Cliff Richard, before breaking into primetime television, notably as an early host of Sunday Night at the London Palladium in the 1960s. “If it ever becomes a chore I won’t do it. I enjoy it immensely and, thank God, the people seem to as well, even with everything that’s happened.”

  • Jimmy Tarbuck is at the Beck Theatre, Grange Road, Hayes, on Monday, November 10 at 7.30pm. Details: 020 8561 8371, becktheatre.org.uk