It sometimes seems as though anyone can be rehabilitated, any old entertainment dinosaur restored to fashion (ironically or otherwise), as long as he or she hangs around long enough. But there are exceptions, and I always assumed Jim Davidson was one of them. "We think we know Jim Davidson," wrote Sarfraz Manzoor in 2011, describing him as "the south London, Page 3 girl-dating, Thatcher-loving, Our Boys-supporting, gay-baiting, hard-drinking, racist standup comedian". Surely Davidson, the brains behind "Chalky White", was too far beyond the pale to be embraced, ever, by anyone with taste, standards or affection for the artform of comedy?
Well, that theory will be tested this summer, it transpires, now that Davidson's Edinburgh Fringe debut has been announced. The ex-Generation Game man is performing for the duration of the festival – not in some marginal location or end-of-the-pier playhouse, but under the auspices of the Assembly Rooms, one of the traditional "big four" Fringe venues. The show, No Further Action, promises to tell the true story of the worst year of Jim's life, featuring "his arrest [in connection with Operation Yewtree] and the nightmare 12 months that followed, the clearing of his name and winning the heart of the nation all over again [it says here] as a Big Brother champion".
It's a discombobulating announcement, which crashes together the world of old-school, working-men's-club comedy and the middle-class, university-educated "alternative comedy" culture that spawned the modern Edinburgh Fringe. Of course, Davidson's not the first Bernard Manning-era comic to play the Fringe: Jim Bowen, Roy Walker, Michael Barrymore and others have blazed the trail. But Davidson is more tightly associated with homophobia, racism and rightwingery than even his contemporaries, and is less easy to envisage superimposed on to the backdrop of the arty, progressive Fringe.
But it's all part of the rebrand, you see – an audacious bid on Davidson's part to neutralise criticism and remould himself according to current comedy fashion. Phase one was his 2011 play Stand Up and Be Counted, starring Jim as a thinly veiled version of himself, a washed-up bigot-comic cast out by the new generation. The play suggested a Davidson more self-aware and capable of self-criticism than many supposed – although the extent to which it constituted any kind of mea culpa was exaggerated.
And now, here comes Davidson's autobiographical standup show, telling the "true story" of the last year of his life. His work isn't usually marketed as true or personal; these are the qualities that Davidson's dreaded Guardian-readers seek in their comedy. It so happens that these last 12 months of Davidson's life also allow him to play the victim. The not-so-sub-text is: here's a man who isn't guilty as charged, who's been wronged and who maybe deserves a second hearing.
Will it work? Will Davidson win over the "awful, jealous, socialist bunch of cunts" (his phrase for today's young comedy people) and win himself some late-career favour (redemption, even) among the cognoscenti? That'll be decided by the quality of his material. Just by being on the Fringe, he'll be seen by some audiences who wouldn't usually see him – plenty of whom, I'll bet, will be young standup fans curious to see whether he's as bad as his reputation. But will Davidson be able (or disciplined enough) to refrain from tawdry chauvinism? Will he be funny? It's one thing to rebrand on a press release; he'll find it much harder to do on a stage.
Three to see
Richard Gadd: Cheese and Crack Whores
Gadd's show made a splash at last year's Edinburgh festival from a wee room at the back of a pub on the Free Fringe. Disturbing, nakedly confessional and drawing comparisons with the dreaded Kim Noble, it now transfers to Soho theatre.
• Runs Thursday to Saturday 26 April. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
Mark Grist: Rogue Teacher
Almost two years on from its Edinburgh debut, "rap battle teacher" and spoken-word artist Grist – whose verbal joust with a mouthy teenager went viral in spring 2012 – takes his entertaining, heart-on-sleeve account of that event on tour.
• Thursday 17 April, Bromsgrove Artrix (01527 577 330), then touring.
Fife comedy festival
Last weekend of the inaugural comedy festival in the part of Scotland where all the best people come from (not that I'm biased at all …). Still to come: Hardeep Singh Kohli and an excellent bill of Scottish comics, including Fred MacAulay.
