Career
He currently lives with his family in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. He left school at 16 and spent the next two years working in a betting shop, before spending the summer of 1966 working as a Red Coat in Butlins Holiday camp at Mosney, County Meath, Ireland. He spent the following two summers at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton.
By the early 1970s he was living in Manchester.
From 1972 he worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe. He returned to Clacton-on-Sea in 2006 to star in the eight week summer show, Summer Special, at the West Cliff Theatre.
Most recently Jimmy has been touring the United Kingdom in "The Good Old Days of Music Hall and Variety" with Neil Hurst and Shep"s Banjo Boys
On 18 September 2015 it was announced that he had been awarded a papal knighthood (Order of Street Gregory the Great) by Pope Francis for his charity work.