Her name was Rhoda Rogers and she did the striptease.

"She was gorgeous," recalls the young comedian who lurked in the wings while she took her clothes off.

"I kept trying to get a furtive glimpse of her boobs and her bum."

The comic's name was Jimmy Tarbuck. And what he didn't know was that while he was backstage at the City Varieties in Leeds eyeing up Miss Rogers' cleavage, a man in the audience was eyeing up him.

An executive of the television company ATV had been sent to Yorkshire by Lew Grade himself to compile a report on the gap-toothed comic whose patter punctuated the music hall strip acts.

It took a lot to divert the punters' attention from Miss Rogers, but Tarbuck, grinning from behind the mike stand, his thumbs hooked in his waistcoat pockets, had managed it.

ATV booked him on the spot and three weeks later he was playing to a live audience of 15 million on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. A one-way ticket to fairyland, he calls it.

That was 36 years ago. Now, at 58, Tarby is back where he started.

The strippers have gone, but he'll find the City Varieties otherwise much as he left it when, later this month, he reclaims its stage. "It's the most wonderful place. There aren't many like it left," he says.

Today's Tarbuck is mellower than the original model, the broad Scouser with the Beatle haircut and the machine-gun delivery. Now, his public appearances are confined to charity events, a few concerts a year in selected venues, and the odd TV guest spot. The rest of his year is spent indulging his passion for golf, both here and abroad.

"But when I do a live show, the buzz is greater than ever," he insists.

That's perhaps as well, because for the last few years television has tended to regard Tarbuck as a comedy dinosaur. When he does appear, on shows like Have I Got News For You, there's often an ironic subtext. It's as if the producers are sending him up.

"I think the variety show is sadly missed," he says. "There's hardly anywhere a young performer can strut his stuff. There's Des O'Connor's show, and that's it."

Tarbuck once made an industry out of hosting such shows. He eventually took over compering duties on Sunday Night at the Palladium, and throughout the Eighties he presided over ITV's Live from Her Majesty's.

"They changed a lot of people's lives, those shows," he says. "One appearance, that's all it took."

He is not so enamoured of the comedy training grounds of today. "You've got to have longevity if you're going be a star. These days, the word star is bandied around too freely. It's applied as soon as anyone's been on TV or the radio. I don't subscribe to that. You should, in comedy, get better as you go on, as you learn more about the craft.

"A lot of people who present TV shows can't work live at all. If the autocue goes down, they're knackered. They can't cut it."

Yet there are younger comics he admires. Despite their ritual sending up of him last year, he's a fan of Paul Merton, Angus Deayton and Ian Hislop. "I'd go on Have I Got News For You again tomorrow if they asked me," he says.

And he likes Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott and Victoria Wood. "She's sensational. She makes me crack up laughing and that's what I want from a comedian. What I don't want is to be shocked. I've got a great sense of humour, I'm very broad minded, but effing and blinding doesn't appeal to me."

Tarbuck grew up watching comic legends like Jimmy Wheeler, Ted Ray and Max Bygraves at the local music halls. Later, he worshipped at the altar of King Dodd ("the best stage comedian we've ever had in Britain - bar none") and once spent an afternoon in Bradford "studying" Dodd's performance in panto. But it was Bob Hope who was the major professional influence on his life.

"He was a hero to me. I just loved his approach, and it was him I tried to emulate - both by looking smart on stage and by playing golf. Delightful man."

He'll be bringing his clubs with him to Yorkshire. His favourite local course is Alwoodley in Leeds, and he has an unfulfilled ambition to play on Baildon Moor. "I've driven past and seen golfers flying through the air with the wind," he says.

His current show features his long-time friend Kenny Lynch on vocals ("but I book him because he's a talented lad, not because he's a friend") and five musicians.

"I do a question and answer session, and we talk about whatever the audience wants. Usually, I get asked about Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper - my peers."

Tarbuck has a genuine affection for his audience. "People are very nice to me and I'll never patronise them," he says. Nevertheless, talking to them about Tommy Cooper is still painful.

He was hosting the live LWT show on which Cooper died. "I can see it as clearly as if it was yesterday," he says.

"The theatre was roaring laughing - they thought he was doing a levitation sketch. He stayed behind the curtain while they tried to revive him, and Les Dennis and Dustin Gee went on, then Howard Keel. No one knew until afterwards that Tommy had died.

"The next week I took a minute at the end of the show to thank everyone on behalf of his family. He was one of the greats. As original as God is original."

Tarbuck harbours only two reservations about coming to Yorkshire. The first is the travelling ("a pain in the bum"); the second is the risk of running into a big woman from Bradford.

"For years I've been telling jokes about this mythical Big Elsie from Bradford. She wasn't based on anyone I ever knew, but I'm still terrified that one night I'll get smacked in the mouth by someone who says 'Oi, Tarbuck - my name's Elsie'."

Jimmy Tarbuck is at the City Varieties, Leeds, on May 27. Tickets are bookable on 0113 243 0808.

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