Bernard Manning - Biography

Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He was born and raised in Manchester in northwest England.

Manning told irreverent jokes about people from all walks of life, and his act was best known for material involving ethnic stereotypes and minority groups. This led to frequent criticism that his act was racist, which he always denied, saying: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously." Manning became famous on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows including The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. The controversy surrounding his act meant that Manning was rarely seen on television in the later part of his career, but he continued to perform in theatres and pubs until his death.

1 Biography
2 Personal life
3 Comedy style
4 External links
- 4.1 Audio clips
- 4.2 Video clips

Biography

Early life

Born in the Ancoats district of Manchester, Manning was of Russian Jewish descent, something he would note when making later jokes about the Jews and the Irish to emphasise that he meant no ill will. He named his house in Alkrington, Greater Manchester "Shalom," the Hebrew word for "peace."

National Service

Manning left school aged 14, and joined his father's greengrocery business and then worked in a Gallaher's tobacco factory before joining the British Army to serve his National Service. Like many other comedians of the time (including the cast of The Goon Show), Manning held little thought of entertainment as a career, until posted to Germany. Guarding Nazi war criminals (Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer and Karl Doenitz) at Spandau Prison, Berlin just post World War II, to pass the leisure time, Manning began to sing popular standards to entertain his fellow soldiers. Manning's ability to achieve this led him to put free shows on at the weekends: when he began to charge admission and audiences did not decrease, he realised that there was the possibility of making money from showbusiness.

Professional career

On returning to England, Manning continued to sing professionally, and also worked as a compere. He was an effective singer of popular ballads and fronted many big bands in the 1950s, such as the Oscar Rabin Band. Over the years, Manning began to introduce humour into his compering. This went down well, and Manning slowly moved from being a singer/compere to a comedian. After much work in comedy clubs and northern Working Men's Clubs in the 1950s and 1960s, Manning made his television debut in 1971 on the Granada comedy show The Comedians. He compèred The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club which began in 1974.

During the 1980s, Manning fell out of favour with television companies, but his appearances on the Northern Working Men's Club circuit continued, playing to packed audiences which often included people from ethnic minorities. Manning never toned down his act, but he had a minor television career revival towards the end of his life, including Channel 4 taking him to Bombay to perform. In October 2002, Manning presented one of the Great Lives programmes for Radio 4. He chose to honour the Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa. In 2003, Manning was initially reported to have been booked to play a British National Party rally. He denied this, telling the Daily Mirror; "It's a lot of bollocks. I don't know where I'm working. Speak to my agent. I don't know about any BNP nonsense. I would not do it anyway. Do you think I'm fucking barmy?"

In 2006, he appeared at the 40th birthday party of chef Marco Pierre White, with Madonna as one of the members of the audience. In March 2007 he was ranked 29th on the list of the 100 Greatest Stand Up comedians in a poll conducted by Channel 4.

In his later life, although he still toured Britain, he tended to appear most frequently at The Embassy, the club on the A664 Rochdale Road. Set up with his father in 1959, Manning owned the club in Harpurhey, Manchester; his son, Bernard Jnr. managed it. The club is reputed to have played host to many rising acts – Manning claimed The Beatles performed there early in their career.

Personal life

Manning's wife Veronica, known as Vera, died of a heart attack in November 1986, aged 57. His son Bernard Jr. had moved out of the family home so Manning moved back in with his mother. His brother John had died in 1944 at the Battle of Arnhem, while in 1995 his elderly mother and his two remaining brothers Jackie and Frank also died.

Manning was a life-long Manchester City F.C. supporter.

Manning was the subject of This Is Your Life on 27 November 1991.

For many of his later years, Manning was teetotal, and a diabetic. Admitted two weeks earlier for a kidney complaint, Manning died in North Manchester General Hospital at 3:10 pm on Monday, 18 June 2007 at the age of 76. He wrote his own eulogy which appeared as an obituary in the Daily Mail two days later.

Comedy style

Race, sex and religion were all part of the material for many of Manning's jokes, but he considered tampons and disabled people unacceptable subjects; although he was challenged on the Joan Rivers show by guest Rupert Everett when he told a joke about a wheelchair user. In 1994, two black waitresses at a charity dinner took exception to Manning's act and appealed to an industrial tribunal against the management of the hotel for racial discrimination. They lost, later to have the decision overturned at appeal, where they won an undisclosed sum. Manning felt the word "wog" was "a horrible, insulting word I've never used in my life" but defended use of the words "nigger" and "coon" as historical terms with respectable roots.

Manning's sense of humour often ridiculed the deaths of other famous people. The death of Roy Castle from lung cancer in 1994 saw Manning tell the following joke: "When Roy Castle's doctor told him that he only had six months to live, he said that he could do it in four!" In 2002, after the death of the Queen Mother, he said that the Royal Corgis were happy to hear about her death as they would no longer be blamed for pissing on the settee.

Manning's detractors, including television presenter Esther Rantzen, said he was a bigoted racist. Manning was voted 16th in a round-up of the 100 Worst Britons.

Manning's family and friends insisted his controversial ways were all a stage-based act. He also lived next door to an Indian doctor's family, who over the years have appeared in a number of newspaper articles including the Daily Mail, defending Manning as a "perfect gentleman". The poet widow of Visveswara Rao Rudravajhala, Satya Rudravajhala, wrote a eulogy that was published in the local paper, the Middleton Guardian, conveying the family's sentiments.

In interviews with journalists, Manning would remind them of his appearance with Dean Martin in Las Vegas and meeting the Queen. He claimed he was a great believer in family values, who never swore in front of his mother: