Bernard Manning

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Bernard Manning
Born	13 August 1930(1930-08-13) Ancoats, Manchester, England
Died	18 June 2007 (aged 76) North Manchester General Hospital, Crumpsall, Manchester, England,
Medium	Stand-up
Nationality	British[1][2]
Years active	1950s – 2007
Subject(s)	Ethnicity, Stereotypes, Minority groups
Spouse	Veronica Finneran (1956–1986)
Domestic partner(s)	Lynn Morgan (1989–2007)
Website	http://www.bernardmanning.com/

Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English stand-up comedian. He was born and brought up in Manchester in the north-west of England.

Manning courted controversy because his act often contained material involving ethnic stereotypes and minority groups. This type of material was commonplace among British stand-up comedians in the 1970s, but was largely excluded from television from the 1980s onward. Manning continued to perform in theatres and pubs until his death. Critics of his humour described much of it as racist, although Manning himself denied this.^[3][4]

[edit] Biography

Born in the Ancoats district of Manchester, Manning was of working class Irish Catholic extraction but also claimed Jewish roots.^[5] Manning's house in Alkrington, Greater Manchester^[6][7] was called "Shalom",^[8][9] the Hebrew for "Peace"

[edit] National Service

Manning left school aged 14, and joined his father's greengrocery business and then worked in a Gallaher's tobacco factory^[10] before joining the British Army to serve his National Service.^[11] 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,^[12] 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 shows on at the weekends when he began to charge admittance and, when audiences did not decrease, he then realised that there was the possibility of making money from showbusiness.

[edit] Professional career

On returning to England, Manning continued to sing professionally, and also working 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.^[13] 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.^[11]

After much work in comedy clubs and northern Working Men's Clubs in the 1950s and 1960s, Manning made his television debut in the 1970s on Granada TV's stand-up comedy show The Comedians.^[11] He went on to compère The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.

The dawn of political correctness led to television companies reducing their bookings of Manning, but his appearances on the Northern Working Men's Club circuit continued, playing to packed audiences which, as he claimed, often included people from ethnic minorities.^[11]

Manning's style never abated, but the rediscovery of the 1970s led to a minor television revival, including Channel 4 taking him to Bombay, India to perform. In October 2002, Manning presented one of the Great Lives programmes for Radio 4. He chose to honour the Albanian Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa.^[11]

In 2003, Manning was initially reported to have been booked to play a British National Party rally. However, he denied this, telling The 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?"^[14]

In 2006, he made the headlines again when he made Madonna laugh at the 40th birthday party of chef Marco Pierre White.^[9]

In March 2007 he was ranked 29th on the list of the 100 Greatest Stand Up comedians in a poll conducted by the television station Channel 4.^[15]

Manning's controversial sense of humour often ridiculed the deaths of other famous people. The death of Roy Castle from 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!"

He also ridiculed the Queen Mother's death in 2002, saying that the Royal Corgis were happy to hear about her death as they would no longer be blamed for peeing on the settee.^[16]

[edit] Embassy Club

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, although his son, Bernard Jnr. managed it. The club is reputed to have played host to many a rising star - Manning claimed The Beatles performed there early in their career.^[9]

[edit] Personal life

Manning's wife Vera died of a heart attack in 1986. His son Bernard Jnr. had moved out of the family home so Manning moved back in with his mother. His brother John had died during the 1944 attack on Arnhem, while in 1995 his mother and his other two brothers Jackie and Frank also died.^[9][11]

In 1989 Bernard began a relationship with his friend and former Embassy cloakroom attendant Lynn Morgan, whom was 29 years his junior. The pair began dating following the death of his wife, and the breakdown of Lynn's marriage. In 1995 they moved in together. Lynn was at his bedside - along with Bernard Jnr - when he died, and upon his death said "My life feels so empty."^[17]

Manning was a life-long Manchester City F.C. supporter.^[18]

For many of his later years, Manning was teetotal, and a diabetic.^[19] Admitted two weeks earlier for a kidney complaint, Manning died in North Manchester General Hospital at 3:10pm on Monday, 18 June 2007 at the age of 76.^[20][4] He wrote his own eulogy which appeared as an obituary in the Daily Mail two days later.^[21]

[edit] Style

Race, sex and religion were all part of the material for many of Manning's jokes, but Manning considered tampons and disabled people unacceptable subjects; although he was pulled up on the Russell Harty show by guest Rupert Everett when he told a joke about a wheelchair-user.^[22] In 1994, two black waitresses at a charity dinner took exception to Manning's act^[23] and went 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.^[24] 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.^[11] Most viewers felt that Manning came first in a television interview to Caroline Aherne's character Mrs Merton then he 'floored' her by pretending to admit that some of his jokes were racist, but countered by saying: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously." According to the BBC, most people agreed with this 'version of events'.^[11]

Manning's detractors, including television presenter Esther Rantzen, said he was a bigoted racist. Conversely, black activist Darcus Howe once stated that he felt he had more in common with Manning than with Tony Blair.^[25]

Likely as a result of these controversies, Manning was voted 16th in a round-up of the 100 Worst Britons. Manning was the first member of the list to have died (one of the stipulations for being on the list was that you must be alive).

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". Recently, 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.^[26]

In interviews with journalists, Manning would remind them of appearing with Dean Martin in Las Vegas and meeting the Queen. He was a great believer in family values, who never swore in front of his mother:^[11]

"I dragged myself up by my bootlaces. I don't drink or smoke, I don't take drugs. I have never been a womaniser. I was brought up right with good parents and I have never been in trouble or harmed no-one. And I love my family."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bernard Manning - A tribute to the 'King of comedy'
• BBC announcement of Manning's death
• Guardian obituary: Bernard Manning
• Manchester Evening News: Article announcing Bernard Manning's death
• Bernard Manning's website
• Bernard Manning at the Internet Movie Database
• His page at My Manchester
• Banned from the Weymouth Pavilion in 2002
• Bernard's episode of Great Lives on Radio 4 - his admiration for Mother Theresa in October 2002
• 'My dad wasn't a bigoted bruiser' says Bernard Manning's son - Mail on Sunday
• Bernard Manning on Chortle

[edit] Audio clips

• Bernard's last ever interview with Opal Bonfante "How I want people to remember me"

[edit] Video clips

• At the Gardner's Arms in Stockport
• Bernard Manning in live stand-up, 29 May 2005