Bernard Manning

BERNARD Manning was one of the biggest names in British comedy - but also one of the most controversial.

The comic entertained crowds for the last six decades but shot to fame in the 1970s when he appeared in the ITV stand-up show The Comedians along with Stan Boardman and Frank Carson.

Only five weeks ago he held his own "living wake" for a TV documentary and told the audience: "I'm going to be with you for a long time yet, so don't you worry about me."

But health problems finally got the better of the heavyweight funny man, who suffered from diabetes. Earlier this month he cancelled a gig for the first time in 60 years as he was rushed to hospital with a kidney problem.

The son of a greengrocer, Manning was born in Ancoats in 1930, and raised as an altar boy.

He lived with his parents and two brothers in Blackley where the family slept five in a bed and managed with a single cold tap.

Manning left the Roman Catholic Mount Carmel School when he was 14 to work in a cigarette factory, and between 1948 and 1950 was stationed in Berlin during his stint of National Service.

It was during this time that he began doing stand-up shows to entertain the troops, and was also a lead vocalist for The Oscar Rabin Band.

In 1959 he bought the World Famous Embassy Club, on Rochdale Road, with his father, and for forty years performed three or four stand-up shows a week with his unique brand of humour which has long divided critics.

But it wasn't until Granada talent scouts spotted him in the club in 1971 that he made the big time, and made his television debut starring alongside stand-up greats such as Frank Carson and Stan Boardman.

He went on to become one of Britain's richest stand up comedians, amassing a multi million pound fortune, but for all his personal wealth and fame never had much curiosity for the world beyond Harpurhey.

His world revolved around a five mile radius of his home in Alkrington, Middleton where he preferred to relax in his vest and underpants - that of his son and grandchildren, and the Embassy Club.

He was forced to close the club for a few months in 1999 due to ill health and was delighted when his son, the `younger' Bernard, as he likes to be known, took over and saved it from extinction.

Throughout his long career Manning courted controversy but remained faithful to the comedy style he adopted when he set forty years ago.

As `alternative' comedians became popular in the politically correct 1980s and 1990s, he ignored their material and continued with his tried and trusted themes of ethnicity, religion, women, which critics branded as racist and sexist.

He found himself banned from venues up and down the country, with organisers fearing a backlash if they were seen to be associated with his sometimes contentious views.

Yet he always maintained that he was not a racist, defending his material by saying that his jokes against racial groups were just jokes and that no offence was meant.

He ploughed a small fortune into Radcliffe Borough FC but grew disillusioned with the lack of support and eventually put it up for sale.

His love of football was evident with his continued support of Manchester City, and did not waver even when he was asked to leave Maine Road after offending one of the club's directors and his girlfriend at a charity event.

For someone who was firm friends with Sir Alex Ferguson, it is perhaps surprising that he once said his epitaph would be: `I'd rather be here than Old Trafford.'

He leaves a son, Bernard, and three grandchildren.