Manning, Bernard John (1930–2007)

English comedian. Performing live stand-up routines from the 1950s, and on television from the 1970s, he was controversial for his jokes involving race, religion, and women.

He performed in comedy and working men's clubs from the 1950s and bought the Embassy Club with his father in Manchester in 1959. He made his television debut on the stand-up comedy series The Comedians (1971), gaining a wide audience and becoming one of the UK's wealthiest comedians over the next decade. His popularity waned, however, as political correctness rose during the early 1980s.

He was born and grew up in the working class area of Ancoats, Manchester. Leaving school at 14, he worked in his father's greengrocer shop and in a tobacco factory before joining the British Army. He served in World War II, where he began to perform popular songs for fellow soldiers while stationed in Berlin 1948–50. When he returned from the war, he continued to work as a vocalist and compere, adding comedy performances. He continued to perform stand-up routines in northern England during the 1980s, after his television appeal had waned. Later work included a segment on Mother Teresa for BBC Radio 4's Great Lives series in 2002 and the Channel 4 series Bernard's Bombay Dream in India.