Bernard Manning: Best Of, Volume 1

Bernard Manning was born in 1930 of Russian Jewish and Irish descent. He served in the Second World War. At one stage, just after the war, he was stationed at Spandau Prison Berlin, where he guarded the likes of Rudolph Hess. His show business career began in the 1950’s as a singer, before gradually introducing comedy in to his act. He first came to a wider public in the 1970’s in TV programmes such as ‘The Comedians’ and ‘The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club’.

Pushing the boundaries of comedy beyond the norm, his humour was loved and disliked in equal measure. He swore and used adult language, which, be warned, appears on these recordings! It’s fair to say that his humour is considered very un-pc nowadays, but he always maintained that he was never targeted anyone in particular and his subject matter was scattered to anyone and everyone.

He started and appeared for many years at his own club, The Embassy in Manchester, where some of this material was recorded. He died in 2007.