Bernard Manning: The man they couldn't gag

He had been taken to hospital in Manchester two weeks ago with kidney problems after being forced to cancel a show for the first time in almost six decades.

Manning, master of the oneliner, had ignored changing attitudes and refused to alter a stage act made nationally famous when he appeared on ITV's The Comedians show in the 1970s.

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He was regularly accused of telling racist jokes and taunting homosexuals but denied being racist himself.

He once shocked his politically correct critics by declaring: "I'm no racist. I take the p*** out of poofs, too."

Manning was born in 1930 in Ancoats, one of Manchester's poorest areas. "We had absolutely nothing," he said. "One cold water tap in the house, no bath, outside toilet."

His fledgling comedy career began during National Service when stationed in Berlin in the late 1940s, when he began doing stand-up shows to entertain the troops.

In 1959 he bought the Embassy Club in Manchester with his father, and for the next 40 years performed three or four times a week.

Scroll down for pictures and Bernard Manning's jokes

After Granada TV talent scouts spotted him in the club in 1971, Manning achieved fame - and notoriety - when he appeared on The Comedians alongside the likes of Frank Carson, George Roper, Colin Crompton and Stan Boardman.

He went on to amass a multi-million-pound fortune, but his outrageous act which continued to pack in the club audiences became increasingly unacceptable to TV chiefs.

Some venues across the country banned him but he refused to tone down his material and revelled in the controversy generated by his shows.

He denied being racist: "I tell jokes," he said. "You never take jokes seriously."

In the mid-1980s he was mugged, an incident which he claimed brought upon the onset of diabetes.

By 2002 he was taking 16 pills and several injections a day after a series of

health problems including strokes, angina and failing eyesight.

His wife Vera died in 1995, along with both his brothers within a space of 12 months, but he continued to perform on stage whenever possible.

He was forced to close down the Embassy Club for several months in 1999 owing to ill health but was delighted when his son, Bernard Jnr, took over.

Last month he attended his own "wake" - a gathering of 600 friends and fans in Manchester for a posthumous Channel 4 show called This Was Your Life - but insisted: "I'm going to be with you for a long time yet."

Stan Boardman said: "He had problems walking but he still managed to get on stage. And he was telling jokes all night - his brain was as sharp as it was 20 years ago."

Frank Carson said of Manning: "The only people who misunderstood him were those who didn't have a sense of humour."

Film director Michael Winner, who paid for Manning to perform at a party, said: "I thought he was the funniest man in the world. He was the last of the comedians who put the PC brigade behind him.

"He took no notice of them and just got on with the job of being funny.

"It was ridiculous that he was somewhat ostracised. His audience included all the people that he made jokes about. None of them gave a damn because he was just so funny."

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Writer and broadcaster Barry Cryer said: "The thing about Bernard was that he looked funny, he sounded funny and he had excellent timing.

"It was just what he actually said that could be worrying."