[1][2] He gained a high profile on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows such as The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.

[4][5] Manning was born in Harpurhey, Lancashire, and raised in Ancoats, both poor districts of Manchester, the second of three brothers and two sisters.

[7][8] He claimed, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph's Allison Pearson, that his paternal grandfather came from Sebastopol, and changed the family name from Blomberg.

[11] Manning had little thought of entertainment as a career, until posted to Germany where, in his self-written obituary (in which he claimed to have guarded Nazi war criminals Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer in Spandau Prison, Berlin, just after the Second World War),[12] he began to sing popular songs to entertain his fellow soldiers and pass the time.

[11] In 1959, Manning borrowed £30,000 from his father and bought a dilapidated billiard hall on the A664 Rochdale Road, and turned it into the Embassy Club.

[3] He hosted the 1980 documentary short The Great British Striptease, filmed in Blackpool, and had a starring role in a comedy quiz show Under Manning, produced by Southern Television in 1981.

[3][6] However his appearances on the northern Working Men's Club circuit continued, playing to packed audiences which he claimed sometimes included people from ethnic minorities.

[15][16] On an appearance on The Mrs. Merton Show on 19 March 1998, Manning admitted that he was a racist, which surprised host Caroline Aherne and went down badly with the audience.

[11] Manning never toned down his act, but he had a minor television career revival towards the end of his life, including Channel 4 taking him to Mumbai to perform.

[13] From 1999 his son, Bernard Manning Jr, managed the Embassy Club, shortly after his father had a mini stroke and became deaf in one ear.

He considered his father's act inappropriate for bookings and sought to turn the club into an alternative comedy venue.

[20] In interviews with journalists, Manning would remind them of his appearance with Dean Martin in Las Vegas and meeting the Queen.

[28] Having been admitted two weeks earlier for a kidney complaint, Manning died in North Manchester General Hospital at 3:10 pm on 18 June 2007.