Born in Cranfield, Bedfordshire during World War II, he was educated at St Brendan's College by the Christian Brothers in Bristol, and at the University of London where he studied English.
He also appeared in Fawlty Towers as Irish cowboy builder Lurphy (whom Manuel memorably called a "hideous orangutan"), and as Eliphaz in the 1977 television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth.
(1977), Under the Bed (1977), Le Pétomane (1979), Hopscotch (1980), Captive (1986), The Hour of the Pig (1993), The Grotesque (1995), Double Identity (2009), The Wolfman (2010), The Raven (2012), In Secret (2013) and In the Heart of the Sea (2015).
His theatre work includes: An Empty Desk (Royal Court); Duet for One, Hamlet, Due Process of Law (Dukes, Lancaster); Hamlet, Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, and Gloo Joo (Young Vic); Hedda Gabler (Octagon, Bolton); Caesar and Cleopatra, The Prisoner of Zenda, and The Corn is Green (Greenwich Theatre).
From 1986 to 1991 he worked with the English Shakespeare Company in Richard II, Henry IV Pts 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III, Coriolanus, and The Winter's Tale, and toured with them in the UK, Europe, Japan, US, India and Australia; All My Sons (Oxford Stage Company/ Wolsey); Purcell's The Indian Queen with the King's Consort and NYMT at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Schwetzingen Festival in Germany; Hamlet, and, Comedians (The Belgrade, Coventry); Northanger Abbey (Greenwich Theatre); The Merchant of Venice (Salisbury Playhouse); Timon of Athens (AJTC Brix Theatre) The Taming of the Shrew, Don Juan The Masterbuilder, The Cherry Orchard, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Ghosts, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, (English Touring Theatre) Mary Stuart (Derby Playhouse) Richard II (Steven Berkoff) Hamlet, Mother Courage (English Touring Theatre); The Last Confession (Chichester/The Haymarket London); The Ruling Class, Dir Jamie Lloyd, Trafalgar Studios.