Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944)[1] is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist.

[7] After a varied career as a road digger, dustbin man, schoolteacher, steel erector, bus conductor, boiler scaler and chemical factory worker, he took a degree in English and Education at the University of Manchester.

[5][8] Harding began performing as a folk singer and as a member of several local Manchester bands in the 1960s, making his first recordings for the Topic label.

He began telling jokes between songs, eventually extending them into longer humorous anecdotes which became the main focus of his act.

[5] The album also includes "The Accrington Pals" and cover versions of Bruce Springsteen's "Factory" and Eric Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

Harding composed the music scores for DangerMouse, Count Duckula[10] (he also sang the main and end titles with Manchester native Doreen Edwards), The Reluctant Dragon and The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship for Cosgrove Hall Films.

He made a series of fourteen short films on minority religions in England for the BBC's Heaven and Earth show.

He is one of the patrons of the Wensleydale Railway, a group set up to re-open the once mainly derelict line between Northallerton and Garsdale in Yorkshire, near where he now lives.