IAN HART: Bernard Manning had a heart of gold

I TOOK a trip to the Pavilion Theatre last week to watch controversial comedian Roy Chubby Brown.

It had been a few years since I’d seen him live – in fact, the last time I did, Maggie had just won a third general election, Charles and Di had a third person in their marriage and mobile phones were the size of bricks.

It’s no secret the content of Brown’s act has kept a very funny man off of our televisions screens for nearly 40 years and whilst his act was certainly near the knuckle, it was no worse than the gags the mobile phone companies employ joke writers to send out on a daily basis.

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Brown’s mentor was the late Bernard Manning, a man who was perceived to be a racist throughout his career, and having seen Bernard live on a number of occasions, there is no doubt that, like Brown, the content of his act contained material many would find both shocking and offensive.

But was it just that, all part of the act?

I cannot defend him because his jokes were offensive but Manning told jokes about everybody, including himself, and part of the racist theory is apparently shot down by the fact Manning was part Jewish. Perhaps an indication of the man behind the mask was that for the last 25 years of his life, his next-door neighbour was an Indian GP, who not only attended the comic’s funeral service but also read the lesson.

Manning had a public persona, a lot like Oliver Reed, but there was also a side to him a lot of the public never saw and the tabloid press certainly didn’t report on.

Locally, we saw that side a few months before he died – he was guest speaker at the annual St George’s Day Lunch at the Metropole in Brighton.

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The lunch that day was in aid of the Chestnut Tree House, our local children’s hospice. Manning’s fee was already at its “charity” rate but when he arrived at the venue and discovered more about the work of the organisation, he apparently reduced his fee by another 40 per cent.

On stage sexist and offensive, but off of it he certainly had a heart of gold.

Word reaches me we’re possibly going to get another Tesco Express, this time the proposed venue being the former Caffyns car showroom in Goring Road. I doubt planning consent will be a problem. With the company being now one of the biggest employers in the town, has it reached the point, with a high level of unemployment, that the council actually cannot turn any reasonable request from Tesco’s down?

Re my article last week on the “return” of the Carioca, I have been asked to point out that former part owner Jock McGuckin was in partnership with John Bachtiger.

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