Eric Morecambe's paper bag 'gag'.



Mind, pretty much anything Eric did.

Manning was a tremendous talent, but as already been said, sadly with some very distasteful material.



I do remember a couple of comments made to hecklers at a live gig which stick in my mind.



Heckler... "gerroff, yer fat b**tard"

Manning... " Let me correct you, Sir. Fat, RICH, b**tard, if you don't mind!"



Heckler... "Boo!.. Boo!.. BOO!!!"

Manning... "We do have something in common, mate. I was on telly last night, and I do remember seeing you on telly also... umm, yep, Interference!"

Many years, ago I remember going to a seedy place one night with a fat, "blue" comedian as the warm-up act (before the "action" started!). The all male audience were all giving him stick and heckling him but he thrived on it and was doing great until I intervened. He had no come backand in fact I think he laughed. I was quite pleased with myself. It's always about getting your timing right!

That's the first time I've seen Bernard Manning or Jim Davidson in a sentence containing the word "class" unaccompanied by "no".

Yep. She has both written and performed stand-up, songs, sitcom, and sketch comedy. Then as you say, there's her serious acting, a few documentaries, as well as writing a couple of musicals.

And the voiceover for those Dyson adverts

I agree. You could probably say it about a lot of others with Manning though, because in terms of delivery/timing/speed of thought etc, he was possibly the best there has been.



My point was simply that with the likes of Davidson and Manning you won't find too many people eager to bring them up for praise not because they aren't/weren't good comedians, but rather because they don't/didn't seem to be particularly good human beings. Manning does get a grudging respect, though.

And she still managed to fit in a part-time job at Asda.

You will also find that a lot of people who laughed at them in the 70's and 80' are scared to admit it now and just join in with the rest in condemning them. They drew big audiences back then, so must at some point been popular.



My favourite was Tommy Coopers one liners such as 'two aerials got married, the ceremony was lousy but the reception was brilliant'

Steven Wright:



"I put instant coffee in my microwave and went back in time".

And another one,

"My best friend is a Radio DJ. His voice goes quiet when he walks under a bridge"

My Grandad was manager of Hull New Theatre for years. He said he once made the mistake of saying good luck to Tommy Cooper, who then said it was bad luck and he couldn't go on unless my Grandad left his dressing room, closed the door, sun around anti-clockwise twice and then knocked 3 times on the door. My Grandad left, waited a few seconds, then knocked 3 times.



- "Who is it?"