Manning blows his own trumpet

Bernard Manning says he's an ideal role model - and claims that "everyone thinks the way I do".

The 72-year-old comic also launched another attack on modern comedy, singling out Eddie Izzard as 'nauseating'.

In a Radio Times interview to promote the fly-on-the wall programme The Entertainers, where he is usually filmed in his oversized underpants, Manning said: " I'm the ideal role model for any mother.

"I'm a Catholic, was an altar boy, have never been a womaniser, taken drugs or been with anyone. I've got my feet on the ground."

Manning also claimed that alternative comedy is dead because "people won't wear it".

"They're all right for one minute - but even that's too long," he said. "Political correctness is finished. Everyone thinks the way I do, otherwise I wouldn't get applause."

Although his own act has been consistently criticised for racism, sexism and obsenities, Manning is particular about what modern comics should talk about.

"Jo Brand talks about tits and Tampax. I wouldn't touch that stuff. Ben Elton's not funny. Paul Whitehouse - never heard of him. Caroline Aherne - no talent. Eddie Izzard - can't stand to look at him with lipstick and mascara, nauseating. The audience is all gay."

He thinks none of that generation have the talent to share his longevity. "Where you prove yourself is on the stage," he said. "I've got them eating out of my hand in less than a minute and send them home glowing."

Manning also confessed that he once harboured an ambition to be a politician. "Probably Labour," the millionaire comic claimed, "because I'm working class."

Published: 12 Nov 2002