Showbiz
Controversial comedian Bernard Manning has died at the age of 76.
He had been being treated in North Manchester General hospital for a kidney condition, where he died at 3.10pm on Monday.
Manning was famously criticised for telling racist jokes and was even banned from performing in Weymouth because councillors were worried that his act would breach race laws.
In defence of the accusations he once retorted: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously."
His biographer Jonathan Margolis defined him as the "the last of the joke-tellers".
He told the BBC: "I think he'll inevitably become famous for this question of whether he was a racist comedian - and it's a funny thing because it's some way down the list of things he was.
"He was a man of his age - and as people of his age went, he was relatively un-racist.
"Until his dying day, he didn't understand what all the fuss was about."
He had been being treated in North Manchester General hospital for a kidney condition, where he died at 3.10pm on Monday.
Manning was famously criticised for telling racist jokes and was even banned from performing in Weymouth because councillors were worried that his act would breach race laws.
In defence of the accusations he once retorted: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously."
His biographer Jonathan Margolis defined him as the "the last of the joke-tellers".
He told the BBC: "I think he'll inevitably become famous for this question of whether he was a racist comedian - and it's a funny thing because it's some way down the list of things he was.
"He was a man of his age - and as people of his age went, he was relatively un-racist.
"Until his dying day, he didn't understand what all the fuss was about."
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