LOVE him or loathe him, you just can't ignore Bernard Manning. This week, and for the next two weeks, he's in Blackpool entertaining in his own inimitable style.

So why is the man who can make a trip to the bar a nightmare or destroy a heckler with one quip, still racking up the miles week in week out at an age when most people are content with a bus pass to the local library?

"I always go down well wherever I play," he says. "Recently I was in Paris playing at the International Hotel and I've just been to Torquay and they both went well.

"I love the business. I may be 72 now but I'm a sprightly 72. You can't beat being up on that stage in front of a packed house and hearing them laughing."

"I'm busier than I've ever been. At the end of the day if you're funny people want to see you, people will laugh - that's what I do, what I've always done."

The Manning approach to humour clearly isn't to everyone's liking and certain venues refuse to book him.

"Well they're very foolish," he laughs. "There are plenty of people who want to see me, my shows sell out. I do what I do and people know what they will get. I've been in the job 50 years and I think I know most of the good jokes by now.

Bernard Manning shows no signs of slowing down.

"I've had a TV crew following me for a documentary for the BBC," he says. "I just enjoy doing shows and meeting people.

Even when he's not touring the country, Bernard Manning 'keeps his hand in' by playing at the venue that he most associated with The Embassy Club near his home in Middleton.

"I'm playing there on Friday," he says. "Sometimes I try out some news gags there. But I'm always confident about my material. I'm not one of those comedians who looks round the curtain looking anxiously at the audience. It's all there in my head, all 50 years of it."

Bernard can be seen and heard at the Merrie England Bar, North Pier on October 15 and 22.