Dad wants DNA paternity test to find out if he is the secret lovechild of late comic Bernard Manning
Peter O'Connor, 55, looks strikingly similar to the comic and says his parents used to row over mum's affair
A DAD of eight is asking for a DNA paternity test - to find out if he is late comic Bernard Manning’s secret lovechild.
Peter O’Connor, 55, lived down the road from the late comedian in New Moston, Manchester, and bears a striking resemblance to the comedian.
While Manning is not on his birth certificate, Peter says his now-dead parents rowed about a mysterious affair before he was born.
Now he says so many people have commented on his appearance he would be willing to take a DNA test to find out the truth.
He told The Sun: “Mum would often leave dad as he would always drag up this affair she’d had.
“My parents, Mary and Joseph, argued quite a lot as I recall. Mum always said the affair had been with a Scotsman and never said his name. However it’s fair to say that I am nothing like anyone in my family and that I also love to be on stage entertaining.
“Anyway, one particular day I was walking close to home with my mates.
‘’We were Sea Cadets and wearing our uniforms. Suddenly this big car pulled over and out steps this bloke. It was Bernard Manning. He said ‘hiya lads, I’ve got something for you. He opened the boot of
his Rolls Royce and gave us autographed pics. I thought that was a bit weird him just pulling over.
“I have since wondered whether he knew of me and had been watching out for me and had seized the chance to get a good look at me.
“I told mum when I got home what had happened and where I had seen Bernard Manning. I remember she said: ‘Oh that’s where his mother lives’. I hadn’t known that but mum did.”
Peter would often see Manning’s car on the same road and as he got older people would comment he looked like the star.
Showbiz also figures in his life as well as he has worked as an extra on some TV soaps.
Peter added: “I do wonder where I get my entertainment side from. Do I take after him, is he my father?
“I have been asked to learn a 45 minute stand-up comic routine and maybe I could tour as a Bernard Manning lookalike.”
Manning set up the Embassy Club and it was there he honed the act that would see him rocket to fame.
He was a household name in the 1970s, appearing on ITV’s smash-hit stand-up show The Comedians but died in 2007 age 76.
The funnyman was notorious for his foul-mouthed act but critics decried some of his routines as being sexist and racist.
A month after his death a woman called Lynn Morgan was revealed to have been his mistress for 18 years.
Peter added: “One day I was in a lift when in steps this lady who gasped when she saw me. She told me I was a dead ringer for Bernard who was her uncle.
“Everywhere I went people would shout out to me. It was strange as Bernard Manning had actually passed away at this point.
“Until then I had never set foot in the Embassy Club.
“One day I did go in for a quick pint whilst waiting to pick up photos for my daughter from the nearby Asda in Harpurhey.
“In the club the staff were staring at me. They were convinced I was his son.
“I did meet his son Bernard Manning Jnr and we had a picture taken together in the club.
“I suffered a mild heart attack a few years ago and had to give up the job. I went back into work eventually as a carer for an agency. One particular day I was put on a different round to normal to help someone out. I walked into this house and a bloke in his 70’s turned round and almost fainted. He said: ‘Am I seeing a ghost here?’
“He had known Bernard very well. He said I was his absolute double. He even got his friend to meet me.
They both made a big deal of it and told me a few stories of their own.
“I don’t make a big deal of it as Bernard wasn’t a real good looker. It’s not like I’m like Steve McQueen is it?
“I don’t want money or anything, I just want to know if he is my dad.”
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