Stan Boardman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Boardman
Stan Boardman | |
|---|---|
 At the Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton, Merseyside, 2011 | |
| Born | 7 December 1937 |
| Notable work | The Comedians |
| Spouse | Vivienne (m. 1967) |
| Children | Andrea Boardman Paul Boardman |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Medium | comedian |
Stanley Boardman (born 7 December 1937)[citation needed] is an English comedian.
Boardman's father was in the army, while he was evacuated with his mother and elder brother to Wrexham during the Second World War, and after the family returned to their Merseyside home mistakenly thinking the area had escaped the German bombs, his brother Tommy, age six, was killed in a 1941 bombing raid which demolished their shelter. Boardman, who was three, survived, but his twelve-year-old baby-sitter was killed. His parents went on to have six daughters, with whom he shared a bedroom.[1][2]
Boardman, a keen footballer in his youth, was an apprentice at Liverpool F.C. and later signed for Tranmere Rovers as a teenager.[3] Following school he helped run a haulage firm before entering and winning a Butlin's holiday camp talent contest and a grand final held at the London Palladium and a subsequent one-year contract in Bognor Regis where he met his future wife Vivienne. His break into television came with Opportunity Knocks and The Comedians.[4][5][1]
Boardman's Stand-up routine was known for his anti-German jokes and his claim that "the Germans bombed our chippy" during the Second World War.[6]
His later involvement in football included being invited by Ron Atkinson to entertain his Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa players before their League Cup finals in 1991 and 1994.[3]
Controversies
An incident during a live edition of Des O'Connor Tonight on Thames in November 1986 gained publicity. A joke – about the Second World War reminiscences of a Polish pilot who flew in the Royal Air Force – made play on the word "focke", referring to the German Focke-Wulf aeroplanes.[7]
Boardman's comedic style has led to controversy several times; after telling racist jokes at a Leeds United Player of the Year Award dinner in 2002 (months after two Leeds players had been arrested for assaulting an Asian student), the club withheld his fee, describing his act as "inappropriate and unacceptable", banning him from performing at the club in future.[8][9] This led to a planned appearance at a Leicester City event being cancelled.[8]
