Jason Manford is a successful stand-up comedian, TV star and singer but his childhood was a world away – as he grew up in poverty hiding from bailiffs and only going on one holiday which he later found out was charity-funded.
The 41-year-old father of six hopes to bring “an awareness” of the struggle many kids in Britain endure when he makes his debut hosting next month’s Children in Need.
He said: “My childhood is the childhood that Children in Need helps – below the poverty line, trying to do your best to get through things and just needing a little bit of help.
“Although my life has changed, I hope I’ve got an awareness of what that’s like and remembering what that’s like.”
BBC Children In Need – which takes place on November 18 – is an annual fundraiser to raise money for disadvantaged children.
Jason was one of five kids living in Salford with his parents who both worked but struggled with debt.
He said: “The bailiffs called all the time. I remember coming home from school and the sofa had gone. Another time, the telly had gone.”
Jason sometimes didn’t see his mum Sharon for weeks as she worked as a nurse and would be out before her children were up and only get back when they had gone to bed.
His dad Ian worked by day for the NHS, in sterile supplies, and in evenings at a pub. When he lost his NHS job he had to tell his children there wouldn’t be any Christmas presents that year.
Years after Jason had made it as a stand-up, he did a charity gig in Manchester for the Lord Mayor’s fund. His mum told him that when he was a child the family had gone to Butlin’s in Wales and that it had been paid for by the same charity.
The funnyman understands poverty and has already told viewers who are dealing with the cost of living crisis and energy increases that they don’t need to dig in their pockets for Children in Need this year.
He said: “It’s always the way in this country that the people who have the least give the most. Even in my family I see them donating things yet they are struggling.
“When I said people who couldn’t afford to give shouldn’t worry about it, I wanted to reassure them and I will do it again on the night. I want them to enjoy the show and will tell them, ‘We aren’t after your money. If you need it, keep it’.
“What we have to remember with the cost-of-living crisis is that not everyone is having one. There are a lot of people who are doing absolutely fine, or more than fine.”
Jason has always had a big heart and when he got a paper round during childhood, he would give his mum £10 from his £15 weekly wage.
He feels lucky that he was able to pull himself out of poverty and knows many kids don’t get the chance, citing his own pals who left school at 16 to work.
Jason worked in building sites, call centres, shops, warehouses, bars and offices before his lucky break.
While working at Buzz Comedy Club in Manchester in 1999, aged 17, he jumped on stage when a performer didn’t arrive.
His next break was when he was picked as a finalist in the 2000 Channel 4 competition So You Think You’re Funny? at the Fringe.
Five years later, he returned to Edinburgh with debut one-man show Urban Legend and was nominated for the Perrier Award. It earned him a slot on panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats and he became a team captain in 2007.
He said: “I owe a lot to Scotland and the Fringe. It’s a very special place to me.”
Now he’s one of the biggest hitters in UK comedy and is on a 200-plus date tour, called Like Me. He will be at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro before hosting Children in Need and will return to Scotland the next day for a gig in Aberdeen followed by Falkirk, Inverness and Perth.
Jason said: “The closer you get to London people don’t get that Scotland is almost as big as England.
“It doesn’t quite have the travel infrastructure of England so to expect people to come from Inverness to Glasgow for a gig is like someone from London going to Manchester. It’s only right if you tour the UK you do it properly.”
He can’t wait to return to Glasgow, which has become like a home-from-home to him since filming ITV’s Starstruck with Sheridan Smith earlier this year.
He said: “I feel a real kinship with Glasgow. It’s that working-class comedy you get in northern England or Ireland. These are the places that have had enough and you need people to shine a light on it, where comedians can say, ‘Life’s mental and you’re not mental for thinking it’.
“If people laugh at my jokes in Manchester they will laugh at them in Glasgow, too.”
He loves being back on the road after his last tour – in the musical Curtains – was cut short by a month because of lockdown.
Jason, who lives in Stockport with his second wife Lucy and their two kids (he also has four children from his first marriage), joked that he volunteered in the pandemic just to get out of the house.
As well as working as a delivery driver for Iceland, he also drove people to vaccination centres.
He laughed: “With volunteering there’s an assumption you must be a nice person but I was like, ‘I’ve got six kids home-schooling so I’d rather take Mavis to the chiropodist.”’
At Christmas he’ll be a judge on Britain Get Singing, which features six celeb choirs. He’ll also make his panto debut in Manchester as Captain Hook. He joked: “That’s what happens when you’ve been cooped up for two years – get me out there.”
● Jason’s Like Me tour is at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on Nov 12, Aberdeen P&J Live on Nov 19, FTH Theatre, Falkirk on Nov 20, Eden Court Inverness on Nov 21 and Perth Concert Hall on Nov 22. For tickets go to jasonmanford.com
