Stan Boardman is best associated with his Germans jokes and his success on the hit ITV show The Comedians. In more recent years he’s dissappeared off our screens after causing outrage on the Des O’ Connor Show.
However he’s still going strong, playing to sell out crowds in a variety of venues.
Stan Boardman was born in Liverpool on 7th December 1940. When he was a young child, during World War 2, Stan and his family were evacuated to Wrexham. On returning to their Merseyside home, thinking they had escaped the worst of the bombing, tragedy struck when Stan;’s older brother Tommy was killed in a bombing raid.
Moving onto 1967 Stan married Vivienne Brennan, they are still married and have two children Paul and Andrea who are twins and three grandchildren.
His first brush with stand up came whilst he and his family were on holiday at a Butlin’s holiday camp. They persuaded him to enter the weekly talent competition; just for fun. Reluctantly agreeing, Stan got up, entertaining a full house with a barrage of jokes. He won first prize.
Little did he know that that talent contest was one heat, in a much larger national competition. Stan, gained in confidence with every appearance, progressing through each stage to secure a place in the Grand Final at the London Palladium. It was here that his distinctive style of comedy and his original material helped him walk off with the £1,000 first prize, a summer season engagement and the title ‘Star Act Of The Year’.
Next step Television and an appearance on Opportunity Knocks topping the poll with the studio audience. He was invited back to appear on the program’s Gala Show and for the Opportunity Knocks Variety Awards Shows. Stan was now a television must have and so it was no surprise when he was asked to take over as host of Southern Television’s popular children’s series Runaround. Stan followed Leslie Crowther and fellow comedian Mike Reid.
Stan featured in the later series of The Comedians alongside Roy Walker and Mick Miller. Just as Charlie Williams and Ken Goodwin had become two of the stand out names from the first series Stan Boardman became one of the stand out names in the later series. After making his debut he was invited back for a second series.
Since the success of The Comedians Stan has appeared made many television appearances, the most notable of which was Des O’ Connor Tonight when his “Fockers” jike saw him disappear from our TV screens for a while. He’s played to packed theatres and other venues all round the world since that first appearance on The Comedians and in 2011 returned to Blackpool with other surviving members of The Comedians for a 40th Anniversary Show hosted by the man who started it all Johnnie Hamp.
