Merseyside Mirth Makers - George Roper

He was born George Francis Furnival in Norris Green, Liverpool on the 15th of May 1934. His father was a window cleaner and two of his great-uncles played the music halls as "Cullen and Carthy".
His was a working class family of Irish descent whose parents were staunchly Roman Catholic of which he has said, "the rough and ready upbringing of Catholics in Liverpool brings out the humour in a family".

Educated at St Teresa's school, he left at the age of fifteen to join the Merchant Navy as a galley boy,  then as a steward. Later he served his National Service in the RAF based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. It was during his spell here that he began to sing with big bands at RAF concert parties.

Out of the RAF and working for a building contractor, he was performing mainly in the North West of England and began to sing semi-professionally in clubs and hotels during the early 1960's but soon found his real talent lay in performing comedy, encouraged by Sandy Powel,l the Scottish music hall comedian. In his stage act the number of songs soon constricted and the gags expanded. George had come up the hard way, through the pubs and clubs and he played the toughest venues, but when he debuted at Bernard Manning's Embassy Club in Manchester, he appeared as a clean and smart young man.

Early Stand up

He had moved to Manchester in the early 1960's but remained a fiercely proud 'Scouser' who had adopted Manchester as his home city. He was a comedian's comedian, who was universally loved by pals within the industry - and the many friends he made outside it, including former Manchester United manager Sir Matt Busby, and George Best. For over 30 years, George Roper’s stout, dour but droll presence was a familiar sight on British television and in venues throughout the world as far away as Hong Kong. Later in his career he appeared regularly in the Spanish resort of Benidorm and besides frequently performing for expatriates in Hong Kong and the Middle East he also toured Australia several times, where 'The Comedians' TV show had made him a star

George with Frank Carson, Johnny Hamp, Bernard Manning and Colin Crompton

Johnny Hamp's Granada TV show called “The Comedians” (1971-1993), was a showcase for British stand-ups and having seen him at the Embassey Club, George was one of the first people Johnny Hamp contacted. Roper emerged as one of the most popular comedians on the show with an act of the sort they simply don’t make any more, and which was a throwback even at the time. With an infectious smile and jokes about "navvies in wellies" he was, to put it simply, an expert joke teller, his material consisting of highly structured verbal bits, shorter (and more contrived) than entire stories but longer (most of them) than one-liners.
His new-found fame also led him to be invited by Sir Bernard Delfont to appear before the Queen in a command performance at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool, in 1971, together with only Liverpool born performers in a celebration of  the opening of the Mersey Tunnel.

George Roper passed away on the 1st of July 2003 aged 60 after suffering with cancer.

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