George Roper
| George Roper | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | George Francis Furnival |
| Born |
15 May 1934 Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 1 July 2003 (aged 69) Sandbach, Cheshire, England |
| Medium | comedy |
| Years active | Early 1960s – 2003 |
| Notable works and roles | The Comedians |
George Roper (15 May 1934 – 1 July 2003) was an English comedian, best known for his appearances in the long-running UK television series The Comedians.
He was born George Francis Furnival in Liverpool to a working-class family of Irish descent, to parents who were staunchly Roman Catholic. In conversation with the writer Ken Irwin in 1972, he remarked that "the rough and ready upbringing of Catholics in Liverpool brings out the humour in a family":
He's another comic who has known poverty. There were five children in the Roper family, three girls and two boys. Dad saw a lot of life – he was a window cleaner. 'Times were hard when I started at school, in the early war years,' says George. 'We never went without, but a jam butty was often a meal'.
He left school at the age of fifteen to join the Merchant Navy as a galley boy, then as steward. Later he served his National Service in the Royal Air Force (RAF), based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. It was during this period in the Netherlands that Roper began to sing with big bands at RAF concert parties.
He married Linda Groves in December 1968, and they had three children: Nicholas, Louise and Matthew.
Working mainly in the North West England region, Roper began to sing semi-professionally in clubs and hotels during the early 1960s while supporting himself in various jobs, but soon found his real talent lay in performing comedy. He was encouraged by the music hall comedian Sandy Powell. In his stage act the number of songs soon constricted and the gags expanded.
By 1965, with his portly figure, bejewelled fingers, deadpan style and a laid back microphone technique he began to draw sizeable audiences as a stand-up comic on the booming club and casino scene of Manchester. Regular at Manchester's Cabaret Club were the young reporter Michael Parkinson and Johnnie Hamp, a producer from Granada Television, who said of Roper, "When I had the idea for The Comedians, he was one of the first people I called. It wasn't necessarily the gags he told, it was the face. There was always a twinkle in the eye."
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