Bernard Manning didn’t give AF 😳 Extremely awkward exchange on The Mrs Merton Show, with Bernard Manning as guest. A man in the audience tells a story from years back. He was hitchhiking, needed a lift home, and Bernard pulled up and gave him one. Then he asks: would you have given me that lift if I was black? Bernard: “If you were black, you’d still be stood there now.” The other guest, Richard Wilson, asks: “I thought you weren’t a racist, Bernard. Why would you have left a black man standing there?” Bernard: “I just don’t pick black people up in Rolls-Royces.” Mrs Merton: “Why?” Bernard: “I just don’t.” Mrs Merton: “Why?” Bernard: “It’s my prerogative. I can pick who I like up. I can eat what I want, I can drink what I want, I can say what I want. It’s a free country.” Hard to imagine this going out on the BBC now. The complaints would land before the credits, and the meltdown would last longer than the episode.