Stan Boardman

Stanley Boardman (born 7 December 1937)^{[citation needed]} is an English comedian.

Stan Boardman
At the Floral Pavilion Theatre in New Brighton, Merseyside, 2011
Born	(1937-12-07) 7 December 1937 (age 87) Liverpool,[citation needed] England
Notable work	The Comedians
Spouse	Vivienne (m. 1967)
Children	Andrea Boardman Paul Boardman
Comedy Career
Years active	1970–present
Medium	comedian

Early life and career

Boardman's father was in the army, while he was evacuated with his mother and elder brother to Wrexham during the Second World War, and after the family returned to their Merseyside home mistakenly thinking the area had escaped the German bombs, his brother Tommy, age six, was killed in a 1941, bombing raid which demolished their shelter. Boardman who was three, survived but his twelve year old baby-sitter was killed, his parents went on to have six daughters, with whom he shared a bedroom.^[1][2]

Boardman, a keen footballer in his youth, was an apprentice at Liverpool F.C. and later signed for Tranmere Rovers as a teenager.^[3] Following school he helped run a haulage firm before entering and winning a Butlin's holiday camp talent contest and a grand final held at the London Palladium and a subsequent one-year contract in Bognor Regis where he met his future wife Vivienne. His break into television came with Opportunity Knocks and The Comedians.^[4][5][1]

Boardman's Stand-up routine was known for his anti-German jokes and his claim that "the Germans bombed our chippy" during the Second World War.^[6]

His later involvement in football included being invited by Ron Atkinson to entertain his Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa players before their League Cup finals in 1991 and 1994.^[3]

Controversies

An incident during a live edition of Des O'Connor Tonight on Thames in the mid-1980s gained publicity. A joke – about the Second World War reminiscences of a Polish pilot who flew in the Royal Air Force – made play on the word "focke", referring to the German Focke-Wulf aeroplanes.^[7]

Boardman's comedic style has led to controversy several times; after telling racist jokes at a Leeds United Player of the Year Award dinner in 2002 (months after two Leeds players had been arrested for assaulting an Asian student), the club withheld his fee, describing his act as "inappropriate and unacceptable", banning him from performing at the club in future.^[8][9] This led to a planned appearance at a Leicester City event being cancelled.^[8]

Other appearances

Boardman took part in an episode of Through the Keyhole in 1987^[10], and was also a subject on This Is Your Life in 1995.^[11]

Boardman appeared in the 2000 gangster film set in Liverpool, Going Off Big Time.^[12]

In June 2006 he had a hit with "Stan's World Cup Song", which reached No. 15 in the UK Singles Chart.^[13]

Fellow comedian Peter Kay wrote about him in his second autobiography Saturday Night Peter; in it he describes his early days on the comedy circuit and being on the bill with Boardman who at the time had the nickname Stan "The German Fokker" Boardman.

In June 2009, Boardman appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap,^[14] and in October 2011 he appeared with his daughter, Andrea Boardman, on the celebrity version of Coach Trip.^[15]

In 2025, his son Paul wrote his fathers' biography, "My Life Story" detailing his fathers' early traumas and his road to success. The book is officially published on the 10 October, with part of the proceeds going to several charitable causes.^[1]