 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.