Sir Lenworth George  Henry  (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. He is known for cofounding the charity Comic Relief and for appearing in TV programmes, including children's entertainment show Tiswas, sitcom Chef! and The Magicians for BBC One. He was formerly married to Dawn French. He is currently the Chancellor of Birmingham City University and will star in the Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.Otterson, Joe (3 December 2020). "'Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast". Variety. .Retrieved 4 December 2020.

Early life
Lenworth George Henry was born at Burton Road Hospital in Dudley, on 29 August 1958, to Winston Jervis Henry (1910–1978) and Winifred Louise Henry (1922–1998), who had emigrated to Britain from Jamaica. The fifth of seven children, Henry was the first child of the family to be born in the United Kingdom. When Henry was ten years old, he began spending time with the man who was later revealed to be his biological father, Albert Augustus "Bertie" Green (1927–2004), another Jamaican immigrant with whom his mother had a brief relationship when she first arrived in England from their native Jamaica. Henry was named after the doctor who delivered him.

Henry attended St John's Primary School and later The Blue Coat School in Dudley, before completing his schooling at W.R. Tuson College in Preston, Lancashire.

Career

Early career
Henry's formative years in comedy were spent in working men's clubs, where he impersonated mainly white characters, such as the Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em character Frank Spencer. His earliest television appearance was on the New Faces talent show in 1975, aged 16, which he won with impersonations of Frank Spencer, Stevie Wonder and others.

His first manager was Robert Luff, who signed him in 1975 and gave him the opportunity, between the ages of 16 and 21, to perform as a comedian as part of the Luff-produced touring stage version of The Black and White Minstrel Show. In July 2009, Lenny Henry stated he was contractually obligated to perform and regretted his part in the show,Five Minutes With: Lenny Henry. BBC News, 18 July 2009. telling The Times in 2015 that his appearance on the show led to a profound "wormhole of depression", and he regretted his family not intervening.

In 1976, Henry appeared with Norman Beaton in LWT's sitcom The Fosters, Britain's first comedy series featuring a predominantly black cast. Henry also made guest appearances on television programmes including Celebrity Squares, Seaside Special and The Ronnie Corbett Show.

1980s
thumb|right|Henry in the 1980s
In 1980, Henry performed in Summer Season in Blackpool with Cannon and Ball. He has since said that "the summer season was the first time [he] felt that [his] act had received a proper response from an audience". Around the same time, he co-hosted the children's programme Tiswas from 1978 until 1981 playing such characters as Rastafarian Algernon Razzmatazz, David Bellamy and Trevor McDoughnut (a parody of Trevor McDonald), and subsequently performed and wrote for the show Three of a Kind.

Also in 1980, he teamed up with alternative-comedy collective The Comic Strip. While involved with the group, he met his wife, comedian Dawn French. She encouraged him to move over to the fledgling alternative comedy scene, where he established a career as a stand-up comedy performer and character comedian.

He introduced characters who both mocked and celebrated African Caribbean British culture,such as Brixton pirate radio disc jockey DJ Delbert Wilkins. His stand-up material, which sold well on LP, owed much to the writing abilities of Kim Fuller. During this time, he also spent three years as a DJ on BBC Radio 1, playing soul and electro tracks and introducing some of the characters that he would later popularise on television. He made a guest appearance in the final episode of The Young Ones as The Postman, in 1984.

The first series of The Lenny Henry Show appeared on the BBC in 1984. The show featured stand up, spoofs like his send-up of Michael Jackson's Thriller video, and many of the characters he had developed during Summer Season, including Theophilus P. Wildebeeste and Delbert Wilkins. A principal scriptwriter for his television and stage shows during the 1990s was Jon Canter. The Lenny Henry Show ran periodically for a further 19 years in various incarnations. He performed impressions such as Tina Turner, Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Run DMC, among others.

It was in 1985 that Henry co-founded the British Comic Relief charity organisation, and 1988 when the first ever Red Nose Day was celebrated. Over 150 celebrities and comedians, including Lenny Henry, took part in an evening long BBC broadcast, which was watched by 30 million viewers and raised over £15 million.

Prior to the 1987 general election, Henry lent his support to Red Wedge by participating in a comedy tour organised by the campaign.

In 1987, he appeared in a TV film, Coast to Coast. It was a comedy thriller with John Shea about two DJs with a shared passion for Motown music being chased across Britain. The film has a strong following, but contractual problems have prevented it from being distributed on video or DVD.

1990s
In the early 1990s, Henry starred in the Hollywood film True Identity, in which his character pretended to be a white person (using make-up, prostheses, and a wig) to avoid the mob. The film was not commercially successful. In 1991, he starred in a BBC drama alongside Robbie Coltrane called Alive and Kicking, in which he played a heroin addict, which was based on a true story.

Also in 1991, he starred in the Christmas comedy Bernard and the Genie alongside Alan Cumming and Rowan Atkinson. Henry is known as the choleric chef Gareth Blackstock from the 1990s television comedy series Chef!, or from his 1999 straight-acting lead role in the BBC drama Hope And Glory. He was co-creator with Neil Gaiman and producer of the 1996 BBC drama serial Neverwhere.

Henry appeared as a backing singer on Kate Bush's album The Red Shoes (1993) for the song "Why Should I Love You?" on which Prince played guitar. He also performed, backed by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, at Amnesty International's Big 3-0 fund raising concert. Henry returned to the BBC to do Lenny Henry in Pieces, a character-based comedy sketch show which was followed by The Lenny Henry Show, in which he combined stand-up, character sketches and song parodies.

2000s
thumb|Henry on Red Nose Day 2005

In 2003, Henry was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy. He was the voice of the British speaking clock for two weeks in March 2003 in aid of Comic Relief.

Henry voiced Dre Head, the "shrunken head" on the Knight Bus in the 2004 Alfonso Cuarón movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and read the audiobook version of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. He also voiced Sporty on the children's show Little Robots. Henry appeared in advertisements for butter products in New Zealand, commissioned by the company now known as Fonterra, as well as portraying Saint Peter in the Virgin Mobile advertising campaign in South Africa. In the UK, he used his character of Theophilus P. Wildebeeste to advertise Alpen muesli, and promoted the non-alcoholic lager, Kaliber.

In June 2000, for a BBC documentary, he sailed a trimaran from Plymouth to Antigua with yachtsman Tony Bullimore.  In 2005, he appeared in Birmingham, as an act for Jasper Carrott's Rock with Laughter. He appeared alongside performers such as Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrott, Bonnie Tyler, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe. In 2006, Henry starred in the BBC programme Berry's Way. He did the voice of Dark Nebula in Kirby: Squeak Squad. On 16 March 2007, Henry made a cameo appearance as himself in a sketch with Catherine Tate, who appeared in the guise of her character Geordie Georgie from The Catherine Tate Show. The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fundraising programme of 2007.

On 16 June 2007 Lenny appeared with Chris Tarrant and Sally James to present a 25th Anniversary episode of Tiswas. The show lasted 90 minutes and featured celebrities discussing their enjoyment of Tiswas as children, as well as appearances from kids and people who had appeared on the original show. In the summer of 2007, he presented Lenny's Britain, a comedy documentary tour made with the Open University on BBC One on Tuesday nights. In late 2007, he hosted a stand-up comedy tour of the UK.

In early 2008, Henry's series lennyhenry.tv was broadcast on BBC One. The programme has an accompanying website of the same name and broadcasts strange, weird and generally amusing online videos and CCTV clips. He starred in the Radio 4 show Rudy's Rare Records. On 31 December 2008 and 1 January 2009, he appeared on Jools Holland's Hootenanny on BBC Two, singing part of the song Mercy along with singer Duffy. In January 2009, he appeared on the BBC's comedy show, Live at The Apollo, in which he played host for the night, introducing Andy Parsons and Ed Byrne, where he referred to Wikipedia as "Wrongopedia" for containing incorrect information about his life.

In October 2009, Henry reprised his role of Deakus to feature in comedy shorts about story writing alongside Nina Wadia, Tara Palmer Tomkinson and Stephen K. Amos. He also offers his own writing tips and amusing anecdotes in the writing tips video clip on BBC raw words – story writing. He supplied the voices of both Big and Small in the BBC CBeebies children's programme Big & Small.

2010s
thumb|right|Henry (right) and Lucian Msamati in the Royal National Theatre production of The Comedy of Errors, in 2011
In 2010, Henry produced and starred in a five-part web series for the BBC Comedy website, Conversations with my Wife, about a fictional couple conversing over Skype while the wife is away on business leaving the husband (played by Henry) to hold the fort at home.

In 2008, he became the face of budget hotel operator Premier Inn. One of the 2010 adverts caused controversy and was banned from children's programming hours as it parodied a well-known scene from the film The Shining, with Lenny Henry spoofing the scene originally starring Jack Nicholson, smashing a door with an axe and then thrusting his head through the door saying: "Here's Lenny."

In 2011, Henry presented a Saturday night magic series called The Magicians on BBC One. The show returned in 2012; however, Henry was replaced by Darren McMullen.

In March 2011, he appeared with Angela Rippon, Samantha Womack and Reggie Yates in the BBC fundraising documentary for Comic Relief called Famous, Rich and in the Slums, wherein the four celebrities were sent to Kibera in Kenya, the African continent's largest slum.

Henry was criticised for his opening sketch for the 2011 Comic Relief, during which he spoofed the film The King's Speech and grew impatient with Colin Firth's portrayal of King George VI as he stammered over his speech. The Sun reported that the British Stammering Association had branded the sketch as "a gross and disgusting gleefulness at pointing out someone else's misfortune".

In 2014, Henry appeared in and produced a play based on his radio show Rudy's Rare Records, which played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre before moving on to a run in London.

Henry wrote Danny and the Human Zoo, a ninety-minute television film shown on BBC One in 2015. Directed by Destiny Ekaragha, it was a fictionalised account of Henry's life as a teenager in 1970s Dudley. Henry played Samson Fearon, a character based on Henry's own father Winston.

In November 2019, it was announced that Henry would guest star in "Spyfall", the two-part opening episode of Doctor Whos twelfth revived series, which broadcast on New Year's Day and 4 January 2020. Henry played technology billionaire Daniel Barton.

2020s
In December 2020, Henry was announced as a cast member of Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It will premiere 2 September 2022.

In 2021, Henry appeared as a contestant on the second series of The Masked Singer, masked as "The Blob". He finished in 6th place.

On Saturday 6 November 2021, The Guardian published Black British culture matters, curated by Henry & Marcus Ryder for The Guardian Saturday Culture Issue No7.

COVID-19 vaccination
In March 2021 Henry wrote an open letter urging everyone to get COVID-19 vaccination.  Henry stated people ought to, "trust the facts" and distrust misinformation.Sir Lenny Henry's open letter urges black Britons to take Covid vaccine BBC, 30 March 2021. Henry also wrote, "Because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don’t want you to be left out or left behind. While other communities are rushing to get the vaccine and millions have already been vaccinated, some Black people in our community are being more cautious,"  The letter encourages black UK adults  to take an informed decision over the vaccine and get vaccinated so as to protect themselves and those they care for.

Shakespeare
Henry was introduced to Shakespeare when he made the 2006 Radio 4 series Lenny and Will, which saw him going "in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance". In February 2009, he appeared in the title role in the Northern Broadsides production of Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Before the production opened the director Barrie Rutter said of the decision to cast him: "knives might be out at me or at Lenny. I don't care. This has come about from a completely genuine desire to do a piece of theatrical work. Bloody hell, how long has the Donmar had Hollywood stars going there for £200? He's six-foot five. He's beautifully black. And he's Othello."

Henry received widespread critical acclaim in the role. Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph said "This is one of the most astonishing debuts in Shakespeare I have ever seen. It is impossible to praise too highly Henry's courage in taking on so demanding and exposed a role, and then performing it with such authority and feeling." Michael Billington in The Guardian noted "Henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of the verse, but there is a simple dignity to his performance that touches one". Lynne Walker of The Independent said of Henry that his "emotional dynamism is in no doubt. The frenzy within his imagination explodes into rage and, finally, wretchedness. It's not a subtle reading but it works powerfully in this context."

Henry has said that he saw parallels between himself and Othello. "I'm used to being the only black person wherever I go...There was never a black or Asian director when I went to the BBC. Eventually I thought 'where are they all?' I spent a lot of time on my own. Things have changed a bit, but rarely at the BBC do I meet anyone of colour in a position of power."

The production was scheduled to transfer to the West End of London from 11 September to 12 December 2009, to be performed at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall.

In November 2011, Henry made his debut at the Royal National Theatre in London in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, directed by Dominic Cooke, in which he played the character of Antipholus of Syracuse. The production was selected to be broadcast live to selected cinemas worldwide in March 2012 as part of the National Theatre Live programme. Henry's performance gained positive reviews. Paul Taylor in The Independent wrote that "Henry beautifully conveys the tragicomic plight of an innocent abroad."

Music career
In 2015, Henry was asked by Sky Arts to produce a show for them, Lenny Henry's Got The Blues. He worked with a group of musicians including Jakko Jakszyk, lead singer of King Crimson, to produce the album New Millennium Blues. The album consists of both covers of blues classics, as well as original tracks co-written by Lenny. Henry later released "hard-hitting animated blues video" directed by Iranian filmmaker, Sam Chegini titled The Cops Don't Know which was premiered by Classic Rock magazine on 20 April 2016.

Personal life
Henry met Dawn French on the alternative comedy circuit. They married in 1984 in Covent Garden, London"Dawn French: Someone firebombed the home I shared with Lenny Henry" BirminghamLive (UK). Retrieved 18 July 2019. and have one child, a daughter named Billie."Dawn French: The French connection" The Independent (UK). Retrieved 13 December 2007. On 6 April 2010, French and Henry announced they were "amicably" separating after 25 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalised in 2010. Since 2012, Henry has been in a relationship with theatre producer and casting director Lisa Makin.

Henry obtained a BA Hons degree in English Literature from the Open University in 2007Lenny Henry Collects Degree 28 April 2007 and an MA in Screenwriting for TV and Film from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2010.  He subsequently studied at the latter institution for a doctorate on the role of black people in the media. In July 2018, Henry was awarded a PhD degree in Media Arts for the thesis titled Does the Coach Have to be Black? The Sports Film, Screenwriting and Diversity: A Practice-Based Enquiry.

Henry has been an open critic of British television's lack of ethnic diversity in its programmes. During a speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in March 2014, he called the lack of minorities "appalling" and he has continued to raise the issue publicly.

Henry is a lifelong supporter of West Bromwich Albion Football Club.

Honours

Henry was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards in 2003. He was knighted in the Queen's 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity. In July 2016, Henry became the chancellor of Birmingham City University citing his passion to give life changing opportunities to young people from a wide range of backgrounds. Henry has also been listed in the Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black Britons, including ranking fourth in 2016.

In 2016, Henry was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society. Henry was awarded the BAFTA Television: Special Award, the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to TV, in 2016. Also in 2016, Henry was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of his significant contribution to British comedy and drama, along with his achievements in international charity work.

Bibliography
  Henry, Lenny. Who am I, again?, Faber & Faber, 2019;  288 pages.
  Henry, Lenny. Access All Areas, Faber & Faber, 2021;  192 pages.

Narration
 White Teeth by Zadie Smith (audiobook) 2000.
 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (audiobook) 2005.
 My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal (audiobook) 2016.
 Who am I, again? by Lenny Henry (audiobook) 2019.

Screen and stageFilm Year Title Role 1987 Coast to Coast Ritchie Lee 1988 The Suicide Club Cam 1989 Work Experience Terence Welles 1991 True Identity Miles Pope 1997 Famous Fred Fred (voice) 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Shrunken Head (voice) 2008 Penelope Krull (voice) 2012 The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists Peg-Leg Hastings (voice) 2014 Postman Pat: The Movie Mr Bernard (Tow Truck Manager; voice) 2020 Zog and the Flying Doctors NarratorTelevision Year Title Role 1976–1977 The Fosters Sonny Foster 1978–1981 Tiswas Himself, David Bellamy, Tommy Cooper, Trevor Mcdonut & various characters 1981–1983  Three of a Kind1984–1985, 1987–1988, 1994, 1995, 2004–2005The Lenny Henry ShowHimself
Delbert Wilkins (sitcom version) 1987–2007, 2011— Comic Relief Presenter1991 Alive and Kicking Bernard and the Genie Josephus the Genie1992 In Dreams Lenny 1993–1996 Chef! Gareth Blackstock 1999–2000 Hope and Glory Ian George2000–2003Lenny Henry in PiecesHimself 2008 lennyhenry.tv Presenter 2008–2011 Big & Small Big/Small (voice) 2009, 2011 Live at the Apollo Presenter (two episodes) 2010-2011 Tinga Tinga Tales Elephant (voice) 2010–2011 Britain's Classroom Heroes Presenter2011 The Magicians Presenter Rich, Famous and in the Slums Contributor2012 Jackanory Junior – "The Enormous Crocodile" Narrator The One Lenny Henry2015 Operation Health for Comic Relief Contributor The Olivier Awards Presenter The Syndicate Godfrey Watson Danny and the Human Zoo Samson Fearon 2017 Broadchurch Ed Burnett 2018 The Long Song Godfrey2020Doctor Who Daniel Barton The Big Night In Co-presenter Back To The 80s With Lenny Henry Presenter2021The Masked SingerBlob (contestant)2022The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerHarfoot elderTBA  Three Little Birds WriterMy Name Is LeonTBAThe Witcher: Blood OriginBalorStage Year Title RoleTheatre 2009 Othello OthelloNorthern Broadsides / West Yorkshire Playhouse
Trafalgar Studios, London 2011, 2012 The Comedy of Errors Antipholus of SyracuseNational Theatre, London (Olivier) 2013 Fences Troy MaxsonUK tour
Duchess Theatre, London 2014 Rudy's Rare Records Adam (also dramaturg and co-creator)Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Hackney Empire, London 2015 Educating Rita FrankMinerva Theatre, Chichester 2017 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Arturo UiDonmar Warehouse, London 2019 King Hedley II ElmoreTheatre Royal Stratford East, London

References

Sources
  Margolis, Jonathan. Lenny Henry – A Biography, Orion, 1995;  196 pages.

External links

 Comedian Henry tackles Othello BBC News
 Lenny Henry at the BFI's Screenonline
 Lenny Henry at the British Film Institute
 Lenny Henry at the MBC's Encyclopedia of Television
 Lenny Henry at the Bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy

 Learn how to write stories with Lenny Henry. BBC raw wordsArticles'
 "Not enough black people in top media jobs, says Henry" The Guardian
 Messenger News interview, May 2008
 Thedrum.com article

Category:1958 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century English comedians
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He is currently the Chancellor of Birmingham City University and will star in the Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Otterson, Joe (3 December 2020). "'

Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast".

Variety.

He is currently the Chancellor of Birmingham City University and will star in the Amazon Prime series The Lord of the Rings : The Rings of Power .

Otterson , Joe ( 3 December 2020 ) . " '

Lord of the Rings ' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast " .

Pieces of Sir Lenny Henry
- Published
There are few areas of life in which comic and actor Lenny Henry has not made an impact - working in theatre, television, film and charity.
The star said he was "very chuffed" about his knighthood, which was first reported in the press last weekend.
Over the course of five-decade career, he has survived occasional criticism without forfeiting the affection of the British public.
Born to Jamaican parents on 29 August 1958 in the West Midlands town of Dudley, Lenworth George Henry shot to fame in 1975 aged just 17 after appearing on the TV talent show New Faces.
His winning performance led to the comedy series The Fosters and the anarchic children's show Tiswas, where he started to forge his own energetic and spontaneous comedy style.
However, his next career move was to haunt him for many years.
He joined the Black and White Minstrel Show, in which "blacked up" white entertainers sang songs from the American South - a concept which has since been much ridiculed and reviled.
The comedian spent five years touring with the show, which he has since called a "grotesque parody of black people".
"I sort of wish it had never happened, but I don't regret that I did it," he told The Telegraph last year. "Although it was a weird, reprehensible position to be in, I was working in huge venues and learning how to work a crowd."
His escape route was the BBC sketch series Three of a Kind, which also starred Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield.
First broadcast in 1981, it used state-of-the-art video effects and Ceefax-style graphics to deliver a fast-paced, gag-filled show - although many of its idiosyncrasies seem dated today.
At the same time, the alternative comedy scene was heating up, and through TV producer Paul Jackson, Henry met the cutting-edge comedians of the Comic Strip team - one of whom was Dawn French.
At first, French was critical of the comedian's manner and the stand-up routines he still used to make a living, which had evolved in northern working men's clubs.
He would wipe sweat from his forehead and say it tasted like chocolate - or threaten to move next door to hecklers if they did not shut up.
But, despite their first impressions, the couple warmed to each other, eventually marrying in 1984 at St Paul's Church in London's Covent Garden.
At the same time, Henry's political views began to mature. He refused to judge a Miss Blackpool beauty contest in 1984, saying it was degrading to women.
His TV career progressed fast with BBC One's The Lenny Henry Show, and later The Delbert Wilkins Show.
As a charity fundraiser, he also co-founded Comic Relief in 1985, which has raised more than Â£1bn over the past three decades.
1993's Chef! was another successful BBC One vehicle - but behind the scenes Henry was trying to nurture new black comedy talent, helping to set up BBC Two's The Real McCoy sketch show.
He also began to take on more serious roles.
Hope and Glory, in which Henry played an embattled head teacher, first aired on BBC One in 1999 while other projects included White Goods, Alive And Kicking and The Man.
He also co-created, with Neil Gaiman, and produced the 1996 BBC drama serial Neverwhere.
In 2009, he turned his attention to the stage, appearing in the title role of Northern Broadsides production of Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.
It transferred to London and earned Sir Lenny the title of best newcomer at the London Evening Standard theatre awards.
In 2010, the star's 25-year marriage ended in divorce. Soon after, his older brother Hylton lost his wife and two children, to cancer and TB.
Sir Lenny said the "cataclysmic" deaths helped put his own life in perspective and reassert his love for his family.
He threw himself into work and, in 2011, followed up his Othello role with a debut at the Royal National Theatre in London, playing Antipholus of Ephesus in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.
His reputation as a serious actor was cemented in 2014, with a best actor title at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for his lead performance in Fences.
In recent years, Sir Lenny has become an outspoken critic of British television's lack of ethnic diversity in its programming.
"I'm used to being the only black person wherever I go," he said. "There was never a black or Asian director when I went to the BBC. Eventually I thought 'where are they all?' I spent a lot of time on my own.
"Things have changed a bit, but rarely at the BBC do I meet anyone of colour in a position of power."
During a speech at Bafta in March 2014, he called the lack of minorities "appalling," and he has continued to raise the issue publicly.
On learning of his knighthood, the star said his "mum would have absolutely been chuffed" - and admitted to being bowled over himself.
"It was lovely, it was a lovely feeling, it was like being filled with lemonade for 10 or 15 minutes," he told BBC Radio 2.

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Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.

He is known for cofounding the charity Comic Relief and for appearing in TV programmes, including children's entertainment show Tiswas, sitcom Chef!

and The Magicians for BBC One.

Sir Lenworth George Henry ( born 29 August 1958 ) is a British actor , comedian , singer , television presenter and writer .

He is known for cofounding the charity Comic Relief and for appearing in TV programmes , including children 's entertainment show Tiswas , sitcom Chef !

UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 20 JULY 2016
Actor, writer, comedian and charitable campaigner Sir Lenny Henry is to become the new Chancellor of Birmingham City University.
Sir Lenny will visit Birmingham City University’s campus today (Thursday 21 July) to start preparing for his five year term as Chancellor.
The relationship with the Dudley born star follows a tour of the campus earlier in the year when Sir Lenny saw for himself how the University opens doors to the creative arts for young people from a range of diverse backgrounds.
He was also shown the University’s industry standard media facilities, including four TV studios, radio recording studios and Europe’s largest static green screen.
Representing Birmingham
University welcomes Sir Lenny
Professor Cliff Allan, Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that one of the country’s most well-known personalities is to be our new Chancellor. He not only encapsulates the University’s commitment to both the arts and widening participation, but he is a strong advocate for Birmingham and the region, including his home town of Dudley.
“Sir Lenny joins at a very exciting time for the University, as we continue to develop facilities that are the envy of other universities and even industry professionals. What I’m most excited by is that Sir Lenny doesn’t want to be a remote ceremonial figure but is determined to play an active role as a hands-on Chancellor. He will have his own office and staff to enable him to be a big part of what we do over the next five years.”
Echoing Sir Lenny’s calls for greater Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation in the television industry, the University has a reputation for giving life changing opportunities to students from diverse backgrounds. In the 2013-14 academic year 45.2 per cent of Birmingham City University’s students came from low income households, with 48 per cent from BME backgrounds.
Creative credentials
Home to Birmingham School of Acting, Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University is the biggest producer of creative professionals outside the South East.
The University’s media production facilities are part of a £260m investment in the past five years, including its City Centre Campus located just minutes from the iconic Selfridges store and Birmingham’s New Street Station.
Birmingham City University will next year open the UK’s first purpose built Conservatoire in a generation, a £56 million building featuring five public performance spaces, including a new concert hall for orchestral training and performance.
In 2017 the University will also open a new School of Education and Life Sciences at its City South Campus in Edgbaston – offering sports, nutrition and teaching courses in a new £41 million facility.
Sir Lenny Henry succeeds the current Chancellor, Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Ray Hassall.
Lenny
Actor, comedian and campaigner
Sir Lenny was born in Dudley, near Birmingham, in 1958, shooting to fame in 1975 when his stand up comic routine won the TV talent show ‘New Faces’.
He went on to become a household name fronting programmes such as ‘Tiswas’ and ‘Three of a Kind’. In 1985 he co-founded Comic Relief, a poverty and social justice charity which has since raised over £1 billion to help causes in the UK and around the world.
In recent years Sir Lenny received widespread acclaim for dramatic roles, playing the title role in ‘Othello’ at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, marking his Shakespearean debut in 2009. He was knighted in the Queen's 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.
Last year he wrote and starred in ‘Danny and the Human Zoo’, a fictionalised account of his life as a teenager in 1970s Dudley – partly shot in Birmingham and the Black Country. Earlier in 2016, he was presented with a special Bafta award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television.

Question: sir lenworth henry founded which british charity

Answer: Comic Relief

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Question: who is the actor who co-founded comic relief

Answer: Sir Lenworth George Henry

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Answer: BBC One

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Answer: Tiswas

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Question: actor sir lenworth george henry was born in which year

Answer: 1958

actor sir lenworth george henry was born in which year

Question: sir lenworth george henry co-founded comic relief with which bbc tv

Answer: Chef! and The Magicians

sir lenworth george henry co-founded comic relief with which bbc tv

Question: what was actor sir lenworth george henry's birth date

Answer: 29 August 1958

what was actor sir lenworth george henry's birth date

Question: sir lenworth george henry co-founded comic relief with which british

Answer: Chef!

sir lenworth george henry co-founded comic relief with which british

"'Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast".

Variety.

.Retrieved 4 December 2020.

" ' Lord of the Rings ' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast " .

The upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series at Amazon is adding 20 actors to its cast, Variety has learned.
The new additions are: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani.
Blackburn, Chapman, Crum, Cunliffe, Tait, Tarrant, and Wadham all hail from New Zealand, where the show is currently in production, with the remaining international ensemble cast originating from Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
They join previously announced cast members Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman as announced earlier this year.
“The world that J.R.R. Tolkien created is epic, diverse, and filled with heart,” said showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. “These extraordinarily talented performers, hailing from across the globe, represent the culmination of a multi-year search to find brilliant and unique artists to bring that world to life anew. The international cast of Amazon’s The ‘Lord of the Rings’ series is more than just an ensemble. It is a family. We are thrilled to welcome each of them to Middle-earth.”
The “Lord of the Rings” series is written by Payne and McKay. In addition, “Game of Thrones” alum Bryan Cogman has signed on as a consulting producer on the project with J.A. Bayona set to direct multiple episodes.
In addition to those previously announced, the show’s full creative team will consist of: executive producers Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Callum Greene, and Amazon’s former head of genre programming Sharon Tal Yguado; writer and executive producer Gennifer Hutchison; writer and executive producer Jason Cahill; writer and executive producer Justin Doble; consulting producer Stephany Folsom; producer Ron Ames; writer and co-producer Helen Shang; and writing consultant Glenise Mullins. Bayona will also executive produce along with his partner Belén Atienza. Chris Newman serves as co-producer.
Little is known about the plot of the “Lord of the Rings” series beyond the fact it will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring.” The show’s official Twitter account sent out an image of a map along with the two messages: “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie,” as well as “Welcome to the Second Age.” In the Tolkien mythology, the Second Age was the time in which the Rings of Power, including Sauron’s One Ring, came into existence.
Variety exclusively reported in November 2017 that a “Lord of the Rings” series was in the works at Amazon, with the streamer announcing a multi-season production commitment shortly thereafter. The series will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Question: lord of the rings how many actors are there

Answer: 20

lord of the rings how many actors are there

Question: when does lord of the rings come out

Answer: 4 December 2020

Question: who owns the rights to lord of the rings

Answer: Variety

who owns the rights to lord of the rings

Question: amazon added 20 actors to cast in what series

Answer: Lord of the Rings

amazon added 20 actors to cast in what series

Question: what is the name of the amazon series that adds 20 actors to cast

Answer: Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon

what is the name of the amazon series that adds 20 actors to cast

Question: amazon added 20 actors to cast for what series

Answer: Lord of the Rings' Series

amazon added 20 actors to cast for what series

Early life Lenworth George Henry was born at Burton Road Hospital in Dudley, on 29 August 1958, to Winston Jervis Henry (1910–1978) and Winifred Louise Henry (1922–1998), who had emigrated to Britain from Jamaica.

The fifth of seven children, Henry was the first child of the family to be born in the United Kingdom.

Early life Lenworth George Henry was born at Burton Road Hospital in Dudley , on 29 August 1958 , to Winston Jervis Henry ( 1910–1978 ) and Winifred Louise Henry ( 1922–1998 ) , who had emigrated to Britain from Jamaica .

The fifth of seven children , Henry was the first child of the family to be born in the United Kingdom .

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One of a select few to have built a lasting career on the back of success in
a TV talent show - he was a finalist on ITV's New Faces (1973-78) in 1975 - Lenny Henry
has been one of Britain's best-loved personalities for so long that it's easy to
forget that he was the first, and for much of his career the only, Black British
entertainer to achieve acceptance in the TV mainstream.
Born Lenworth George Henry in Dudley, West Midlands, on 29 August 1958, he
was one of seven children of Jamaican parents, and the first to be born in the
UK. While still in his teens he developed a stage act based around celebrity
impressions, with which he toured the working men's club circuit before New
Faces catapulted him to national fame. Subsequently he made stand-up appearances
on variety shows - including, in a sign of a political innocence that would
later embarrass him, The Black and White Minstrel Show (BBC, 1958-78) - and at
the age of 17 won a leading role in The Fosters (ITV, 1976-77), Britain's first
all-Black sitcom.
But it was the Saturday morning children's show TISWAS (ITV, 1974-82) that
enabled him to develop a more personal style. TISWAS's trademark anarchy gave
him free rein to depart from the impressions that had been a mainstay of his act
to date - though he retained affectionate but increasingly eccentric
impersonations of botanist David Bellamy and newsreader Trevor McDonald (as
Trevor McDoughnut) - and to introduce his own creation, lovably loopy rasta
Algernon Winston Spencer Castlereagh Razzmatazz, armed with oversized woolly
hat, condensed milk sandwiches and a proclivity for extremely elongated vowels.
Algernon made further appearances on OTT (ITV, 1982), a disastrous attempt at
a TISWAS for adults which was cancelled after one season for its embarrassing
sexism. Unlike some of his co-stars (notably host Chris Tarrant), Henry emerged
from the series with his reputation largely unscathed. By now, however, he had
been exposed to the burgeoning 'alternative comedy' scene and, with prompting
from Dawn French, was questioning the racial stereotyping that had characterised
much of his comedy. Appearances in The Young Ones (BBC, 1982-84), The Comic
Strip Presents (Channel 4, 1982-88) and on stage in The Secret Policeman's Ball
(from the late-1980s) followed but, in truth, despite his relationship with
French (they married in 1984), his comedy was always broader, less angry and
less political than that of the alternative comics. In the meantime, he teamed
up with relative unknowns Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield for the popular,
if patchy, sketch show Three of a Kind (BBC, 1981-83), which allowed him to experiment with a more diverse array of characters.
By 1984, his growing status had won him his own series, The Lenny Henry Show (BBC, 1984-85), which developed as a mix of stand-up, character monologue and sketches featuring a host of characters old and new, notably soul-singer
Theophilus P. Wildebeeste, a ridiculous, medallion-wearing, silken-voiced
would-be Lothario inspired by Barry White, Alexander O'Neill and Teddy
Prendegast (sample chat-up line: "Have you got any African in you? Would you
like some?"); Brixton pirate radio DJ Delbert Wilkins (who took centre stage in a second incarnation of The Lenny Henry Show (BBC, 1987-88) in a sitcom format); Pentecostal preacher the
Reverend Nat West; and Grandpa Deakus, an aged Jamaican proffering his own
particular homespun 'wisdom'. Specials appeared periodically from 1987 until the
series returned in 1995, but by now the format was looking somewhat tired.
Meanwhile, he attempted to extend his range in a six-part series of one-off
comedies, Lenny Henry Tonite (BBC, 1986), in which he appeared as a different
character each week, and became a leading light in the annual charity telethon
Comic Relief (BBC, 1988-), which he co-hosted with Griff Rys-Jones. In 1989 he
broke new ground for a British comedian with the cinema release of Lenny Henry Live and Unleashed, a live stand-up show recorded at the Hackney Empire - importing a practice previously associated with American comics like Richard
Prior and Eddie Murphy.
An attempt to break into feature films with the racial switch comedy True Identity (US, 1991) failed, and his next move was a return to formal sitcom after a gap of more than 15 years with Chef! (BBC, 1993-96), based on his own idea. In the
shape of the temperamental, bullying but insecure restaurateur Gareth Blackstock, Chef! presented Henry with his most complex and well-rounded character to date, and his performance won the series a substantial following
and returned him to critical favour.
In 1999 Henry took on his first straight role in Lucy Gannon's Hope and Glory (BBC, 1999-2000) as headmaster Ian George, charged with the unenviable task of turning round a failing inner-city comprehensive school. As with Chef!, the casting of a Black actor as an authority figure, in a context in which race is
barely an issue, demonstrated that television had made some progress since the early days of Henry's career. Again, his performance was well-received, and the drama lasted three series, climaxing with his character's death. But he was anxious to return to more familiar territory, and 2000 saw the pilot of a new sketch show, Lenny Henry in Pieces (BBC, 2001-03), in which he laid to rest some of his old characters in an attempt to replenish his act, with mixed results. In 2004 he was back with a new series of The Lenny Henry Show, and gave his voice to a shrunken head in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (UK/US, d. Alfonso CuarÃ³n).
Henry has been criticised for lacking political bite, but such attacks underestimate his achievement. He won public affection at a time when racial intolerance was widespread, successfully reinvented his comic persona while less flexible performers were swept aside in the wake of the alternative comedy boom, and has demonstrated a skill for straight and comic acting which may, in the
long term, prove a more durable outlet for his talents than his sketch and stand-up roots. As well as his symbolic value as the most visible example of Black success in TV comedy, Henry has, since 1991, used his own production company, Crucial Films, to encourage and nurture young Black talent. He was instrumental in establishing the Black comedy revue series The Real McCoy (BBC, 1991-96), and in giving opportunities to new filmmakers in the 10-minute slot Funky Black Shorts (BBC, 1994), produced by Crucial Films. Alongside numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Entertainment Comedy Awards in 2003 and the Montreux Golden Rose in 2001, he received a CBE in 1999.
Mark Duguid

Question: from where did winston jervis henry emigrate to britain

Answer: Jamaica

from where did winston jervis henry emigrate to britain

Question: where was lenworth george henry born

Answer: Burton Road Hospital

Question: in which city was lenworth george henry born

Answer: Dudley

in which city was lenworth george henry born

Question: how many children did lenworth george henry have

Answer: seven

how many children did lenworth george henry have

Question: who was the mother of lenworth george henry

Answer: Winifred Louise Henry

who was the mother of lenworth george henry

Question: who was the first child of the henry family born in the uk

Answer: Lenworth George Henry

who was the first child of the henry family born in the uk

Question: who was the father of lenworth george henry

Answer: Winston Jervis Henry

who was the father of lenworth george henry

When Henry was ten years old , he began spending time with the man who was later revealed to be his biological father , Albert Augustus " Bertie " Green ( 1927–2004 ) , another Jamaican immigrant with whom his mother had a brief relationship when she first arrived in England from their native Jamaica .

“I’m fascinated by it. It’s history.” Lenny Henry is explaining why he has decided to write an autobiography (Who Am I, Again?) about his childhood in Dudley and the beginning of his 45-year comedy career. For Henry, this isn’t just a bit of navel-gazing and the odd anecdote featuring Chris Tarrant (although there is some of that). It is about bearing witness. “I grew up in a period where, just down the road in Smethwick, a Tory politician got in with the slogan ‘If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour’,” he says, referring to Peter Griffiths’ notorious 1964 election win for the Conservatives. “I’m living just down the road from Wolverhampton, where the Rivers of Blood speech was made*. So I’m in a place where there are toxic elements that you think would be an obstacle to my progress in life. But, actually, I think those things are part of what makes us stronger.”
Henry tells me this as we sit in the corner of a lounge bar that looks out over the old BBC Television Centre in west London. The place is decked out in mid-century modern decor, with plush stools and mood lighting. If we were meeting in the evening, you would expect him to order an old fashioned, but it is not even 10am and all he wants is a bit of toast. Henry – who is half incognito in a flat cap, glasses and a polka dot scarf – seems to be on first-name terms with all the staff and politely asks one of them to turn the muzak down a bit. This is very much his domain. “All that used to be offices,” he says, gesturing toward a section of the building that has been turned into luxury flats. “You’d go in there and get your ideas ripped apart.”
Now 61, Henry started his comedy career in 1975, and he has become arguably the UK’s most recognisable comic. But there is a lot the British public don’t know about Henry. In the book, the extent of the racist abuse he received as a young man, not to mention the physical violence at home, is revealed in painful detail. To write it, he looked back into his past, opened up a “pandora’s box” of memories and then began, as he puts it, “to vomit out the chapters”.
The book ranges from his infancy to until he was a few years into his nascent career. It ends before his marriage to fellow comedian Dawn French in 1984; after 25 years together, they divorced in 2010. The pair have a daughter, Billie, who is in her late 20s. Henry is now in a relationship with the theatre producer and casting director Lisa Makin. When we meet, he has just landed from New York and needs to send her what he calls a “yaaaaaay message” to mark the occasion.
These days, Henry isn’t considered a child star, but that is exactly what he was. Aged 16 when he made his TV debut, he arrived on our screens dressed in a wide-lapelled suit with an oversized bow tie and was introduced by Derek Hobson – the host of New Faces – as “a Dudley lad”. His impressions of Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Frank Spencer were good enough for him to win the talent competition and thrust him into the world of mid-70s light entertainment. Watching the footage now, it is striking how lanky and awkward and yet incredibly confident he was, suggesting years of practice, which in some ways was true.
Throughout Who Am I, Again?, we see Henry using his comedy to ward off bellicose bullies or honing his short impressions sets in sometimes hostile working men’s clubs. He turned the violence he received at the hands of his mother into a live performance that would eventually help him to buy her a home. But his honesty in revealing this in the autobiography caused friction. “My family were very sensitive about it,” admits Henry, who had to work especially hard to convince his four older siblings (he is one of seven) of the merits of publishing a book about their difficult home life. “They all got their manuscripts and they were allowed to express what they felt about it and some of them were a bit weird about chatting about our business in public,” he says. “Some of them said: ‘Go on, say it.’ So I was encouraged by that.”
But despite the positive spin, there is a dark frankness to the book, not just when Henry recalls the racism he faced in his youth but, more so, when discussing his mother, Winifred. He puts the violent beatings she gave him down to her own upbringing. “It’s an inherited violence,” he says. “And, you know, everybody hit their kids back then. Teachers backhanded you in the classroom in front of other kids. You got the stick, the cane, the slipper. Your mum beat you at home with a stick or a shoe. And if something happens enough, it becomes routine. I wasn’t the only one.
“Charlie Chaplin used to say that comedy is tragedy plus time,” he says. “And I think that’s true. Because when you’re an eight-year-old kid and a grownup is beating you, all you’re thinking is: ‘When is this going to stop?’”
Yet Henry clearly revered his mother, who died in 1998. She came to Britain in the second wave of Caribbean immigration in 1957 and settled in the Midlands before having an affair, of which Henry was the result. When Henry was 10, his mother told him he had to go and do chores for his “uncle” Bertie in exchange for pocket money. He helped him every Friday for 18 months until he was told that Bertie was his real father, not Winston, the man he had grown up with. Henry says he was ashamed of the truth for years, but wants to “own” it now. “My story is an immigrant story,” he says. “My story is of people moving from one country thousands of miles away to another and forming new links, new family and new relationships. And that’s just what it is. It’s not illicit, it’s not salacious in any way. It’s a life thing.”
Incredibly, Henry says it wasn’t the revelation about his biological father or the beatings that caused him to feel anger toward his mother, but rather the moment when she started getting caught up in the circus that began to surround him as his career took off. “I felt that she was buying into the showbiz story and she was changing,” he says. “Why was she changing? This is the woman who, up to five minutes ago, would backhand me or beat me or whatever, and now she’s calling me Lenny instead of Len.”
Some of this anger may stem from the situations that Henry was put in. He wasn’t just on New Faces, Tiswas, the Saturday-morning children’s television programme, and The Fosters, the UK’s first all-black sitcom; he was also on The Black and White Minstrel Show, a decision that was taken by his family and management. Henry didn’t perform in blackface, as some black comedians – such as Bert Williams in the early 1900s – had done, but he was on the same show as acts that would be repulsive to today’s audiences. What does he think of the people who put him in that position? “Of course I have an opinion,” he says. “I probably wouldn’t share it with you. But I do know this: if it’s me, and I’m that person’s parent or guardian, I’m not going to let them be in a minstrel show.”
Henry describes Dudley in the 60s and 70s as a “semi-racist” environment, which seems generous considering the stories recorded in his book. What would be known now as “micro-aggressions” were the best Henry could expect from some of his school friends, who were more likely to beat him up while calling him a “coon” or a “wog” than to touch his hair without asking. Looking back, Henry wishes that he had been more like the Jamaican boys who met racist epithets and violence with fists and bricks of their own. “I wish my dad or somebody had taught me how to fight and defend myself,” he says. “Because you’re very vulnerable if you can’t stick up for yourself. I wish I’d fought back and I think that’s now where all the activism comes from. It’s this thing of speaking your mind and not being scared – and we need to be, because we’re all being embarrassed by a 16-year-old girl from Sweden at the moment.”
But being brave and speaking out wasn’t simple in 1975 for a teenage black British comic. Henry was told by managers and peers that the place for “politics is in your private life – you don’t do politics on stage”. It was advice he heeded until he began to call for the entertainment industry to address the systemic racism that he had seen throughout his career. In 2008, Henry made a hard-hitting speech to the Royal Television Society, slamming broadcasters for not doing more to encourage ethnic diversity. In an interview with the Guardian shortly afterwards, he said: “I do not think the media is racist. I do think that, as an industry, we are stuck in terms of providing a support system for black, Asian and ethnic minorities who don’t have a natural way into the industry. It’s bullshit, it needs to change.” It didn’t. So, in 2014, he was louder still, calling out the industry’s terrible record on diversity in a Bafta lecture. “People aren’t just hitting the glass ceiling: they are standing on a glass precipice,” he said.
Recently, Henry was one of the prominent Britons of colour who wrote to the BBC to complain about the treatment of Naga Munchetty. The corporation had disciplined her, but not her co-host, Dan Walker, after a discussion about Donald Trump’s “go home” comments aimed at black and Muslim US senators. Unsurprisingly, there is a weariness to Henry’s voice at having to be discussing these issues again, after years of activism. “It was so benign, though,” he says of Munchetty’s comments. “I know there are guidelines and you are told to adhere to them. But the thing is, she was on TV with her TV husband having a chat about things. And he asked her how she felt about a certain thing, and she replied, in a benign but truthful way. That was all right. She didn’t kill anybody.”
A decade on from his Royal Television Society speech, Henry seems at a loss as to what can be done to improve equality in the British media and worries about what it might take for change to happen, “not because we’re forced to by another Grenfell or by another Stephen Lawrence or by another Naga Munchetty. Let’s just say we’re going to do something good because we want to do it, not because we were forced to by some terrible event.
“I had 35 years where I’d never have any meetings like this,” he says, pointing at me – a black journalist asking him questions. “Never interviewed by somebody like you. Never in a creative meeting with somebody that looked like you.” There was one moment when he thought things were turning; when he walked into makeup on the set of the mid-70s sitcom The Fosters. “There was a mixed-race head of makeup. And I thought: ‘Oh, OK, things are changing.’ That never happened again. That was an anomaly. I never met a makeup artist of colour for the next 35 years.”
Henry is doing his bit to offset some of that imbalance with a new series for Gold – Lenny Henry’s Race Through Comedy – in which he tells the mostly forgotten story of black British comedians such as Charlie Williams, the Doncaster standup and former professional footballer he used to impersonate. He has also been an outspoken critic of the government’s treatment of the Windrush generation, and earlier this year starred in and executive produced Soon Gone, a BBC drama that was, in part, inspired by the scandal, of which he “felt the sting of injustice”.
One place that Henry has been able to make a significant impact is with Comic Relief, the charity he co-founded with Richard Curtis in 1985 in response to famine in Ethiopia. Last year, Comic Relief had its effectiveness called into question. In response to pictures posted on Instagram by the documentary maker Stacey Dooley, Tottenham MP David Lammy wrote: “The world does not need any more white saviours. As I’ve said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes.” Lammy added that Comic Relief had “fallen short” of what he called its “public duty” to promote racial equality and serve minority communities.
Surely it must have hurt to have something he has been working on for more than 30 years painted as not only outdated but actually counterproductive? Not so, says Henry. “He wasn’t saying anything that we disagree with. We could have done without it on the day of Comic Relief, but we’ve always been aware of the lack of diversity behind the scenes.”
Henry says he has pushed for more black directors and the use of local film crews when shooting takes place in Africa. But he doesn’t accept that Lammy was criticising Comic Relief alone. “David was commenting about all the broadcast media,” he says. “He just happened to pick on us because Comic Relief was out and the optics – sometimes – aren’t good.
“We are aware of it,” he adds. “And we are changing.” Even if the change is not coming quickly enough for some, it is hard to doubt Henry’s sincerity. “When, in 100 years’ time, we look back at the way things change, we’ll go: ‘Wow, that was a snap of a finger.’ But when you’re in the middle of it, change is long. And I think that’s the problem. Things aren’t happening fast enough.”
Lenny Henry’s autobiography, Who Am I, Again?, is published by Faber (£20). To buy a copy for £17.60 with free UK p&p for orders over £20, visit guardianbookshop.com or call 0203 176 3837
An Evening With Lenny Henry is touring the UK until 29 November. For venues and tickets: lennyhenryontour.net
* The Rivers of Blood speech was made in Birmingham by the then MP for Wolverhampton South West, Enoch Powell.

Question: how many children was henry born in the uk

Answer: seven

how many children was henry born in the uk

Question: who was henry's biological father

Answer: Albert Augustus "Bertie" Green

Question: how old was henry when he began spending time with his father

Answer: ten

how old was henry when Lenny Henry began spending time with his father

Question: where was henry born

Answer: United Kingdom

Question: how old was henry when he was born

Answer: fifth of seven

how old was henry when Lenny Henry was born

Question: when did henry's biological father live

Answer: 1927–2004

Question: who was the first child of the green family to be born in england

Answer: Henry

who was the first child of the green family to be born in england

Henry was named after the doctor who delivered him.

Henry was named after the doctor who delivered him .

Nine things we learned when Sir Lenny Henry spoke to Louis Theroux
In episode four of his lockdown podcast, Grounded with Louis Theroux, Louis interviews the comedian, campaigner and actor Sir Lenny Henry. The two talk about Lenny’s tough upbringing, experiencing racism on and off stage and the one habit he hopes to continue with once lockdown is over. Here are nine things we learned…
1. Lenny got his name from the doctor who delivered him
Lenny was named after a Dr Lenworth, and his full name is Lenworth George Henry. At home he was always called Len, but after he became famous his mum started to refer to him as Lenny. This upset him, as he felt his success in show business had influenced her attitude toward him. “Suddenly, Lenny off the telly was now in our house. I wasn’t Len anymore, and that caused me a great deal of heartache… I thought she’d changed like everybody else. I didn’t expect her to change, and she did change.”
2. Lenny thought a different man was his dad until he was 11
Growing up, Lenny thought his dad was his mum’s partner, who raised him. Then, when he was 10, he was sent to do chores for his “uncle Bertie” every Friday. Lenny used to clean Bertie’s bedsit for him and get given pocket money, with no idea that the man was actually his birth father. About a year later, he found out the truth when another of Bertie’s sons told him. He didn’t talk about it publicly until his 2019 autobiography and says: “that was a massive thing for me to have that in the open, ’cause I’d not spoken about that to anyone.”
"What was your snog track?" – Lenny Henry
Clip from Grounded with Louis Theroux.
This woman was physically abusing me. And how do I feel about that?Lenny Henry on his mother
3. As a child, he experienced frequent physical violence
Lenny’s mum would beat him if he misbehaved, and once even used a frying pan. “I would have bruises,” he says. “I would have welts.” It made him fearful of a lot of things and meant he struggled to stand up for himself, which he regrets. Although Lenny used to joke about his mum’s strictness in his stage act, reflecting on it and writing about it has been difficult. He says, “you go, ‘Oh OK, this woman was physically abusing me. And how do I feel about that?’ And then in the end what you do is you go, ‘Oh well, that’s what mum was like’. But it’s still tough to remember and to re-experience”.
4. Lenny thinks his gift for impressions came from trying to integrate
Growing up in the West Midlands, Lenny faced frequent racism. He describes living in two worlds: at home, he felt Jamaican, but outside his friends were white and he did what they did. Lenny’s skill for mimicry first grew through trying to fit in and talk like everyone else, but later it “became this other thing of, well, how does John Wayne talk? How does James Stewart talk? And I can use that to make my friends laugh too.”
5. At first, he kept his talent for comedy hidden from his family
“In our house, my mum was the funny one,” Lenny says. If he had made wisecracks at home as a child, he knew it would have been seen as cheeky by his parents and resulted in punishment. So instead, he made jokes and did impressions to entertain his friends in the park. For quite a long time, Lenny’s family had no idea he could be funny. “It was like a little secret I held in my heart,” he says.
6. Lenny’s first gig was as Elvis Presley at a local disco
Although Lenny was a shy teenager, his friends pushed him to enter a talent contest. He performed as ‘wobbly Elvis’, singing Jailhouse Rock. The response, he recalls, was overwhelming: “It was like the first ever proper round of applause I’d ever received from an audience. I just thought, ‘That’s brilliant, and how do I get that again?’”
7. He felt deeply conflicted about appearing in The Black and White Minstrel Show
One of Lenny’s first TV jobs was on The Black and White Minstrel Show. Each week, he would do a short set of jokes and impressions, while the cast of ‘minstrels’ would perform song and dance numbers, the men wearing blackface. It’s a concept that was already being recognised as offensive. Looking back, Lenny feels his presence was a way for them to say, “How can we be racist? There’s a black guy in the show.”
As a teenager new to showbiz, Lenny was told to take the job as an opportunity to learn his trade but being part of the show made him feel “very lost for a period”. However, it also meant he could provide for his family, so they no longer had to live on the breadline. “I have to not be ashamed of that,” Lenny says. “Because that was a very, very, very positive thing. No matter how I was doing it, I was able to help my family.”
8. The alternative comedy scene changed his life
Working in the clubs, Lenny felt he had to do gags about being black to win audiences over. He describes it as “getting the joke in about my blackness first, before somebody else did... I didn’t want to be a 16-year-old kid being beaten up by a bunch of people who didn’t like me ’cause of the colour of my skin.”
This all changed when he went to see an alternative comedy show featuring Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The night was made up of sketches and big characters, and the humour wasn’t racist or sexist. “I watched that and thought… You don’t have to do that clubland stuff anymore,” Lenny says. “And so for me, it was like a big curtain being pulled aside and a light shining in.” After that, he went on to have huge success with the sketch shows Three of a Kind and The Lenny Henry Show, before moving into drama and theatre.
9. After the lockdown is over, Lenny hopes to continue doing a daily walk
Lenny and his partner are spending the lockdown in the countryside. They’re surrounded by “sheep and grass and trees,” he says. “I always wanted that.” Although he’s been kept busy with meetings and writing a new book, they do a big walk at the end of each day. “I think that when this is all over, we might keep that going as a thing. To just go for a walk together. It’s lovely.”
More from Radio 4
Grounded with Louis Theroux: Lenny Henry
Lenny talks about his relationship with his mother, racism in the UK and disco ‘snog tracks’.
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Question: where did henry's mother come from

Answer: England

Question: what year was henry's biological father born

Answer: 1927

what year was henry's biological father born

Question: when did henry green's biological father die

Answer: 2004

when did henry green's biological father die

Question: what was henry's biological father's name

Answer: Bertie" Green

what was henry's biological father's name

Henry attended St John's Primary School and later The Blue Coat School in Dudley, before completing his schooling at W.R. Tuson College in Preston, Lancashire.

Henry attended St John 's Primary School and later The Blue Coat School in Dudley , before completing his schooling at W.R. Tuson College in Preston , Lancashire .

He has been perhaps the most high-profile black face on British television for the past three decades. From Three of a Kind to the Lenny Henry Show, through Delbert Wilkins to Comic Relief, he has consistently delivered ratings and laughs, becoming a mainstream figure beloved of middle England.
Few were laughing late on Thursday, however, when the entertainer took the media industry to task for its lack of diversity. When he arrives at production companies, he says, the only black faces are on reception. He looks at his 16-year- old daughter and her friends, who love High School Musical and spend all day on the internet and mobile phones, and wonders why they don't want to go into television.
"In the real world, there's more diversity, we're more multicultural, there are mixed marriages, mixed relationships, mixed race kids running all over the place. It's a fact of life. We are a multicultural, multi-ethnic society and there is an area of that society that is slightly hoping it's not true. But it is true and they've got to catch up."
The morning after he has delivered a hard-hitting speech to the Royal Television Society lambasting broadcasters for not doing more to encourage ethnic diversity, he's fretting that it had a "cap in hand element" and exercised about a headline in the Telegraph ("TV industry is racist, says Lenny"). "I do not think the media is racist. I do think that as an industry we are stuck in terms of providing a support system for black, Asian and ethnic minorities who don't have a natural way into the industry," he says. "It's bullshit, it needs to change. "
Lack of support network
He is even thinking of going back into production himself to practise what he preaches and try to redress the balance.
He believes broadcasters have barely moved on since he started his career surrounded by racist club comedians in the mid-1970s. What's more, if there isn't a "fundamental change" he fears the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are in danger of losing an entire generation of viewers and sealing their own demise.
"Afro-Caribbean culture is the lingua franca of young people today, with Asian culture not far behind. In the big cities, for real people out there, for me and for you, multiculturalism is a fact of life. "
As he travels the country, he sees a side to Britain that isn't being considered by commissioning editors. "With the eastern European influx, there are a lot of positive things being done. I'm not seeing that reflected in the media, I'm afraid. Things are changing and we've got to catch up otherwise we'll be left behind," he sighs, surrounded by empty coffee cups in a room at the central London offices of production company Tiger Aspect.
Henry, casually dressed, unshaven and hence not keen to have his picture taken, has been here before. He did his share of "shouting and banging on tables", he says, when he launched the BBC-backed Crucial Films in 1992 to try to bring through a new generation of ethnic minority talent. The sketch show The Real McCoy prospered for a while and a series of short films introduced new writing and directing talent before the company foundered in 1999. "In the end, that had to stop because my daughter was seven and I'd hardly seen her. Plus my mum died and there were other things going on, it was taking up a lot of my time," he says.
It feels like Henry has been around forever but he only turns 50 this year, a milestone that seems to have ushered in a period of reflection.
A teenager from Dudley who had "no idea" about the television industry when he won New Faces in 1975, he was lucky, he says, to have a support network of people like Chris Tarrant and ITV executive Paul Jackson around him to encourage and mentor him.
Not that he didn't make mistakes. He looks back and cringes at his decision to appear second on the bill to the Black and White Minstrel Show early in his career. "My mum signed the contract and we didn't want to screw it up, and we thought we'll do what they say because they know better than we do."
Too many comedians are still too careless with language, he believes, with "pikey" and "chav" replacing "coon" and "wog" as offensive language it's somehow OK to use, but he is reluctant to come across as a PC policeman.
"There are ways of doing these things where you don't have to be a twat. If you've got taste as a comedian, you can make a joke about anything," he says. "I've seen Dame Edna telling jokes about people in wheelchairs and there are people falling out of their wheelchairs laughing. Whereas Bernard Manning taking the piss out of a black bloke in the Embassy club, that's embarrassing."
Being the only black face in a sea of white ones was "quite lonely", he admits, and doubts things are much better for those coming through today. Not only that, but at times he felt like the token black man and at others that he was somehow required to represent the entire community. "It's too big a job," he says now.
"The status quo is predominantly white and middle class. And if you're not that, well. Go to any meeting or go to any production company, you might have a black person on reception and an Asian person in IT or something. And that's it. That's appalling. What's going on?"
The ready flow of graduates prepared to work for peanuts, often supported by their parents while they get a foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, and the inevitable tendency to play it safe when recruiting are both factors, Henry believes.
"There are people who love the status quo. It's really easy to hire your mates or people you've worked with before. It's a bit harder to come out of your comfort zone."
It is over three years since the then director general Greg Dyke labelled the BBC "hideously white" but the targets he set have not been hit. Hordes of well-meaning interventions and a host of initiatives, workshops and think-tanks have had little impact and we seem no nearer to unearthing a Cosby Show or a Chris Rock.
Henry is insistent that the desire for change must come from broadcasters and points to what the RSC and the National Theatre are doing in schools, to what Dizzee Rascal can do in music to emerge from an east London housing estate, and wonders why it isn't happening in television. More vocational training is required, he believes, as well as more outreach into schools.
"The lack of vocational training is extraordinary. It seems the only way through is if you have a big brain and went to university. It's a seam of gold that isn't being mined," he says. This tendency to focus on "maths, English and tests" is also a root cause of the lack of diversity in broadcasting, he argues.
Henry left school at 16 but recently completed an English literature degree and this year plans to embark on an MA in screenwriting.
The 1970s mafia of club comedians gave way to a progressive, but still predominantly white, mafia of alternative comedians in the 1980s. Looking at today's cosy network of Ricky Gervais (who had a dig at Henry in the last series of Extras), Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Alan Carr and so on, it would be easy to argue little has changed.
Dodgy club
"You've got to get off your arse and find people. What's the big deal? Kids are interested in sound, in cameras, they love movies, they spend all day on YouTube. The easy thing to do is to take these guys from Radio 4 or those guys from Edinburgh. The hard thing is to go into the ends, into the community and check out what is going on in some dodgy club over a pub. But that's what people have to do."
Otherwise, he says, broadcasters face a slow drift into irrelevance, pointing to Ofcom figures that show terrestrial broadcasters are largely a turn-off for younger audiences in general, and those from ethnic minorities in particular.
As well as more diversity in the industry, more ideas from a wider range of writers, producers and directors are vital to hold up a mirror to contemporary Britain, he says. In the speech, he joked about Sunday being the night that the National Front would stay in and watch television that depicted "blue skies, green fields, white people".
Not much has changed, he ventures, with the wall to wall period dramas that now dominate - including Lark Rise to Candleford, starring his wife Dawn French. As a recent English graduate, he is bursting with ideas for other adaptations that don't always feature an overload of "bonnets and crinolines".
Since returning to our screens in Lenny's Britain after a break of sorts, he has dabbled in a range of things. A recent Radio 4 documentary on Shakespeare was well received, though on TV a You've Been Framed for the internet generation called Lenny Henry.tv met with a less positive reception. Rudy's Rare Records, a comedy for Radio 4, is likely to be turned into a television show and he's halfway through a screenplay for BBC Films.
"I'm trying not to get stuck in the same thing. I don't want to do the sketch show any more so I'm trying to figure out what I do want to do. I just want to do good work. I have come to a point where I haven't got a lot of time to waste."
Despite being a celebrity couple, he and French have managed to handle the press mostly on their own terms. "I'm not a big fan of the celebrity thing. We don't go to premieres and things like that," he says.
Some might view Henry as not as funny as he once was, but you sense he's more comfortable in his own skin.
"I've always made my own work. I'd love to do more drama but I've got the Lenny Henry factor working against me. They're going to say, you're not a hardened murderer, you're Lenny Henry," he says, laughing at the thought.
Perhaps tellingly, he cites the ability to bounce back from failure as the most important lesson he would like to pass on. "You can't let one setback kill you. Push, push, push."
Curriculum Vitae
Age 49
Education Blue Coat School, Dudley, WR Tewson School, Preston College, Open University
Career
1975 New Faces, Black and White Minstrel Show
1976-1978 The Fosters
1978-1981 Tiswas
1981-1984 Three of a Kind
1984-2004 The Lenny Henry Show
1988 co-host of the first Red Nose Day
1992-1996 Chef
1999-2000 Hope & Glory
1999-2003 Lenny Henry in Pieces
2007 Lenny's Britain
2007 LennyHenry.tv

Question: where was w.r. tuson college located

Answer: Preston, Lancashire

Question: where did henry finish his schooling

Answer: W.R. Tuson College

Question: where was the blue coat school located

Answer: Dudley

Question: where did henry go to school in dudley

Answer: Blue Coat School

Question: where did henry go to school

Answer: St John's Primary School

Early career Henry's formative years in comedy were spent in working men's clubs, where he impersonated mainly white characters, such as the Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em character Frank Spencer.

Early career Henry 's formative years in comedy were spent in working men 's clubs , where he impersonated mainly white characters , such as the Some Mothers Do ' Ave ' Em character Frank Spencer .

Question: who did some mothers do 'ave 'em impersonate

Answer: Frank Spencer

who did some mothers do 'ave 'em impersonate

Question: where did henry's early comedy career take place

Answer: working men's clubs

where did henry's early comedy career take place

Question: what ethnicity was frank spencer

Answer: white

Question: who did henry impersonate in his early career

Answer: white characters

who did henry impersonate in his early career

Question: what was henry's early career

Answer: comedy

Question: frank spencer was a character in which comedy

Answer: Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

frank spencer was a character in which comedy

Question: who played frank spencer in some mothers do 'ave 'em

Answer: Henry

who played frank spencer in some mothers do 'ave 'em

1980s thumb|right|Henry in the 1980s In 1980, Henry performed in Summer Season in Blackpool with Cannon and Ball.

1980s thumb|right|Henry in the 1980s In 1980 , Henry performed in Summer Season in Blackpool with Cannon and Ball .

Summer show at the North Pier, Blackpool, from 28th June - 4th October. Others on the bill were:
Roger de Courcey
Teddy Peiro and Patricio
Graham Bickley and the Nita Howard Dancers
Jacqui Scott
Lenny Henry
Souvenir Brochure
Cannon and Ball
Cannon and Ball have unleashed a new catchphrase for the 1980's with 'Rock On Tommy', but more than that they have proved conclusively with their TV series that they are one of the funniest duos in showbusiness.
Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball were both welders in their native Oldham when they first. They became big pals and eventually formed a singing duo called 'The Harper Brothers'. This meant a change in their lives; by day they were welders and in the evening entertained in local pubs and clubs.
Such was their popularity that they were soon considering becoming professional entertainers, and an engagement in Wales made them reach such a decision. "We'd never worked outside Lancashire," says Tommy, "and suddenly we had a week of work in Wales. And it went so well that we came home and handed in our notices."
That was how Tommy and Bobby entered showbusiness - though they were still the singing Harper Brothers. Slowly Bobby's natural flair for comedy crept into the act, and although their club successes continued, both felt they were getting nowhere.
"We needed a better name," says Bobby, "so we sat down and started throwing names at each other. One of us said Cannon and the other Ball - and that was it!"
One of their earliest TV appearances was in 'Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club', but their real breakthrough came when they were signed by London Weekend Television.
Cannon and Ball have arrived with a bang, as evidenced by this, their first ever bill-topping summer season. Both are happily married and live close to each other in Oldham. Their off-stage interests are similar - Bobby is a fishing fanatic, while Tommy is one of the best golfers in showbiz - and they remain forever ambitious... Rock on Tommy and Bobby!
Roger de Courcey
Roger de Courcey, winner of ATV's 1976 New Faces, is a man of many talents - singer, comedian, writer...and, of course, ventriloquist - both he and his teddie character, Nookie, have become household names. Roger was born in Vauxhall, London, and on leaving school obtained scholarships with the London Opera Company.
In 1971 he was booked to do a show and arrive at 8:00pm only to be told he wasn't needed until well after midnight. His dressing room was little more than a store cupboard, where items of clothing and junk were stored. While sifting through them he came across a teddy bear and went on stage with teddy in tow.
The bear was an instant hit and Roger could see plenty of possibilities opening up in the way of a vent act. So he taught himself ventriloquism and worked the bear gradually into the proceedings.
That was the debut of Nookie Bear, who has gone on to become a distinctive character in his own right. Roger de Courcey, with Nookie, has emerged as an entertainer or rare quality and great talent.
In 1976 he appeared at the London Palladium three times, enjoying outstanding successes. He was chosen to appear in the royal variety show and undertook top-line concert and cabaret appearances all over Britain, including a special gala charity engagement before Princess Margaret. On television he has starred in Cabaret Showtime, Wednesday at Eight, Night Out at the Casino, Big Top, and London Night Out. He has also appeared twice at the prestigious MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
Last Christmas Roger starred as Simon in the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Hippodrome, Birmingham.
Lenny Henry
Lenny Henry is firmly established as one of our brightest comedy entertainers. He achieved prominence as the first schoolboy winner of TV's 'New Faces', and has starred in TV series and made many guest appearances in clubs and the theatre.
Since his initial breakthrough as a 16 year old winner on 'New Faces', Lenny's razor-sharp range of impressions, spontaneous approach to comedy, and a fine singing voice have delighted audiences.
Still living in his native Dudley, Lenny's credits include two series of 'The Fosters', in which he showed his abilities as a comedy actor, and guest appearances in 'Celebrity Squares', 'Seaside Special' and 'The Ronnie Corbett Show'.
His act combines comedy with singing and impressions of top personalities, including an almost life-like send-up of his idol Muhammad Ali. The repertoire is extensive, and Lenny points out he has the most natural gimmick in showbiz. "It's not every day audiences are treated to coloured versions of Max Bygraves, Tommy Cooper or Michael Crawford," he quips.
Jacqui Scott
Jacqui Scott, winner of BBC Television's first ever "Rising Stars" series last December, is certainly one of the brightest new talents to emerge in showbusiness for a long time.
Still only 16, Jacqui's climb to success started ten years ago when she trained in piano and voice. By the time she'd reached the age of ten, Jacqui had won a scholarship to study at Chetham's school of Music in Manchester, where she was awarded top grades with distinction.
Since then, she has enjoyed great success in theatre, cabaret and on television. Indeed, for one so young, her credits make exciting reading. She has sung in most major cabaret clubs in the country; appeared with the London Opera Company, and the Sadlers Wells Opera Company; and recently starred in the title role of "Cinderella" in pantomime.
Teddy Peiro And Patricio
Teddy Peiro - who with his son Patricio presents one of the most breathtaking speciality juggling acts in international showbusiness - was born in Argentina and emigrated to the USA.
He has performed at most leading nightclubs and theatres in America, including the Radio City Music Hall and Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Indeed, while enjoying outstanding Stateside success, Teddy also appeared on major television shows and worked alongside Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Junior, Danny Kaye and Dean Martin.
Teddy's son Patricio was born in London and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied trumpet and piano. Before joining his father he performed with the famous National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Teddy Peiro and Patricio have appeared in 'The Paul Daniels Show', 'The Generation Game' and 'The Good Old Days', plus cabaret appearances all over Britain.

Question: where did henry play in the 1980s

Answer: Blackpool

Question: when did henry first perform in blackpool

Answer: 1980

when did henry first perform in blackpool

Question: who performed with henry in blackpool in 1980

Answer: Cannon and Ball

who performed with henry in blackpool in 1980

Question: when did henry perform in blackpool

Answer: Summer Season

Question: who played the guitar in the 80's

Answer: Henry

Question: where did henry perform in the 1980s

Answer: Blackpool with Cannon and Ball

Also in 1980, he teamed up with alternative-comedy collective The Comic Strip.

Also in 1980 , he teamed up with alternative - comedy collective The Comic Strip .

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Lenny Henry
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Lenny Henry’s career spans almost thirty years and counting.
He made a triumphant televisual debut in 1975, when he won the New Faces talent competition at the age of 18.
He anchored the Saturday morning children’s show, Tiswas, from 1978 to 1980, using the show to develop his comic persona to great effect.
But Lenny didn’t just stick to children’s entertainment. He appeared on The Black and White Minstrel Show for five years and then joined the hugely popular sketch show, Three of a Kind, alongside Tracey Ullman.
Lenny teamed up with the Comic Strip in 1980, when he met comedienne Dawn French, who would later become his wife.
By 1984, Lenny was ready for his own show and the Lenny Henry Show ran for a decade, becoming hugely popular with audiences.
A return to his stand-up roots followed, with Lenny embarking on the Live and Unleashed shows, bringing him to the attention of Hollywood.
Lenny took the lead in the Hollywood film, True Identity, with mixed results. But the BBC sitcom, Chef, followed and it was a big success for Lenny, who also wrote and produced the show.
Critical acclaim followed in 1999, when Lenny acted in the straight role of Ian George in the BBC comprehensive school drama, Hope and Glory.
He revived his sketch show persona with the show, Lenny Henry in Pieces, in 2000.
Lenny is also famous for being one of the founding figures of Comic Relief. He has won numerous awards throughout his career, including BBC British Personality of the Year and the Edric Connor Inspiration to Black People Award.
Links:
Lenny Henry in Pieces »»
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| 1993 Chef (TV)|
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| 1989 Live and Unleashed (STAGE and FILM)|
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| 1981 Three of a Kind (TV)|
| 1978 Tiswas (TV)|
| 1975 New Faces (TV)|
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Question: what alternative-comedy collective did robert co-found in 1980

Answer: The Comic Strip

what alternative-comedy collective did robert co-found in 1980

Question: in what year did the comic strip team up with jim

Answer: 1980

in what year did the comic strip team up with jim

Question: what group did the comic strip partner with in 1980

Answer: The Comic Strip.

what group did the comic strip partner with in 1980

Question: what type of group did the comic strip belong to

Answer: alternative-comedy

what type of group did the comic strip belong to

Question: what was the name of the alternative-comedy collective that co-starred with

Answer: Comic Strip

what was the name of the alternative-comedy collective that co-starred with

Question: when did the comic strip form

Answer: in 1980

The first series of The Lenny Henry Show appeared on the BBC in 1984.

The show featured stand up, spoofs like his send-up of Michael Jackson's Thriller video, and many of the characters he had developed during Summer Season, including Theophilus P. Wildebeeste and Delbert Wilkins.

The first series of The Lenny Henry Show appeared on the BBC in 1984 .

The show featured stand up , spoofs like his send - up of Michael Jackson 's Thriller video , and many of the characters he had developed during Summer Season , including Theophilus P. Wildebeeste and Delbert Wilkins .

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Question: when did the first lenny henry show air

Answer: 1984

Question: who did the lenny henry show spoof in 1984

Answer: Michael Jackson

who did the lenny henry show spoof in 1984

Question: who created the characters theophilus p. wildebeeste and delbert wil

Answer: Lenny Henry

who created the characters theophilus p. wildebeeste and delbert wil

Question: what was the name of lenny henry's tv show

Answer: Lenny Henry Show

what was the name of lenny henry's tv show

Question: who was the main character on the lenny henry show

Answer: Delbert Wilkins

who was the main character on the lenny henry show

Question: what was the name of the character created by lenny henry on the lenny

Answer: Theophilus P. Wildebeeste

what was the name of the character created by lenny henry on the lenny

Question: who were the main characters on the lenny henry show

Answer: Theophilus P. Wildebeeste and Delbert Wilkins

who were the main characters on the lenny henry show

Question: where did the first lenny henry show air

Answer: BBC

where did the first lenny henry show air

Prior to the 1987 general election, Henry lent his support to Red Wedge by participating in a comedy tour organised by the campaign.

Prior to the 1987 general election , Henry lent his support to Red Wedge by participating in a comedy tour organised by the campaign .

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The Paul Richards column
Last Thursday in the Times Phil Collins offered the view "with the exception of Billy Bragg, and even he will be remembered for the love songs, nobody seems to be able to do political songs anymore".
If it had been Phil Collins as in the Cadbury gorilla it might have been a bigger story ("Genesis drummer says modern pop is rubbish"). But the Phil Collins in question, leader writer for the Times and former No.10 speechwriter, makes an interesting point. I don’t follow pop music as I used to when I was a teenager, so I don’t want to comment on the state of modern music. But it is true that in the 1980s there was a political role for protest songs which seems to have disappeared.
The miners’ strike 1984/5 saw an upsurge in political music, and a fusion of political messages and music. In the loft I have tapes which were sold at fundraisers with everything from pub-rock to traditional miners’ ballads. One, ‘Easington Colliery Disaster’, had a lyric which has stuck with me: ‘there’s no medals made for miners/but they are heroes all’. Ewan MacColl recorded ‘Daddy What Did You Do in the Strike?’ Chumbawamba, best known for soaking John Prescott with water at the Brits, recorded ‘Fitzwilliam’ a haunting song about a dying pit village. Billy Bragg reworked Pete Seeger’s ‘Which Side Are You On’ with lyrics about the police tactics of preventing movement around the coalfields, and the hardship faced by striking miners’ families.
From the ashes of the miners’ strike support gigs came Red Wedge in 1986. This was a collective of bands and performers formed to support the Labour Party in the run-up to the 1987 election. There were tours, benefit gigs and appearances at Glastonbury. The bands associated with Red Wedge included Billy Bragg, Paul Weller’s the Style Council, and the Communards, and others made guest appearances including Madness, the Smiths, and Prefab Sprout. There was a comedy tour too with Ben Elton, Lenny Henry and Phill Jupitus (who also designed a series of lapel badges for Labour Students, now worth literally pence). One of the leading lights behind Red Wedge, Annajoy David, is currently fighting a spirited campaign as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Scarborough & Whitby.
Not all political bands supported the Labour Party. The Housemartins, now remembered for ‘Caravan of Love’, claimed ‘Marx and Jesus’ as their influences, and their early records (‘Flag Day’, ‘Stand At Ease’ and ‘Freedom’) were characterised by revolutionary lyrics. At one of their gigs in Hammersmith the support act was billed as ‘Melvyn Goat’. Imagine our joy when it turned out to be Billy Bragg. The Special AKA brought out their ‘In the Studio’ album in 1984, which contained the classic ‘Racist Friend’ (‘If you have a racist friend/now is the time, now is the time for your friendship to end’) and of course the top-ten leftie floor-filler ‘Free Nelson Mandela’.
There was a Manchester band called Easterhouse, named after the Glasgow housing estate, who supported the Revolutionary Communist Party. I went to one of their gigs in a venue called Bay 63, underneath the Westway in Ladbroke Grove. There were RCP paper sellers outside the concert, but I don’t think they sold many copies
The Redskins were a Socialist Workers Party band, and they enjoyed more commercial success. Their album was called ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow’, and the SWP slogan appeared on the Socialist Worker masthead. Their revolutionary anthems ‘Keep on Keeping On’ and ‘Bring it Down This Insane Thing’ even made it into the UK singles chart.
They were at the centre of a riot at a GLC event ‘Jobs for a Change’ on the South Bank when Nazi skinheads attacked them onstage. I was in Battersea Park watching the 3 Johns and Working Week at the time. The GLC was forever putting on free concerts with a political message, culminating in the last night of the GLC in 1986 in Jubilee Gardens with Eddy Grant playing live.
John O’ Farrell was there too, and as he records in Things Can Only Get Better:
"On the night that the GLC was officially abolished thousands of pounds of fireworks lit up the sky. It was fantastic - if only all those Conservative voters in Bromley and Finchley could have seen how much of their money was being wasted! Then, on the stroke of midnight, workers from the London Residuary Body moved in and started ripping everything down, signs, placards, banners - anything with a GLC logo on it - while the crowd looked on and booed."
I remember the night well. My mates and I parked our Ford Escort on the Mall, went to the ICA to see a double bill with Half Man Half Biscuit and We’ve Got a Fuzzbox and We’re Going to Use it, and then walked across Westminster Bridge to the huge concert at County Hall. We met Norman Cook (now better known as Fatboy Slim). There were loads of police outside Parliament because, we told ourselves, there was a danger of the angry crowd storming the House of Commons. Incredibly, our car was still parked on the Mall at the end of the night, with not a ticket or clamp in sight.
Margaret Thatcher was especially singled out for the lefty bands’ opprobrium. The Newtown Neurotics sang ‘kick out the Tories/the rulers of this land/for they are the enemies of the British working man/and it shows, while that bastard is in unemployment grows/and it shows, in hospitals, factories and the schools that they've closed.’ The Beat recorded ‘Stand Down Margaret’ in the early 80s, which seems remarkably polite in retrospect. Far from polite was Elvis Costello’s ‘Tramp the Dirt Down’, recorded in the last days of Thatcher’s premiership, which contains some of the most vicious lyrics in popular music: Costello’s hope is that he lives long enough to see Thatcher die so that he can stand on her grave.
If you were in left-wing politics in the 1980s, there was a fantastic soundtrack to the meetings, demos and picket-lines. The music of Paul Weller, Jerry Dammers and Billy Bragg inspired a generation of political activists, just as Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and Merrie England motivated a previous generation. I wonder from where the next generation of lefties is getting its angry lyrics and political anthems?
Posted on Nov 05, 2009 at 09:16am
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Question: which comedy group did henry support prior to the 1987 general election

Answer: Red Wedge

which comedy group did henry support prior to the 1987 general election

Question: in what year did henry lend his support to red weddge

Answer: 1987

in what year did henry lend his support to red weddge

Question: prior to the 1987 general election, henry lent his support to red weddge by

Answer: comedy tour

prior to the 1987 general election, henry lent his support to red weddge by

Question: what type of tour did henry participate in prior to the 1987 general election

Answer: comedy

what type of tour did henry participate in prior to the 1987 general election

Question: which member of parliament lent his support to red weddge

Answer: Henry

which member of parliament lent his support to red weddge

Question: when did henry lend his support to red weddge

Answer: 1987 general election

when did henry lend his support to red weddge

Question: what kind of tour did henry participate in prior to the 1987 general election

Answer: a comedy

what kind of tour did henry participate in prior to the 1987 general election

In 1987, he appeared in a TV film, Coast to Coast.

It was a comedy thriller with John Shea about two DJs with a shared passion for Motown music being chased across Britain.

In 1987 , he appeared in a TV film , Coast to Coast .

It was a comedy thriller with John Shea about two DJs with a shared passion for Motown music being chased across Britain .

guerilla films
|production||distribution||mail order||contact us||about us|
Every year we receive hundreds of request for videos of this film starring LENNY HENRY, JOHN SHEA, GEORGE BAKER, and PETE POSTLETHWAITE etc.
When we produced it in 1986 we were unable to clear any of the rights for any form of video distribution – actors, writers, musicians, music content, director, writer and crew.
It was thought by the different financing elements that it was only a television film and as it would then have cost well over £200,000 to clear it for video release worldwide not to be worth the investment.
Due to numerous demands to purchase the video and lately DVD we have tried, on several occasion, to clear these rights retrospectively. This has not happened. Apart from the fact that the costs would now be far greater than those quoted in 1986, many of those concerned have said that they will not give their permission for such a release. These permissions are needed to move forward.
Therefore, it is with great regret that we are unable to provide any of you with a film that so many of you fondly remember nearly 20 years after it was first screened.
Email us
David Nicholas Wilkinson
Executive Producer

Question: who starred in coast to coast

Answer: John Shea

Question: what year did he appear in coast to coast

Answer: 1987

what year did Lenny Henry appear in coast to coast

Question: what was the passion of the two DJs in coast to coast

Answer: Motown music

what was the passion of the two DJs in coast to coast

Question: what was the name of the 1987 tv film in which john shea and john she

Answer: Coast to Coast

what was the name of the 1987 tv film in which john shea and john she

Question: what type of music was the film coast to coast about

Answer: Motown

what type of music was the film coast to coast about

Question: what was john shea's job in coast to coast

Answer: DJs

what was john shea's job in coast to coast

Question: what genre of film was coast to coast

Answer: comedy

Question: what type of film was coast to coast

Answer: comedy thriller

Henry appeared as a backing singer on Kate Bush's album The Red Shoes (1993) for the song "Why Should I Love You?"

on which Prince played guitar.

Henry appeared as a backing singer on Kate Bush 's album The Red Shoes ( 1993 ) for the song " Why Should I Love You ? "

It’s a year of fallen heroes. Bowie was a huge loss, Wogan’s charm was incredible, Ronnie Corbett was always kind. As for Victoria Wood, in the pantheon of national treasures, she was up there with the Queen. I thought I was handling all this negative stuff pretty well. And then it was announced that Prince had died.
There was a maverick quality about Prince from the very beginning. He was a multi-instrumentalist, played guitar, bass, drums, keyboards. I never saw him with a euphonium but I bet he could get a tune out of one.
I met him a couple of times. Once at the Kensington Roof Gardens, at an after party. This was circa Diamonds and Pearls. There was a huge contingent of celebs, rockers, rollers and ne’er-do-wells in the crowd. Prince and the band appear and immediately we noticed Eric Clapton playing a long, funky solo. Prince was moving from side to side in a synchronised Temptations-style dance thang with the band.
Eric’s solo over, Prince grabbed the mic, and blew the room away.
After the set, Prince walked down and drew level with me, (with my right nipple actually – he was short) “You’re Lenny, right,” he said. I almost passed out. This was my hero, talking to ME. Lenny.
I met him again after a Lenny Henry show in which Chaka Khan was the musical guest. She invited me to her birthday party at Stringfellows the following Thursday. “There’s gonna be a band and … um, Prince might show up,” she said.
So I was there when Stringfellows opened – the staff were hoovering around me, Peter Stringfellow was putting his braces on, spraying himself with varnish – whatever it is he does to preserve that hairdo. Suddenly Chaka was there and the rumour was confirmed, Prince was on his way.
On arrival he made for our table, wearing a white suit, white platforms, white coat, blue shirt, hair in a semi-Beatle cut (à la Paul in Help) and walking with a funky Shaft-style cane. He looked the business – Blaxploitation chic.
I noticed that he had a word written in felt-tip pen on his cheek. I asked why he had the word “SALVE” written on his face. He laughed – he knew I was “funning” about his having daubed the word Slave onto his face, part of a dispute with his record company. He then went into a 90-minute rap about Warner Bros owning all his music and how incorrect that situation was, about creativity in general. I was in shock. I couldn’t really join in the conversation because I was having an out-of-body experience. I wish I’d said more.
And then, perhaps the pinnacle of these meetings. Kate Bush (another hero of mine) asked me to sing on Why Should I Love You?, a track for her new album The Red Shoes. She sent me a tape and I dutifully learnt my parts. When I arrived at the studio, I said: “It’s really weird but the guitar on this sounds so much like Prince – was that what you were going for?”
Kate said: “It sounds like Prince because it IS him. Do you wanna go in the booth?” I sang my heart out. I couldn’t believe it. I was performing on a song with two of my heroes.
Prince was all about high stakes, love and hate, life and death – he was into extremes. In the song Sometimes it Snows in April, from the album Parade, he said: “Sometimes I wish that life was never ending/and all good things, they say, never last.”
He was the ultimate in good things. His creative legacy will last.

Question: on which album did prince play guitar on why should i love you

Answer: The Red Shoes

on which album did prince play guitar on why should i love you

Question: who sang why should i love you with prince

Answer: Kate Bush

who sang why should i love you with prince

Question: when did prince play guitar on the red shoes

Answer: 1993

when did prince play guitar on the red shoes

Question: what instrument did prince play on why should i love you

Answer: guitar

what instrument did prince play on why should i love you

Question: who played guitar on why should i love you

Answer: Prince

who played guitar on why should i love you

Question: what song did prince play guitar on

Answer: "Why Should I Love You?

2000s thumb|Henry on Red Nose Day 2005 In 2003, Henry was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy.

2000s thumb|Henry on Red Nose Day 2005 In 2003 , Henry was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy .

Caroline Aherne, 39
Why: After making her name on The Fast Show, Aherne (who started out as a secretary at Granada) created and starred in The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family, putting an inventive spin on the chat show and sitcom.
Funniest moment: Mrs Merton to Debbie McGee: 'So what attracted you to millionaire Paul Daniels?'
What next: After winning five Baftas and finding her problems with drink and men all over the tabloids, Aherne took a sabbatical in Sydney. Subsequent projects have failed to come to fruition, though it was reported Aherne may slip back into Mrs Merton's blue-rinse. She is writing a book, but don't expect many laughs: it's a self-help guide to depression.
Rowan Atkinson, 48
Why: A comedy millionaire several times over, thanks to playing a series of nerds and dweebs in a career that began on Not The Nine O'Clock News. We still associate him with his twin TV triumphs Blackadder and Mr Bean, thereby overlooking his current status as an international movie star. Critics generally condemn his films as pallid commercial pap, made for foreign markets and unworthy of Atkinson's back catalogue, but this year's Johnny English took a staggering £20 million on home turf. It seems that even when this unique performer is on cruise control, we still want to watch him.
Funniest moment: Nervous, twittering Father Gerald in Four Weddings and a Funeral - a cameo that comes close to stealing the film.
What next: Another year off (his third in a decade) to play with his Aston Martin, thus epitomising that classic comedy type - the funny man who is dull at home.
Bill Bailey, 39
Why: An exceptionally versatile performer who incorporates genuine musical talent into the 'inconsequential wittering' school of stand-up, and has the innately funny face of a baffled spaniel. He has also carved out successful television roles, as Manny in Black Books, and as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Funniest moment: His 'Drum 'n' Bush' anthem from his current show, Part Troll, which samples Bush soundbites over a thumping dance beat.
What next: Part Troll will be touring in the spring, and a third series of Black Books is being filmed.
Steve Bell, 52
Why: For reminding us, in his Guardian cartoon, if ever we were tempted just for a single day to forget, during those endless, endless Thatcher years, that we were being ruled by a bug-eyed harridan surrounded by a cabinet of wet sheep. For bringing us the Falklands penguin. For consistently proving with If... that things could only get worse. For the perpetually puzzled look on the face of George W. Bush as missing link, for John Prescott as muzzled bulldog, for John Selwyn Gummer. For being so outrageously, bizarrely, dementedly sane. Every weekday.
Funniest moment: John Major's Aertex Y-fronts, 'the badge of an essentially crap superman'.
What next: The skewering and tormenting of Prime Ministers and world leaders for years to come, including those now only a twinkle in a wild, staring, power-crazed parental eye.
Sanjeev Bhaskar, 38
Why: On Goodness Gracious Me, co-creator Bhaskar specialised in middle-aged fools, best known as 'Mr Cheque Please' and 'Mr Everything Comes from India'. Now he hosts his own spoof chat show, The Kumars at No 42, in which his bashful alter ego and embarrassing relatives grill guests. While it doesn't attract the calibre of Parky, the interplay between Bhaskar, family and guests makes better viewing.
Funniest moment: The real-life inspiration behind The Kumars: 'I introduced a girlfriend to my parents once and my dad said: "Pleased to meet you - how much do you earn?"'
What next: Starring in one-off comedy play for ITV and expecting a windfall from the US version of The Kumars.
Jo Brand, 48
Why: When she started out, Brand, a former psychiatric nurse, specialised in sharp wit and painful self-deprecation ('Yes, it's a fat bird'). Success has mellowed her, although she continues to tap a rich vein of topics - supermodels, diets, politicians and the extraordinary behaviour of men. 'There are plenty of male comedians around to entertain blokes, but very few female comedians to entertain women,' Brand insists. Mental, the play Brand co-wrote with Helen Griffin, played to packed houses at the Edinburgh Festival.
Funniest moment: Fending off the sartorial advances of Trinny and Susannah: 'Fuck those two posh old tarts. I looked like Ann Widdecombe's younger, not so attractive, sister.'
What next: Her first novel, Sorting Out Billy, is out in May. ITV has commissioned a new sitcom from Brand as writer and her DVD, Barely There, is out now.
Craig Brown, 46
Why: A master satirist unsurpassed in his ability to mock the absurdities and pretensions of modern society long before other commentators have even noticed the trend. Best known for his two splendid alter-egos - Bel Littlejohn, the embodiment of all that is frothy and self-congratulating in the media, and Wallace Arnold, a column he resigned in protest at Janet Street-Porter's appointment as editor of the Independent on Sunday. But his best work must be the diary he has written for Private Eye since 1988, in which he perfectly parodies modish books or celebrities.
Funniest moment: Pastiche of the late W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn in Private Eye.
What next: Next year, a Radio 4 series, This is Craig Brown, starring Barry Norman and John Humphrys.
Rob Brydon, 38
Why: Who would have thought a series of 10-minute monologues - delivered by a wilfully optimistic minicab driver - would have seized the nation and won an arty South Bank Show award? But after years as an actor and DJ (and the the voice of Toilet Duck) Brydon wrote Marion and Geoff and created his cab-driving alter ego, Keith Barret - now a national treasure.
Funniest moment: Keith Barret: 'The way I see it, I haven't lost a wife, I've gained a friend. I would never have met Geoff if Marion hadn't left me.'
What next: Director's Commentary, a spoof of DVD special features. The first project from Brydon's production company, Jones the Film, it will be screened on ITV1 in January.
Kathy Burke, 39
Why: She may be an actress, playwright and theatre director, but Burke won our hearts playing Perry the teenager and Waynetta Slob with Harry Enfield. Then, for Jonathan Harvey's wondrously un-PC sitcom Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, she donned a red fright wig and glasses and became a gay icon. Her role as the frustrated nymphomaniac Linda bagged her the Best Actress trophy at last year's Comedy Awards. 'Everyone hates it, except for the public!' declared a jubilant Burke. Earlier this year the Mirror's panel of bachelors voted her the most perfect woman in Britain - above Liz Hurley and Lisa Snowdon.
Funniest moment: from Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, where Linda and her gay flatmate discover a man asleep in the living room - and both assume they slept with him the night before.
What next: Directing a touring production of Brendan Behan's 1954 The Quare Fellow for the Oxford Stage Company.
Jimmy Carr, 30
Why: With his velvet smoking-jacket, arched eyebrow and caustic urbanity, Carr's persona is the acme of Oxbridge sneeriness, and looks like Lloyd Cole dressed as Noël Coward. As many have discovered before him, a posh voice gives you licence to express outrageously tasteless and illiberal sentiments, but Carr is also an excellent joke writer and has made a brave return to the traditional two-part gag. Not bad for a guy who used to have the distinctly unfunny job of marketing for Shell.
Funniest moment: 'I was stopped in the street by a woman with a clipboard. She said, "Could you spare a few minutes for cancer research?" I said, "All right, but we won't get much done."'
What next: Currently at the Soho Theatre. Next year he's got more gigs lined up, plus more work for Channel 4.
Steve Coogan, 38
Why: Master of the comic grotesque, from Paul Calf to Alan Partridge. Coogan has a wicked eye for overwheening vanity and sexual dysfuction (even though he was himself caught out as a 'love rat' by the tabloids). All this despite a wobbly start - appearing with Jimmy Tarbuck at the London Palladium at the age of 22. But soon he was a regular on Radio 4's On the Hour. He won the Perrier in 1992 then co-launched the production company Baby Cow to nurture comic talent, including Marion and Geoff and Human Remains.
Funniest moment: A toss-up between Alan sneaking his extra-large plate into the motel restaurant, and the scene where he makes love to his secretary ('Shall I do the other one now?').
What next: After a hilarious impersonation of Tony Wilson in 24-Hour Party People, Coogan is playing Samuel Pepys in a one-off BBC2 drama. Around the World in 80 Days, the Disney film starring Coogan as Phileas Fogg, with Jackie Chan, is released next year.
Richard Curtis, 47
Why: Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary - Curtis has created a parallel London with more sunshine and less litter. (He wrote and directed Love Actually, too. The less said about that the better.) Curtis - with help from Hugh Grant - has sold bumbling upper-middle-class Englishmen to the world, becoming, in the process, a one-man movie industry. Started out in Not The Nine O'Clock News and Blackadder.
Funniest moment: From Notting Hill, when Hugh Grant crashes a movie junket, posing as a hack from Horse and Hound: 'The film's great and I just wondered whether you thought of having more ... horses in it?' Julia Roberts: 'We would have liked to, but it was difficult, obviously, being set in space.'
What next: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (screenplay by Curtis) will be released in 2004.
Omid Djalili, 39
Why: Omid Djalili launched himself on the comedy circuit in 1995 as the short, fat kebab owner's son. His style is a mix of political humour, Godzilla impressions and belly dancing. Whoopi, the new sitcom in which he costars with Whoopi Goldberg, has met with considerable success in the US and, with Friends and Frasier on their last series, is tipped for the top. In Omid's own words: 'No more good-looking, white, middle-class people: fat, multicultural people are taking over.'
Funniest moment: A five-minute cameo as a slave trader in Gladiator brought the film's only laugh as Oliver Reed grabbed Djalili's balls and said: 'You sold me queer giraffes.'
What next: Channel 4 is likely to pick up Whoopi for its autumn 2004 schedules. Meanwhile, Omid has four 'straight' films coming out in 2004, including Modigliani, in which he plays the young Picasso.
Helen Fielding, 43
Why: She worked in television and on newspapers before coming up with the character of Bridget Jones. Bridget is daffy, obsessed with her weight (though not enough to stop eating) and often pissed, but women - and more than a few men - love her. They must do: it is thanks to Bridget, after all, that the terms 'Singleton' and 'Smug Married' have passed joyously into the language.
Funniest moment: Almost every line in Bridget Jones's Diary induces a smile, but her premature slide down a fireman's pole on live television takes some beating.
What next: Her latest novel, a spy caper called Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, will be published in paperback next summer, and the second Bridget film, The Edge of Reason, is being made. Meanwhile, Fielding is expecting her first baby.
Dawn French, 44
Why: Having teamed up with Jennifer Saunders at the Central School of Speech and Drama, her career took off via The Comic Strip and Girls on Top. The pair hit their stride with their sketch show, a programme still retained as a Christmas fixture. At other times, French can get lost in straight theatre, the deathly cosiness of The Vicar of Dibley and ads for Terry's chocolate, in which her gurning tendencies are given free rein. God knows what George Clooney made of that snog on Parkinson - but as a poster girl for the voluptuous female form, French is unbeatable.
Funniest moment: Impersonating Björk on French and Saunders.
What next: A voiceover on Bosom Pals, a BBC animation based on the paintings of Beryl Cook. Will also be in 2004's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Rebecca Front, 38
Why: The first female president of the Oxford Revue and briefly one half of a double act with Sioned Wiliam, now ITV's head of comedy. It's notoriously hard to be the only funny woman among a group of Oxbridge males (as Pamela Stephenson found in Not The Nine O'Clock News), but Front held her own in The Day Today. This was followed by the spoof chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, where she played roles ranging from the tongue-tied show-jumper Sue Lewis to the smug diva Gina Langland.
Funniest moment: As bolshy fashion designer Yvonne Boyd, she describes her ludicrous outfit as 'a sort of fin de siècle ghost in the machine'.
What next: Nighty Night, a BBC sitcom where she plays Angus Deayton's wife, and Suzie Gold, a film with Summer Phoenix, both out next year.
Stephen Fry, 46
Why: Because it seems there is nothing this polymath can't do. The urbane multi-tasker is an actor, author and film director. Gained public sympathy after his breakdown in 1995, following bad reviews for his performance in Cell Mates, to emerge as the nation's favourite wit. Despite mixed reactions to his directorial debut, Bright Young Things, Fry's popularity remains unaffected. Will be forever linked with Oscar Wilde, whom he played in an impressive biopic.
Funniest moment: His earliest memory: 'My first words, as I was being born... I looked up at my mother and said, "That's the last time I'm going up one of those!"'
What next: Will star with Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron in the HBO movie The Life and Times of Peter Sellers.
Ricky Gervais, 41
Why: For proving, with The Office, that British sitcom does not necessarily need to be not funny. For understanding exactly the ways in which many of us while away our working days now we no longer make things or do things or achieve things. For making any kind of management-speak - 'pushing the envelope', 'thinking outside the box' - impossible ever to utter without thinking of David Brent's loosened tie and motivational patter. For 'Quiz Nights with Finchy' and the arrival of 'the Swindon lot'.
Funniest moment: 'Training Day', when he goes home to fetch his guitar.
What next: Wisely, bar a one-off Christmas special, Gervais has closed The Office for good. But his new DVD, Animals, is out now.
Dave Gorman, 32
Why: Gorman hit the big time with a show that saw him travelling the world attempting to meet as many namesakes as possible. Are You Dave Gorman? became a best-selling book, a television show and an off-Broadway hit and won him a second BBC series, Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment, in which he attempted to live in accordance with the advice of his star sign. He has returned to the stage this year with a new show, also based on pointless research, Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure .
Funniest moment: His off-Broadway run of Are You Dave Gorman? was extended three times in autumn 2001, making it one of the few shows unaffected by 9/11.
What next: His book, Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, is published in January.
Lenny Henry, 45
Why: A comic genius with a highly effective social conscience, Henry has been everything from impressionist and stand-up to serious actor and fund-raising supremo of Comic Relief. If his creations, such as Brixton homeboy Delbert Wilkins and sex-obsessed soul singer Theophilus P. Wildebeest, steer a little close to black stereotype, they have also eschewed the racism that dominates the agenda of African American comics. His recent West End show, So Much Things to Say, tackled his critics head on, with edgier subject matter and an acclaimed set of monologues.
Funniest moment: When Lenny, as Theophilus P. Wildebeest, had a singing competition with Tom Jones to see who was the sexiest, in 2003's Comic Relief.
What next: A new series is in development with the BBC, provisionally titled 'Len on the One'. So Much Things to Say will tour nationally in autumn 2004.
Harry Hill, 39
Why: The madcap comedian has livened up ITV's light entertainment schedule with a succession of schoolboy stunts. Earlier this year on The All-New Harry Hill Show, the former doctor asked Neil and Christine Hamilton to play tennis against a horse and a donkey. His energetic style doesn't suit everyone but Hill is a clever, freethinking comedian who rivals The Simpsons with his use of cultural references. Let's hope he never grows up.
Funniest moment: Imitating Morrissey on Celebrity Stars in their Eyes, he appeared clutching a bunch of gladioli and sang 'This Charming Man'.
What next: A radio project for next year.
Ian Hislop, 42
Why: As one half of television's most caustic double act alongside Paul Merton, Ian Hislop has the bad cop role, skewering newsworthy figures and guest stars with relish each week on Have I Got News For You. Merton's stream of consciousness often gets the biggest laughs but Hislop is the show's conscience, exposing hypocrisy and spin. His day job is editing Private Eye, so, for him, the topical jokes never cease.
Funniest moment: On Angus Deayton. 'It is not really possible to present a satirical programme if you are seen to be sleazier than the people you are making jokes about. You do not have to occupy much of the moral high ground to do this job. But you do need a few inches.'
What next: Another series of Have I Got News For You.
Armando Iannucci, 39
Why: Iannucci, who began life as a BBC producer, is the man behind The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You (A-ha!). For helping to create Alan Partridge with Steve Coogan alone, he deserves a place on our list. In spite of The Office, its natural successor, I'm Alan Partridge, in which the Norwich DJ survives a lonely exile at the Linton Travel Lodge, is one of the darkest sitcoms ever to have been shown on television.
Funniest moment: A sketch for Channel 4's The Armando Iannucci Show in which he discussed the testicles of Clangers with his barber. But maybe you just had to be there...
What next: With his writing partner Peter Baynham, Iannucci is currently developing a project for Michael Winterbottom's Revolution Films. It's about a man whose life collapses because he turns 26.
Eddie Izzard, 41
Why: His monologues conjure up a childlike, alternative universe - where fruit ripens maliciously and cats prospect for oil in sitting rooms. He is open about his dyslexia, which means that his routines are almost all improvised. And he's a strong Europhile, performing in French, German, you name it. As Britain's most famous transvestite, he synthesises the best of male and female fashion. Recently he's been increasingly taken seriously as an actor - last year he gave a Tony-nominated performance in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg on Broadway. 'I'd love to be Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, or Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven. I want to be an action transvestite.'
Funniest moment: Izzard's riff on Pavlov's cat: 'Day one: rang bell - cats answered the door. Day two: cats said they had eaten. Day three: cats stole the battery. Day four: cats rang the bell, I ate the food.'
What next: Touring his one-man show, Sexie. He is tipped to play Dr Who in the new series by Russell T. Davies.
Peter Kay, 30
Why: He began the year finishing off his mammoth UK tour and ends it having sold a record-breaking 160,000 copies of his Phoenix Nights DVD in seven days. The figures are impressive but more so are his Phoenix Nights shows on Channel 4, which are sharper and funnier than The Office. Casting PC orthodoxy aside, Kay plays a bad-tempered, wheelchair-bound manager of a social club in Bolton. Kay writes, directs, produces and stars in the tragicomic series.
Funniest moment: The Phoenix Nights episode featuring a quiz night sponsored by Kamikaze lager. 'If you didn't find it funny, you may want to seek medical attention,' wrote one critic.
What next: A guest appearance on Coronation Street.
· Research: Oliver L. Mann, Serena Davies. Contibutors: Tim Adams, Rachel Cooke, Serena Davies, Liz Hoggard, Harriet Lane, Dee O'Connell, Akin Ojumu, Oliver L. Mann, Stephanie Merritt, Molloy Woodcraft

Question: which newspaper listed henry as one of the fifty funniest acts in british

Answer: The Observer

which newspaper listed henry as one of the fifty funniest acts in british

Question: when was henry on red nose day written

Answer: 2003

Question: when was henry on red nose day

Answer: 2005

Question: which british newspaper listed henry as one of the fifty funniest acts in

Answer: Observer

which british newspaper listed henry as one of the fifty funniest acts in

Question: how many times did henry on red nose day win the oscar

Answer: fifty

how many times did henry on red nose day win the oscar

Question: in which decade was henry on red nose day

Answer: 2000s

in which decade was henry on red nose day

Question: on which day in 2005 was henry listed as one of the fifty funniest acts

Answer: Red Nose Day

on which day in 2005 was henry listed as one of the fifty funniest acts

Question: when did henry do a red nose day

Answer: Red Nose Day 2005

He was the voice of the British speaking clock for two weeks in March 2003 in aid of Comic Relief.

He was the voice of the British speaking clock for two weeks in March 2003 in aid of Comic Relief .

Operators had been trained to check the exchange clock on the wall and say ‘The time, by the exchange clock, is…’ but this was not precise to the second and operators could not always answer when the caller wanted. So, it was decided that there should be telephone number people could ring to be given the correct, accurate time.
The Post Office had a long history of helping people set their clocks from the days when many towns still operated on local time before the railways arrived, which made it essential for everywhere to be operated on a standardised Greenwich Mean Time. Before that, when it was midday in London it might have been only 11:49 a.m. in Bristol. Apparently when the mail coach would arrive villagers would gather around the coachman to get the political gossip and train drivers would announce what the time was according to their timepieces, which had been set in London. This custom is thought to be where the phrase ‘passing the time of day’ originated.
The first voice of the Speaking Clock was London telephonist Ethel (also known as Jane) Cain who was selected from a pool of 15,000 telephone operators who worked for the GPO in a nationwide competition to find the ‘golden voice’. The judges were poet laureate John Masefield, actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and chief BBC announcer Stuart Hibberd and Ethel was awarded the princely sum of 10 Guineas (the equivalent of £10.50 today) for her work. Both the service and Miss Cain became an instant hit – people wanting to know the time were no longer clogging up the telephone lines calling just to ask the operator the time and Cain’s crisp pronunciation, particularly of the word ‘precisely’ (used at the start of each new minute), proved popular. In its first year of operation the service logged around 13 million calls, that’s over 35,000 a day!
The accuracy of the clock was calibrated and corrected by referencing to a time signal from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, broadcast by Rugby Radio Station. Time announcements were made by playing short, recorded phrases or words in the correct sequence, giving the Greenwich time correct to one-tenth of a second. The original mechanism consisted of an array of motors, glass discs, photocells and valves, taking up the floorspace of a small room and the message was recorded optically onto the glass discs and replayed, rather like a film soundtrack. Two speaking clock machines were made, in case of breakdown. In comparison, the current digital Speaking Clock (first introduced in 1984), with built-in crystal oscillator and microprocessor logic control has no moving parts at all, occupies no more space than a small suitcase and is assured to be accurate to five thousandths of a second. The current source of UK time is provided, but not monitored, by the atomic clock signals provided by the National Physical Laboratory. Yet, the initial equipment, for those days, represented state of the art cutting edge technology; an automated system that was ahead of its time.
Initially, the service was only available in the London directory area from the Holborn Exchange, but was rolled out nationwide in 1942. If you lived in one of the major UK cities – London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool or Manchester – you would obtain the service by dialling the letters TIM, which corresponded to the digits 846 on a dial phone, whereas other areas dialled 952. Engineers had conceived TIM as a shorthand for time, but it wasn’t long before the service colloquially became known as ‘Tim’.
The first Speaking Clock was taken out of service in 1963, replaced by a more modern transistor version, using a magnetic drum, and complete with a new voice. Pat Simmons, a London telephone exchange supervisor won the second competition to find a voice for the Speaking Clock and a £500 prize.
In 1984, Brian Cobby became the first male voice to take over the clock. An assistant supervisor at Withdean exchange in Brighton, Brian had been an actor by profession before joining British Telecom and recorded the ‘5-4-3-2-1…Thunderbirds are go!’ for the theme tune to the Gerry Anderson TV series.
Surprisingly, there have been only four permanent Speaking Clock voices, although temporary voices have been used on special occasions. The current voice is that of part-time voiceover artist Sara Mendes de Costa, who won the role after entering a competition launched by BT and Children in Need in 2006. Chosen from over 18,000 entrants, Sara took over the helm on 2 April 2007 during Terry Wogan’s BBC Radio 2 breakfast show.
Temporary voices have included Lenny Henry, Sir Ian McKellen, Clare Balding, Fearne Cotton and Chris Moyles for Comic Relief; David Walliams, Jo Brand, Davina McCall and Gary Barlow for Sport Relief; Mae Whitman as part of a deal to promote the Disney production of Tinkerbell and Alice Roland, a 12-year-old schoolgirl who won a BBC Newsround competition to represent children’s charity ChildLine.
Every ten seconds a voice announces: ‘At the third stroke, the time from BT will be [hour], [minute] and [second] seconds’ followed by three pips. ‘Precisely’ is substituted for the seconds portion of the announcement for times which are an exact minute. Likewise, announcements for times between the hour and one minute past the hour substitute ‘o’clock’ for the minutes. Each day the speaking clock makes 8,640 announcements.
On the occasion of a leap second – such as at 23:59:60 on December 31 2005 – an extra second pause is added between the second and third beeps to keep the clock in sync with Coordinated Universal Time.
When the service was first launched, calls to the Speaking Clock cost one penny from home and ‘tuppence’ from a phone box. After listening for 90 seconds, the caller, if they had not hung up already, would be automatically disconnected. Today a call to Timeline cost 38.9p per minute.
During the Cold War the speaking clock network was designed to be used in case of a nuclear attack. Had such an attack taken place then the clock would have broadcast messages from Strike Command at RAF High Wycombe to regional police stations. In turn, this would have triggered automatic warning sirens and alerts sent to Royal Observer Corps monitoring posts.
Using an existing, rather than dedicated, system mean that it was effectively under test all the time – customers would report any faults as soon as they occurred rather than risk having a problem with a dedicated line which would not be noticed until it was needed.
The undisputed accuracy of the Speaking Clock led Accurist Watches to sponsor the franchise in 1986, although this came to an end in 2008.
With the introduction of Subscriber Trunk Dialling, allowing long-distance calls to be dialled directly without operator assistance between the 1960s and 1980s, the Speaking Clock dial code changed to 80 and later 8081. By the 1990s it was standardised to 123 if dialling from a BT Phone line and the number still in use today. BT also renamed the service ‘Timeline’ around the same time.
Big Ben, the bell belonging to the world’s most famous clock, checks its time with the Speaking Clock and many major organisations have permanent feeds from the clock to their internal phone systems so that employees can check the time without making an external call. All ITV television programmes are also synchronised to the Speaking Clock – for example, when the local station goes over to ITN or BBC for the news, this is done ‘at the third stroke’.
Yes! At its height the speaking clock commanded around 250 million calls per year. Despite all the digital devices where time can accessed instantly, the Speaking Clock service still receives in the region of 12 million calls a year, with demand peaking on four time-sensitive days: New Year’s Eve, the two days a year the clocks change and Remembrance Day.

Question: for which charity did henry voice the british speaking clock for two weeks in

Answer: Comic Relief

for which charity did henry voice the british speaking clock for two weeks in

Question: how long was henry speaking clock on red nose day

Answer: two weeks

how long was henry speaking clock on red nose day

Question: when did henry voice the british speaking clock for two weeks

Answer: March 2003

when did henry voice the british speaking clock for two weeks

Question: how many times has henry been on red nose day

Answer: fifty

how many times has henry been on red nose day

In June 2000, for a BBC documentary, he sailed a trimaran from Plymouth to Antigua with yachtsman Tony Bullimore.

In June 2000 , for a BBC documentary , he sailed a trimaran from Plymouth to Antigua with yachtsman Tony Bullimore .

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Saturday, 3 June, 2000, 00:58 GMT 01:58 UK
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Comic's yacht runs into trouble
TV star Lenny Henry and yachtsman Tony Bullimore needed help from the Royal Navy after their yacht sprang a leak in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The pair set sail for Jamaica 10 days ago on board the 53ft trimaran Nootka.
Two days ago, the boat sprung a leak - letting in two tonnes of water, which Lenny, 40, and his 60-year-old crewmate had to pump out.
Their support vessel, carrying a BBC TV crew, had to tow the crippled trimaran 200 miles to the Azores where the navy vessel HMS Scott hauled the boat out for repairs.
'Good spirits'
After a brief repair job the pair set sail again on Wednesday, though the voyage is now five days behind schedule and has been shortened.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Neither Lenny nor Tony were in danger at any time and they are both still in good spirits."
BBC viewers will be able to see the drama, as it has been recorded as a video diary which will be screened as Lenny's Big Atlantic Adventure.
Bullimore is used to drama at sea - in 1997 he was famously rescued from his racing yacht five days after it capsized in storms in the Southern Ocean.
Instead of finishing in Montego Bay the voyage will end in Antigua, 900 miles closer.
See also:
19 Jul 99 | Entertainment
Lenny and Dawn: still a double act
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Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page.
Links to more UK stories

Question: who sailed the trimaran from plymouth to antigua in 2000

Answer: Tony Bullimore

who sailed the trimaran from plymouth to antigua in 2000

Question: when did tony bullimore sail from plymouth to antigua

Answer: June 2000

when did tony bullimore sail from plymouth to antigua

Question: where did tony bullimore sail to in 2000

Answer: Antigua

where did tony bullimore sail to in 2000

Question: in what year did tony bullimore sail from plymouth to antigua

Answer: 2000

in what year did tony bullimore sail from plymouth to antigua

Question: what type of boat did tony bullimore sail on in 2000

Answer: trimaran

what type of boat did tony bullimore sail on in 2000

Question: who was the yachtsman on the trimaran that sailed from plymouth to

Answer: Tony Bullimore.

who was the yachtsman on the trimaran that sailed from plymouth to

Question: what tv station did tony bullimore work for in 2000

Answer: BBC

what tv station did tony bullimore work for in 2000

2010s thumb|right|Henry ( right ) and Lucian Msamati in the Royal National Theatre production of The Comedy of Errors , in 2011 In 2010 , Henry produced and starred in a five - part web series for the BBC Comedy website , Conversations with my Wife , about a fictional couple conversing over Skype while the wife is away on business leaving the husband ( played by Henry ) to hold the fort at home .

Comedy imitating life?
Newly separated Lenny Henry has filmed a series of BBC comedy sketches called Conversations With My Wife.
But the scenes have nothing to do with Dawn French; from whom he split last month after 25 years of marriage. Instead, in the online sketches he plays a stay-at-home dad Skyping with his executive wife who is jetting off around the world.
The series is included on the BBCâs comedy website, which officially launches today, following a revamp of the âbetaâ version that has been online for a year. In the last 12 months, the online library has built up a collection of more than 600 clips â a mixture of archive moments, web-only series and behind-the-scenes footage â that have amassed 2.5 million views
A number of new web series are being launched to mark the full launch, including Conversations With My Wife. There is also a series of animations based around Mitchell and Webb sketches, Shooting Stars regular Angelos Epithemiou in Moving On and a fantasy horror series called BeastHunters, which stars James Corden, Jaime Winstone, Robert Llewellyn and Ewen Macintosh.
Other commissioned series on the BBC comedy website come from Jason Lewis, Idiot of Ants, Harry Partridge and Mr Khan, the character played by Adil Ray in Bellamyâs People, which was axed from TV last week.
Cheryl Taylor, controller of BBC comedy commissioning said: âThe BBC comedy website represents an extraordinarily diverse array of classic and cutting edge humour and I would urge all comedy fans to check it out. [It] is hugely valuable to the genre and offers up brilliant development opportunities to both on and off screen talent. â
The site is at bbc.co.uk/comedy â and here is the first episode of BeastHunters:
Published: 17 May 2010
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Question: what is the name of the bbc comedy website in which henry created and starred

Answer: Conversations with my Wife

what is the name of the bbc comedy website in which henry created and starred

Question: over which medium did henry and lucian mamati create conversations with my wife

Answer: Skype

over which medium did henry and lucian mamati create conversations with my wife

Question: when was conversations with my wife written

Answer: 2011

when was conversations with my wife written

Question: when did conversations with my wife come out

Answer: 2010

when did conversations with my wife come out

Question: who plays henry in the comedy of errors

Answer: Lucian Msamati

Question: how many parts does conversations with my wife have

Answer: five

how many parts does conversations with my wife have

Question: where is the comedy of errors staged

Answer: Royal National Theatre

Question: where did henry produce and star in a five-part web series in 2010

Answer: BBC Comedy website, Conversations with my Wife

where did henry produce and star in a five-part web series in 2010

In 2008, he became the face of budget hotel operator Premier Inn.

In 2008 , he became the face of budget hotel operator Premier Inn .

One of the 2010 adverts caused controversy and was banned from children 's programming hours as it parodied a well - known scene from the film The Shining , with Lenny Henry spoofing the scene originally starring Jack Nicholson , smashing a door with an axe and then thrusting his head through the door saying : " Here 's Lenny . "

Premier Inn 'horror' ad banned from children's network
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Lenny Henry in Premier Inn TV advertisment
A TV advert for Premier Inn parodying the horror film The Shining has been banned from children's programming.
The Advertising Standards Authority said the scene in which comedian Lenny Henry smashes a door with an axe was likely to frighten young viewers.
Henry thrusts his head through the door and says "Here's Lenny" in a spoof of the scene starring Jack Nicholson.
The hotel chain argued the scene was "light-hearted" and would be considered amusing by most viewers of any age.
Henry is later seen calmly declaring: "A bad night's sleep at some hotels can really make you grumpy."
'Menacing tone'
The ASA ruling follows complaints from eight viewers who saw the advert on children's channel Nick Jr and questioned its suitability.
The ASA upheld the complaints, saying Henry's aggressive behaviour and the menacing tone of the music was likely to frighten and distress youngsters.
"We also considered that, because young children would not understand the ad's reference to The Shining, they would be unlikely to appreciate the comic context in which the menacing Lenny appeared, and could find him threatening," a spokesperson said.
It ruled the commercial must not be shown again during or around programmes tailored towards children.
Premier Inn said it never intended for the ad to appear on a dedicated children's channel and blamed a technical error. It also denied the ad would cause most children harm or distress.
Clearcast, a body which approves ads for broadcast, said Henry was a household name and people would be used to seeing him acting out different comedy characters.
It also said the reference to the 1980 movie The Shining would be lost on children.

Question: who was the face of premier inn in 2010

Answer: Lenny Henry

Question: jack nicholson became the face of which hotel operator in 2008

Answer: Premier Inn

jack nicholson became the face of which hotel operator in 2008

Question: which 2010 film featured jack nicholson smashing a door with an axe and then thrust

Answer: The Shining

which 2010 film featured jack nicholson smashing a door with an axe and then thrust

Question: who played lenny henry in the opening credits of the shining

Answer: Jack Nicholson

who played lenny henry in the opening credits of the shining

Question: when did lenny henry become the face of premier inn

Answer: 2008

when did lenny henry become the face of premier inn

Question: in what year did lenny henry spoof the opening scene of the shining

Answer: 2010

in what year did lenny henry spoof the opening scene of the shining

Question: what was jack nicholson's nickname in the shining

Answer: Lenny

what was jack nicholson's nickname in the shining

Question: what weapon did jack nicholson use to smash a door in the shining

Answer: an axe

what weapon did jack nicholson use to smash a door in the shining

In March 2011 , he appeared with Angela Rippon , Samantha Womack and Reggie Yates in the BBC fundraising documentary for Comic Relief called Famous , Rich and in the Slums , wherein the four celebrities were sent to Kibera in Kenya , the African continent 's largest slum .

Hello and welcome to the new Channel 4 reality TV series How Racist Are You?, Brackets And Willing to Demonstrate on Television Close Brackets! Last night's first episode was broadcast under what I presume was its working title Love Thy Neighbour and followed the first two of a dozen couples who will compete to win a £300,000 Dream Cottage (stone walls, campanula and charm spilling out of the garden) in the village of Grassington in the north Yorkshire Dales.
Steve, a carpenter, and Nicky, a former solicitor, want to move out of Birmingham and make a fresh start in the country with her three obstreperous teenage children from a previous relationship. From what we see and hear of them, unless campanula has unexpected powers to soothe and unite, six months of intensive family therapy would seem a better investment.
Phillip, accounts director for a security firm, and Simone, stay-at-home mother to their three young boys, are a black couple who want to remove their sons from what they see as the particular dangers of London for them. Phillip is also an aspiring Tory MP and Grassington is one of the safest Tory seats in Britain. This is probably because it is home to a woman called Bunty Leder – twinset, teaset, all set for anything – who works out, with her friend Mary, that they were probably 18 before either saw a black person.
This is a simple statement of fact. It is clear neither Mary nor Bunty gives a fig newton about their arrival. The ones who do are the ones who stay quiet and simply throw suspicious looks at Simone and Phillip as they walk around the village trying to get to know their potential new neighbours.
Will Phillip's big- and small-C conservatism triumph over latent prejudice? Or will Steve's DIY skills, handsome mien and Yorkshire blood make him and Nicky shoo-ins?
Although the air fills with the sound of buxom blonde ladies of a certain age wrenching kitchen doors off their hinges and making sure drawers are well and truly jammed before Steve knocks (Nicky stays at home and compiles canapés for an all-village drinks party that becomes doomed to failure when they leave delivery of the invitations in the incapable hands of their children), in the end it is Simone and Phillip who cruise through to the next round with 66% of the village vote. Hurrah! It is borderline edifying. We'll see how it fares next week, when Grassington has to deal with gays in the village.
There is always a grace to Comic Relief's programmes that marks them out from the rest of the fundraising herd. Last night's opening episode, despite the crass title Famous, Rich and In the Slums (BBC1), was no exception.
As ever, the set-up sounded like a magnet for mawkish sentimentality – four celebrities (Lenny Henry, Angela Rippon, Reggie Yates and Samantha Womack) were sent to live for a week in Kenya's Kibera, Africa's largest slum, where inhabitants subsist on less than £1.50 a day, a lavatory can be shared by up to 1,000 people and sewage runs raw through the streets.
And, as ever, mawkish sentimentality was avoided. Celebrity "feelings" were not the focus. Nobody mentioned what a journey they were on and although there were tears, they were few and hard-wrung. As Womack, sitting dry-eyed on hospital steps after cleaning up the mess left by a woman giving birth to a stillborn baby in the corridor said, "I don't want to stand there crying in front of women who do this every day. That makes me selfish."
The comic relief was still present, not least in Angela Rippon's cheerily gracious decline of the invitation to become a prostitute when she couldn't find a laundry job, which nevertheless perfectly delineated the starkness of the choice facing the women of Kibera and innumerable replicas across Africa.
The most moving moment came from an unexpected source. At the end, their organiser, Kibera native Abdul Kasim – a hardfaced, unsettlingly unsympathetic presence throughout – broke down, unable to maintain his personal defence mechanisms. Having spent the week seeing through the eyes of the uninitiated, the brutal truth of his countrymen's situation became too clear. The new perspective undid him, the celebrities and the viewer, and summed up the unseen, internal impact of chronic deprivation. The costs of poverty run immeasurably high.

Question: what was the name of the charity documentary in which the four celebrities were sent to k

Answer: Famous, Rich and in the Slums

what was the name of the charity documentary in which the four celebrities were sent to k

Question: where was famous rich and in the slums filmed

Answer: Kibera

where was famous rich and in the slums filmed

Question: kibera is the largest slum in which african country

Answer: Kenya

kibera is the largest slum in which african country

Question: when did reggie yates appear in famous rich and in the slums

Answer: March 2011

when did reggie yates appear in famous rich and in the slums

Question: in what year did reggie yates appear with angela rippon, sam

Answer: 2011

in what year did reggie yates appear with angela rippon, sam

Question: for what charity was famous rich and in the slums filmed

Answer: Comic Relief

for what charity was famous rich and in the slums filmed

Question: who starred in famous rich and in the slums

Answer: Angela Rippon, Samantha Womack and Reggie Yates

who starred in famous rich and in the slums

In 2014, Henry appeared in and produced a play based on his radio show Rudy's Rare Records, which played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre before moving on to a run in London.

In 2014 , Henry appeared in and produced a play based on his radio show Rudy 's Rare Records , which played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre before moving on to a run in London .

If there is a certain kind of popular theatre that virtually defies criticism, this is a prime example. Based by Danny Robins on the Radio 4 series he co-created with Lenny Henry, it is filled with gags and boasts a first-rate band. It may lapse into feelgood wish-fulfilment, but that doesn’t stop the audience rising to it with a roar of pleasure. Coming fresh to the story, I was struck by its resemblances to Steptoe and Son.
Adam (Lenny Henry), a one-time actor, returns to the debt-ridden Handsworth record shop owned by his Jamaican-born dad, Rudy, whom he describes as “an elderly, vest-wearing, music-loving hobbit”. Assorted neighbours drop by, including a Trinidadian florist and the local laundress, Doreen, who still hopes to tie Rudy down to a life of bliss. But behind all the jokey banter, there are only two real plot-points: Adam’s uneasy relationship with his son, who returns unexpectedly from uni, and the attempt to rescue Rudy’s vinyl shop from the hands of greedy property developers.
What strikes you is the show’s good nature: whatever it has to say about social change or father-son relationships is communicated by a barrage of gags. Resentfully observing the waves of new immigrants, Rudy’s florist friend says: “I remember the good old days when we were the ones who were persecuted.” And Adam pins down Rudy’s fantasies about his friendships with the famous by tartly recalling: “Stevie Wonder was going to give me driving lessons.” This last joke achieves a pay-off when Rudy spreads rumours that Ziggy Marley will attend a concert to save his shop. Needless to say he doesn’t appear, but his absence provides an excuse for a homemade jam session blending reggae, rap and soul.
Leaving aside the final wash of sentiment, I loved the show for its laid-back liberalism and the easygoing fluidity of Paulette Randall’s production, which reminded me of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in its heyday. Henry lends Adam the relaxed authority that has become his trademark and throws in a number of timely references to stereotype casting. Larrington Walker as his smelly, scrawny old dad bursts with surprising energy and there is good support from Jeffery Kissoon as the nostalgic Trinidadian and Lorna Gayle as the laundress who sings You Don’t Love Me with real swagger. Co-produced with Hackney Empire, where it is bound, the show has the feel of a stonking hit.

Question: what radio show did henry produce a play based on

Answer: Rudy's Rare Records

what radio show did henry produce a play based on

Question: when did henry produce a play based on his radio show rudy's rare records

Answer: 2014

when did henry produce a play based on his radio show rudy's rare records

Question: where did henry's rare records run in 2014

Answer: London

where did henry's rare records run in 2014

Question: where did rudy's rare records play

Answer: Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Question: who produced the play 'yudy's rare records'

Answer: Henry

who produced the play 'yudy's rare records'

Question: where is the repertory theatre located

Answer: Birmingham

In November 2019, it was announced that Henry would guest star in "Spyfall", the two-part opening episode of Doctor Who's twelfth revived series, which broadcast on New Year's Day and 4 January 2020.

In November 2019 , it was announced that Henry would guest star in " Spyfall " , the two - part opening episode of Doctor Who 's twelfth revived series , which broadcast on New Year 's Day and 4 January 2020 .

Stephen Fry and Sir Lenny Henry CBE to appear in the twelfth series of Doctor Who
With the TARDIS hurtling full throttle on its way back to BBC One, it is only right that two TV legends will be making their Doctor Who debuts.
Stephen and Lenny are two of my absolute favourite actors - and to be able to bring them into Doctor Who, in one of our biggest ever stories to kick off the new series, is an absolute thrill.
TV icons Stephen Fry and Sir Lenny Henry CBE will both appear in the series opener when the TARDIS lands once more, with Jodie Whittaker reprising her role as the Thirteenth Doctor. Armed with a wealth of acting, comedy and writing credentials both are more than equipped to come face to face with the Time Lord and her friends, but will they be friend or foe remains to be seen…
Speaking ahead of his Doctor Who appearance, Stephen Fry says: “Short of being picked for a British space exploration programme and I readily concede that I’m past the age where I’d be considered (if I was ever the right age for such a posting) - then being in an episode of Doctor Who will certainly do as a very sweet second-place excitement.”
Sir Lenny Henry CBE says: “It was absolutely brilliant to be welcomed into the fantastical world of Doctor Who. The nearest I have been to the TARDIS was when I played the Caribbean Doctor in the Lenny Henry Show, so as a life-long (hiding behind the sofa type) Doctor Who fan this is a very special moment for me.”
Chris Chibnall, Showrunner, says: “Doctor Who is coming back with a bang - with two great British icons in major roles. One of the great joys of Doctor Who is getting to work with actors from your wish list. Stephen and Lenny are two of my absolute favourite actors - and to be able to bring them into Doctor Who, in one of our biggest ever stories to kick off the new series, is an absolute thrill.”
Doctor Who will return in early 2020.
Jodie Whittaker will reprise her role as the Thirteenth Doctor alongside Tosin Cole (Ryan) Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Bradley Walsh (Graham) who are all returning for their second series.
Chris Chibnall returns as Showrunner with Matt Strevens as Executive Producer.
EP

Question: when is the next episode of doctor who coming out

Answer: November 2019

when is the next episode of doctor who coming out

Question: when does the new season of doctor who start

Answer: New Year's Day

when does the new season of doctor who start

Question: what is the opening episode of doctor who's twelfth revived series

Answer: Spyfall

what is the opening episode of doctor who's twelfth revived series

Question: who is returning to doctor who in 2019

Answer: Henry

Question: when will the twelfth episode of doctor who be broadcast

Answer: New Year's Day and 4 January 2020

when will the twelfth episode of doctor who be broadcast

Question: what is the current incarnation of doctor who called

Answer: Doctor Who's twelfth

what is the current incarnation of doctor who called

2020s In December 2020, Henry was announced as a cast member of Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

2020s In December 2020 , Henry was announced as a cast member of Amazon Prime Video 's The Lord of the Rings : The Rings of Power .

Question: what service is lord of the rings on

Answer: Amazon Prime Video

Question: what is the name of the series on amazon prime video

Answer: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

what is the name of the series on amazon prime video

Question: who is in lord of the rings of power

Answer: Henry

Question: when does lord of the rings of power come out

Answer: 2020

when does lord of the rings of power come out

Question: when does lord of the rings the rings of power come out

Answer: 2020s

when does lord of the rings the rings of power come out

Question: what is the next lord of the rings

Answer: The Rings of Power

In 2021, Henry appeared as a contestant on the second series of The Masked Singer, masked as "The Blob".

In 2021 , Henry appeared as a contestant on the second series of The Masked Singer , masked as " The Blob " .

The Blob has become the seventh contestant to be eliminated from The Masked Singer UK, as well as being this week’s second star to be unmasked.
The panel and viewers were left stunned as Blob removed their mask and was revealed to be Lenny Henry.
Many viewers had already guessed Lenny might be the secret singer inside the costume, after the clues stacked up in his favour.
One of the Blob’s clues was that they were named after the doctor that delivered them – which seemed to make it very clear it could only be Lenny as his real name is Lenworth George Henry, after being named after Dr Lenworth who delivered him.
The voice was also a massive clue, with many deducing that it sounded a lot like Lenny, and him posing with a giant cheque also pointed to Lenny’s work with Comic Relief.
Another of the clues also suggested that the Blob had worked with George Michael’s producer, which also ties in to Lenny as his single The Cops Don’t Know from 2016 was produced by Chris Porter who also previously worked with George Michael.
The latest episode of the show saw all seven remaining singers take to the stage, which consisted of Blob, Harlequin, Dragon, Sausage, Robin, Viking and Badger.
The show’s first double elimination saw Viking also leave the show, who was revealed to be Morten Harket, lead singer of A-Ha.
Morten was the first singer to appear on the Masked Singer UK that has ever sang their own song on the show, singing Take On Me.
Last week’s show saw Bush Baby leave the competition and be unveiled to be John Thompson, who had impressed the judges with his singing voice throughout the competition.
The Masked Singer UK returns next Saturday at 7pm on ITV.
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MORE : Who went home on The Masked Singer UK? Sixth contestant revealed as Viking leaves competition
MORE : Who is Sausage on The Masked Singer? All the clues you need to know

Question: who is henry on the masked singer

Answer: The Blob

Question: when does the masked singer season 2 start

Answer: 2021

when does the masked singer season 2 start

Question: who is the masked singer on masked singer

Answer: Henry

who is the masked singer on masked singer

Question: what is the second series of the masked singer called

Answer: Masked Singer

what is the second series of the masked singer called

Question: what show did henry appear on in 2021

Answer: The Masked Singer

COVID-19 vaccination In March 2021 Henry wrote an open letter urging everyone to get COVID-19 vaccination.

COVID-19 vaccination In March 2021 Henry wrote an open letter urging everyone to get COVID-19 vaccination .

Sir Lenny Henry's open letter urges black Britons to take Covid vaccine
- Published
Sir Lenny Henry has written an open letter urging black Britons to take the Covid-19 vaccine.
The comedian and actor said people should "trust the facts" and guard against misinformation.
The letter has been signed by high-profile figures such as actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, YouTube star KSI and actress Thandie Newton.
Vaccination rates among black Britons are considerably lower than among white Britons.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, vaccination rates for people in England identifying as having black African heritage stand at 58.8%, the lowest among all ethnic minority groups, and 68.7% within the black Caribbean community.
By contrast, for people identifying as white British, there is an estimated take-up rate of 91.3%.
By ethnic minority in England
58.8%people identifying as black African
68.7%among black Caribbeans
91.3%people identifying as white
The disparity exists despite a widespread study suggesting black people are twice as likely as white people to catch the coronavirus.
Asked why there was caution in the black community about having the vaccine, Sir Lenny blamed an "element of mistrust" in the system.
He said people felt "certain institutions and authorities haven't particularly done right by the black community in the past" so asked "why should they do something for us now? Why are they doing us all a big favour?"
Sir Lenny's letter, addressed to "mums, dads, grandparents, uncles, aunties, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, daughters, sons and cousins", recognises these historic "legitimate worries and concerns".
But it adds: "We're asking you to trust the facts about the vaccine from our own professors, doctors, scientists involved in the vaccine's development, GPs, not just in the UK but across the world, including the Caribbean and Africa."
The appeal, which is backed by the NHS, has also been turned into a short film directed by Bafta-winning filmmaker Amma Asante.
Asante told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The most important thing for us was to put across a message that for all the divisions that exist, we deserve to be protected and our loved ones deserve to be protected. We don't want to widen divisions and equalities that exist."
The film will be aired on Sky, BT Sport, Viacom, Discovery, A&E and ROK and Channel 5 on Tuesday 30 March from 20:00 BST.
Sir Lenny told BBC Breakfast: "It came together really quickly - within a couple of weeks we were making the film. People were all over the place. We all managed to make this little film with Amma directing us remotely."
He described the film, which has a personal feel with the focus on family and friends, as "very moving".
Other signatories include author Malorie Blackman, DJ Trevor Nelson, historian David Olusoga and actors Adrian Lester, Naomi Ackie and David Harewood.
"The vaccine's been tested for all ethnicities. It's safe, it's our way out of the pandemic," Sir Lenny said. "If you're in any way hesitant, talk to a medical professionalâ¦ trust the experts, don't trust your mate down the pub or conspiracies online. This is serious now. Don't be misinformed.
"Perhaps after there'll be an opportunity to rebuild our trust in authority and institutions but for nowâ¦ take the jab."
The comedian also spoke about his own experience of getting the jab.
"I did find it emotional," he said. "Because of lockdown, I've not been out very often, I talked to this poor doctor there [for ages] - they were like, 'The jab happened 10 minutes ago, can you leave now!'"
He added: "The staff are so brilliant, they explain things, they want you to feel comfortable, they're really good people. Any trepidation is misinformed. It's over so quickly, it doesn't hurt, it's a cool thing to do."
The Comic Relief co-founder also used the launch of the letter to address government intervention.
Asked if the UK government had done enough to build up the trust of the black community, Sir Lenny told the Press Association: "They waited and that's why we're in this terrible situation, so it's a bit ironic to accuse the black community of hesitating.
"There are mitigating circumstances to the trust and the lack of take-up and those things need to be mended before people can move forward, and we're doing our bit to do that and perhaps the government needs to do the same too.
"My thing is, we're all in this together. Black, white, Asian, whatever, we're all in it together. We all want our families and our loved ones to survive."
Earlier this year, British Asian celebrities including comedians Romesh Ranganathan, Meera Syal and cricketer Moeen Ali made a video urging people to get the Covid vaccine.
Fake news about the vaccine, particularly in the South Asian community, has led to concerns about uptake.
Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Question: when does the cov-19 vaccine come out

Answer: March 2021

Question: who is calling for the cov-19 vaccination

Answer: Henry

who is calling for the cov-19 vaccination

Question: what vaccination did henry want everyone to get

Answer: COVID-19 vaccination

what vaccination did henry want everyone to get

Question: what does coVID-19 stand for

Answer: vaccination

Question: what is the name of the vaccination that will be available in 2021

Answer: COVID-19

what is the name of the vaccination that will be available in 2021

Question: what vaccination did henry want everyone to get in march 2021

Answer: COVID-19 vaccination

what vaccination did henry want everyone to get in march 2021

Henry also wrote, "Because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don’t want you to be left out or left behind.

Henry also wrote , " Because we love you – we want you to be safe and we do n’t want you to be left out or left behind .

While other communities are rushing to get the vaccine and millions have already been vaccinated , some Black people in our community are being more cautious , " The letter encourages black UK adults to take an informed decision over the vaccine and get vaccinated so as to protect themselves and those they care for .

Sir Lenny Henry has warned black Britons they could be left behind if they refuse the coronavirus jab in an open letter signed by leading black figures in the UK.
The letter urges black adults in the UK to make informed decisions about the vaccine and to protect themselves and the people they care for by getting vaccinated.
The letter has been signed by the 12 Years a Slave actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, the author Malorie Blackman, the actor Thandie Newton, the Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh, the performer George the Poet, the musician KSI and the radio personality Trevor Nelson.
“Because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don’t want you to be left out or left behind. While other communities are rushing to get the vaccine and millions have already been vaccinated, some Black people in our community are being more cautious,” the letter notes.
It comes after analysis by the Office for National Statistics found stark differences in vaccine uptake between different groups. Over-70s of black African heritage in England are 7.4 times more likely not to have received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine than people of white British ethnicity.
The analysis showed the lowest rate was among people identifying as black African (58.8%), followed by black Caribbean (68.7%) and those from Bangladeshi (72.7%) and Pakistani (74.0%) backgrounds.
Henry said: “I felt it was important to do my bit and so I wrote this letter to black Britain asking people not to get left behind, to not continue to be disproportionately impacted and to trust the facts from our doctors, professors and scientists, not just in the UK but across the world, including the Caribbean and Africa.
“I hear and understand the concerns which people of all backgrounds are wrestling with, but which are particularly concerning in black communities. I want people to be safe, I don’t want people to die or end up in hospital because of Covid-19. So I’m saying, when your turn comes, take the jab.”
The letter, supported by the NHS, has also been turned into a short film directed by the Bafta award-winner Amma Asante, which features Henry alongside Adrian Lester, David Harewood, and Naomi Ackie. The film will be aired on Sky, BT Sport, Viacom, Discovery, A&E and ROK between 8pm and 9.30pm on Tuesday night.
Asante said she was driven to create the film because of her concern about the impact that Covid-19 was having on the black community. “I wanted to make a film that acknowledges the concerns of black people while sharpening the lens on why the vaccine is so important, and why we deserve to have our lives and the lives of our loved ones protected,” she said.
She added: “The message of the film and the reason I wanted to do it is that our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, deserve to be protected. It was in that loving nature and approach that the film takes.
“Everyone involved in the film is black and British. I haven’t seen anything on screen like this before, it’s for us and by us speaking directly to the needs of the black community. We wanted to address this issue as an extended family.”
Prof Kevin Fenton, the London regional director for Public Health England, said: “We know our black communities have been among the hardest hit during this pandemic, but we also know there are some among us who are less likely to come forward for the life-saving vaccine.
“We can all play a role in encouraging our friends and family to take it up when offered, whether that’s answering questions or concerns they may have, pointing them towards information and advice from trusted sources, sharing our own experiences of getting the vaccine or declining to pass on myths and misinformation circulating on social media.”

Question: how many black people in the uk have already been vaccinated

Answer: millions

how many black people in the uk have already been vaccinated

Question: why did the letter encourage black uk adults to get vaccinated

Answer: to protect themselves and those they care for

why did the letter encourage black uk adults to get vaccinated

Question: why did henry write the letter

Answer: Because we love you

Question: who do black uk adults need to get vaccinated for

Answer: themselves and those they care for

who do black uk adults need to get vaccinated for

Question: why did the letter urge black uk adults to get vaccinated

Answer: so as to protect themselves and those they care for

why did the letter urge black uk adults to get vaccinated

Question: why are some black people in the uk being more cautious

Answer: millions have already been vaccinated

why are some black people in the uk being more cautious

Question: who wrote "because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don

Answer: Henry

who wrote "because we love you – we want you to be safe and we don

Shakespeare Henry was introduced to Shakespeare when he made the 2006 Radio 4 series Lenny and Will, which saw him going "in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance".

Shakespeare Henry was introduced to Shakespeare when he made the 2006 Radio 4 series Lenny and Will , which saw him going " in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance " .

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[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Saturday 25 March 2006 10:30-11:00 (Radio 4 FM) Comic Lenny Henry, trying, but not always succeeding, to be entirely serious, goes in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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Lenny and Will
Starting at the re-created Globe Theatre, his search is aided by some of the country's greatest Shakespeare directors, actors and theatre practitioners - Sir Peter Hall, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Trevor Nunn, Adrian Lester, Barry Rutter, Dominic Dromgoole and Patsy Rodenburg.
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Saturday 25 March 2006 10:30-11:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Comic Lenny Henry, trying, but not always succeeding, to be entirely serious, goes in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Question: what was the name of the radio 4 series in which henry was introduced to sh

Answer: Lenny and Will

what was the name of the radio 4 series in which henry was introduced to sh

Question: when was henry introduced to shakespeare

Answer: 2006

when was henry introduced to shakespeare

Question: what was the name of the character introduced to lenny and will on radio 4 in

Answer: Shakespeare Henry

what was the name of the character introduced to lenny and will on radio 4 in

Question: on what radio station was lenny and will broadcast

Answer: Radio 4

on what radio station was lenny and will broadcast

Question: what is the first name of the character introduced to shakespeare by lenny and will

Answer: Henry

what is the first name of the character introduced to shakespeare by lenny and will

Question: who was henry introduced to on lenny and will

Answer: Shakespeare

who was henry introduced to on lenny and will

Question: what was henry going in search of in lenny and will

Answer: in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance

what was henry going in search of in lenny and will

In February 2009, he appeared in the title role in the Northern Broadsides production of Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Before the production opened the director Barrie Rutter said of the decision to cast him: "knives might be out at me or at Lenny.

In February 2009 , he appeared in the title role in the Northern Broadsides production of Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds .

Before the production opened the director Barrie Rutter said of the decision to cast him : " knives might be out at me or at Lenny .

To make your theatrical debut at 50 could be called brave, but to make your debut at 50 as Othello could be called madness. Earlier today Lenny Henry admitted he asked the play's director: "Are you sure you want to start with this? Isn't there some panto you want me to do first?"
Henry was meeting journalists to explain what made him say yes to one of theatre's most demanding roles in what will be a new co-production of the Shakespeare tragedy by Northern Broadsides and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
There were two main reasons. First was making the film True Identity in 1991, in which Henry's character understudied James Earl Jones in Othello. "He told me that when the time was right I should jump in with both feet, work hard, keep my eyes and ears open and let the text do all the heavy lifting." And then two years ago Northern Broadsides' Barrie Rutter directed Henry reading an Othello speech for the comedian's Radio 4 programme Lenny and Will.
Rutter, also directing this time, said yesterday: "He did say should we start with something gentler and I said, it's staring you in the face. You've got to do this. This is the part you've got to do."
There are some in theatre who have been sniffy or dismissive of celebrity casting, but Rutter was adamant. "Knives might be out at me or at Lenny. I don't care. This has come about from a completely genuine desire to do a piece of theatrical work. Bloody hell, how long has the Donmar had Hollywood stars going there for £200?" He added: "He's six foot five. He's beautifully black. And he's Othello."
Henry said: "If there is this malaise in theatre and they can't get punters in then you do what you do."
Despite many offers over his career this will be his first theatrical role, and Henry did not rule out repeating it. "I do see this as something I'm going to want to do more of. I really like theatre and my wife [Dawn French] has done a lot of theatre and I've seen her acting ability grow over the past 14 years and it clearly expands your brain. It's like doing the Knowledge. It gives you gravitas."
Ian Brown, artistic director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, is convinced Henry will make a fine Othello. "I think Lenny doing Othello could be inspirational for a lot of kids, it could open it up to a lot of people who would never dream of coming to a Shakespeare play."
Henry will get a normal Northern Broadsides company wage when he opens in the play next February. After a month in Leeds the production will tour in Scarborough, Coventry, Bath, Kingston, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Halifax.

Question: who is the director of the northern broadsides playhouse

Answer: Barrie Rutter

who is the director of the northern broadsides playhouse

Question: when did barrie rutter play othello at the west yorkshire playhouse

Answer: February 2009

when did barrie rutter play othello at the west yorkshire playhouse

Question: in february 2009, barrie rutter played the title role in which play

Answer: Othello

in february 2009, barrie rutter played the title role in which play

Question: in which city is the west yorkshire playhouse

Answer: Leeds

in which city is the west yorkshire playhouse

Question: in what year did barrie rutter play othello at the west yorkshire

Answer: 2009

in what year did barrie rutter play othello at the west yorkshire

Question: where is othello currently performed

Answer: West Yorkshire Playhouse

Question: in which production of othello did barrie rutter play the title role

Answer: Northern Broadsides

in which production of othello did barrie rutter play the title role

Question: barrie rutter said that "knives might be out at me or at whom

Answer: Lenny

barrie rutter said that "knives might be out at me or at whom

Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph said "This is one of the most astonishing debuts in Shakespeare I have ever seen.

It is impossible to praise too highly Henry's courage in taking on so demanding and exposed a role, and then performing it with such authority and feeling."

Charles Spencer in The Daily Telegraph said " This is one of the most astonishing debuts in Shakespeare I have ever seen .

It is impossible to praise too highly Henry 's courage in taking on so demanding and exposed a role , and then performing it with such authority and feeling . "

When I heard that the comedian Lenny Henry was to play Othello it struck me as a cynically opportunistic piece of casting.
Henry is a palpably decent and amiable man, and a genuinely beloved public figure. But, to be frank, he has never struck me as much of a comedian, let alone an actor, and his dramatic experience in the theatre extends only to panto and youthful appearances with the Black and White Minstrels in summer season.
How on earth then was he going to cope with Othello, one of the most challenging roles in dramatic literature, which demands a combination of superb verse speaking and lashings of raw, racked emotion?
Frankly, I was expecting to review a theatrical car crash. What a pleasure then to report that Henry truly triumphed last night.
From his entrance, there is no mistaking his sheer stage presence and impressive bearing. But he delivers the verse with compelling clarity and dignity too, and his love for Desdemona in the early scenes is touchingly manifest as she leaps joyfully into his arms.
Ah, I thought, but how will he cope with the gnawing jealousy, the emotional and physical violence, the character's long dark night of the soul as the evil Iago poisons his mind and persuades his deluded victim to kill the thing he loves?
Well he does that superbly too. His resonant baritone voice becomes increasingly anguished, his movement ever more agitated. He cuts a genuinely fearsome figure, not least when he growls and roars like an injured lion. What's more, a performer who has always struck me as embarrassingly desperate for an audience's affection and approval brings out the sheer viciousness of his dealings with Desdemona, when he physically abuses her and treats her like a whore.
The fact that he is such a big, powerful man, and his Desdemona, heart-wrenchingly played by Jessica Harris, is so tiny, young, naïve and vulnerable make these scenes almost too painful to watch. And then, in the magnificent last, Henry delivers some of the greatest poetry Shakespeare ever wrote with clarity and depth of feeling and reaches the heart of a terrible sense of tragic loss.
This is one of the most astonishing debuts in Shakespeare I have ever seen. It is impossible to praise too highly Henry's courage in taking on so demanding and exposed a role, and then performing it with such authority and feeling.
Full marks too to Barrie Rutter, boss of the Northern Broadsides company, for such a risky piece of casting, and for directing a fast-moving production that features a host of strong performances, most notably from Conrad Nelson as a particularly vile and reptilian Iago.
But the laurels undoubtedly belong to Henry.
Telegraph rating: ****

Question: who praised henry's performance of the role in the daily telegraph

Answer: Charles Spencer

who praised henry's performance of the role in the daily telegraph

Question: what did charles spencer praise in his praise of shakespeare's performance

Answer: Henry's courage

what did charles spencer praise in his praise of shakespeare's performance

Question: in which newspaper did charles spencer write about shakespeare's performance

Answer: The Daily Telegraph

in which newspaper did charles spencer write about shakespeare's performance

Question: who was the first person to play shakespeare's leading role

Answer: Henry

who was the first person to play shakespeare's leading role

Question: how did charles spencer describe henry's performance

Answer: courage

how did charles spencer describe henry's performance

Question: what newspaper did charles spencer write for

Answer: Daily Telegraph

what newspaper did charles spencer write for

Question: how did charles spencer describe henry's performance of the role

Answer: authority and feeling

how did charles spencer describe henry's performance of the role

Question: charles spencer in the daily telegraph praised henry's performance of which play

Answer: Shakespeare

charles spencer in the daily telegraph praised henry's performance of which play

Michael Billington in The Guardian noted "Henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of the verse, but there is a simple dignity to his performance that touches one".

Michael Billington in The Guardian noted " Henry 's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of the verse , but there is a simple dignity to his performance that touches one " .

Eyebrows have been raised at the casting of Lenny Henry as Othello. But comedians, from Ken Dodd to Dawn French, have played Shakespeare before. And Henry, without challenging memories of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Moor, makes a perfectly decent fist of it in a rather tame, middle-of-the-road Northern Broadsides production.
There are two approaches to Othello. You can either see him as the noble, generous, trusting Moor AC Bradley envisaged, or as, in the words of FR Leavis, a self-dramatising figure filled with "an obtuse and brutal egotism".
Henry leans towards the former. He is a big, burly impressive figure who describes his wooing of Desdemona with transparent sincerity. And even if, in his breakdown, he resorts to the bunched fist and physical abuse of his wife, he is more gored bull than strutting peacock.
Henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of the verse, but there is a simple dignity to his performance that touches one: not least in his final confession when he sits on the corpse-laden bed lamenting his fate before wrenching a hidden dagger from its wooden post.
Henry deserves credit for extending his range and putting Othello squarely at the centre of the play. But little else in Barrie Rutter's production raises the temperature. The play's military context is sketchy, and Ruari Murchison's set is a bland all-purpose affair of embossed double-doors and Venetian blinds.
Conrad Nelson's Iago is also a snickering, thin-faced fellow whose palpable craftiness hardly merits the trust people place in him. Only one line leaps out of Nelson's performance: when he says of Cassio "he hath a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly", you get a hint of the vindictive envy of others' grace that powers Iago's destructiveness. But, without the barrack-room detail that enlivened the Iagos of McKellen and Sher, Nelson is operating in a void.
Strangely, the area of the play that excites Rutter's imagination is the sing-song during the Cypriot guard-duty. This becomes a full-scale production number with much clinking of canikins and glee club music-making amongst the soldiery. But it is hardly the heart of the play and is here puffed up out of all proportion. For the rest, there is a Desdemona from Jessica Harris who could do with more in the way of upper-class spiritual mettle, and an Emilia from Maeve Larkin who, perversely, is almost too ladylike for a professional soldier's wife.
If the evening has a hero, it is Lenny Henry who has attempted the treacherous volcanic mountain that is Othello. Even if he hasn't scaled its emotional peak.

Question: who wrote about michael billington

Answer: The Guardian

Question: who wrote about henry's performance in the guardian

Answer: Michael Billington

who wrote about henry's performance in the guardian

Question: who noted that henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of

Answer: Michael Billington in The Guardian

who noted that henry's voice may not always measure up to the rhetorical music of

Question: what did michael billington praise about henry's performance

Answer: courage

what did michael billington praise about henry's performance

Question: what did michael billington say about henry's performance

Answer: simple dignity

what did michael billington say about henry's performance

Question: what did michael billington praise in the guardian

Answer: Henry's voice

what did michael billington praise in the guardian

Lynne Walker of The Independent said of Henry that his "emotional dynamism is in no doubt.

The frenzy within his imagination explodes into rage and, finally, wretchedness.

Lynne Walker of The Independent said of Henry that his " emotional dynamism is in no doubt .

The frenzy within his imagination explodes into rage and , finally , wretchedness .

First Night: Othello, Quarry Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
Henry shines as a stand-up tragedian with star quality
Lenny Henry, stand-up comedian, has turned stand-up tragedian. The 50-year-old is turning his long experience at deflecting racial insults to good use in the title role of Othello. It’s a brave step to put yourself forward as a new face on the serious stage, interpreting the part on which – in more than any other Shakespeare play – the whole play hinges. In this co-production between Northern Broadsides and West Yorkshire Playhouse, no one is surely more aware of the risk than Henry.
His previous encounter with the Moor of Venice came in the Hollywood flop True Identity in which his character had to understudy James Earl Jones as Othello. Henry apparently watched the 1965 film version with Olivier as Othello for the National more than 40 times. Now it is the former performer on a Black and White Minstrels tour who has had to learn to speak in an exotic accent, deepen his voice and develop a special walk. Only thankfully he hasn’t. Henry doesn’t even talk with a Dudley accent, and there’s scarcely a trace of his Jamaican roots, although, as usual, everyone else in the Northern Broadsides camp has some sort of distinctive and occasionally distorting northern burr.
Henry – who has grown a soldierly beard and shaved his head – looks the part of a great general. Towering over the rest of the cast he has an enormous physical presence that turns to animal magnetism. His voice carries and, while his timing is sometimes still a little shaky, his verse-speaking can sing. The racial outsider stands dignified, rather than arrogantly, above the abuse thrust at him by his young wife’s father. Playfully indulgent towards Desdemona, just when this Othello seems lacking in temperamental insecurity, Henry springs into vengeful action.
By the time Conrad Nelson’s reptilian Iago has worked his black magic, cannily exploiting the credulity of Othello’s jealous nature, Henry’s emotional dynamism is in no doubt. The frenzy within his imagination explodes into rage and, finally, wretchedness. It’s not a subtle reading but it works powerfully in this context.
Of course, it’s not all about Henry. Nelson’s vulgar, self-regarding Iago is at least as compelling in his casual audacity and obsessive treachery. As Desdemona, Jessica Harris is childlike in her teasing petulance, while the indeterminate pitch of her Willow Song sums up her bewilderment. Maeve Larkin gives the role of Emilia a rare and moving integrity.
Making only a brief appearance as Desdemona’s outwitted and outraged father, Barrie Rutter has directed a touring Othello that is both visually accessible and theatrically captivating. The music, mainly martial brass and drum, is intrusive, adding little to an atmosphere in which the heavy silence of the final chamber scene makes the greatest impression. Played out on a muted set of façade, balcony and tall doors, all evocatively lit, with costumes of an indeterminate Victorian style, the production has more guts than polish. But there’s no lack of emotional texture in a show that is, rightly, more of an ensemble evening than a star vehicle for Henry.
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Question: who said of henry that his emotional dynamism is in no doubt

Answer: Lynne Walker

who said of henry that his emotional dynamism is in no doubt

Question: what magazine did lynne walker write for

Answer: The Independent

what magazine did lynne walker write for

Question: what did henry's imagination explode into

Answer: rage

what did henry's imagination explode into

Question: what did lynne walker say of henry

Answer: emotional dynamism

Question: who was described as a man of extreme emotional dynamism

Answer: Henry

who was described as a man of extreme emotional dynamism

Question: what did lynne walker say about henry

Answer: his "emotional dynamism

Question: what was the final state of henry's imagination

Answer: wretchedness

what was the final state of henry's imagination

The production was scheduled to transfer to the West End of London from 11 September to 12 December 2009, to be performed at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall.

The production was scheduled to transfer to the West End of London from 11 September to 12 December 2009 , to be performed at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall .

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Henry is currently touring the UK with the Northern Broadsides production
Comedian Lenny Henry is to bring his portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello to London's West End later this year.
The production, first seen at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, will run at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall from 11 September to 12 December.
Critics lauded Henry's "simple dignity" and "depth of feeling" when the show - produced by touring company Northern Broadsides - opened in February.
It is currently running at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, south-west London.
After this week, the play will complete its regional tour in Newcastle under Lyme and Halifax.
'Off to the races'
"There's been lots of shenanigans about when, how, what, why etc," wrote Henry on his official website earlier this month.
"Finally the talking was done, deals sorted and now we're off to the races."
Othello is directed by Barrie Rutter, who recognised Henry's Shakespearean potential after he participated in a BBC Radio 4 documentary the comedian made in 2006.
"If I was ever going to do a Othello I needed a 50-year-old black man," recalled the Northern Broadsides artistic director. "There he was in front of me."
Henry, 50, is best known for his many BBC comedy shows and his charity work for Comic Relief.

Question: where was trafalgar studios located

Answer: Whitehall

Question: where was the production scheduled to be performed in whitehall

Answer: Trafalgar Studios

where was the production scheduled to be performed in whitehall

Question: where was the production scheduled to be performed

Answer: West End of London

where was the production scheduled to be performed

Question: when was the production scheduled to transfer to the west end of london

Answer: 12 December 2009

when was the production scheduled to transfer to the west end of london

Question: where was the production to be performed in whitehall

Answer: the Trafalgar Studios

where was the production to be performed in whitehall

Question: in what year was the production of a new musical scheduled to be performed at trafal

Answer: 2009

in what year was the production of a new musical scheduled to be performed at trafal

In November 2011, Henry made his debut at the Royal National Theatre in London in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, directed by Dominic Cooke, in which he played the character of Antipholus of Syracuse.

In November 2011 , Henry made his debut at the Royal National Theatre in London in Shakespeare 's The Comedy of Errors , directed by Dominic Cooke , in which he played the character of Antipholus of Syracuse .

First Night: The Comedy of Errors, Olivier, National Theatre, London
Comedy of errors? Lenny Henry barely puts a foot out of place
After One Man, Two Guvnors, the National Theatre now gives us "One Play, Two Sets of Identical Twins", aka, The Comedy of Errors, another play that is – in part, at any rate – a rumbustious romp. The face that dominates the poster for Dominic Cooke's almost excessively inventive modern-dress production is that of Lenny Henry, who is virtually a Shakespeare veteran now after his extraordinarily brave dive into the deep end with Othello.
He's the big box-office draw here and he's wonderfully funny. What's admirable, though, is that there's no suspicion that the play has been twisted into a star vehicle for him; he's part of a fine ensemble that work hard to animate an over-cluttered concept and eventually drive the proceedings to a pleasing crescendo of comic mayhem.
In this early play, Shakespeare frames a virtuoso farce of mistaken identities within a narrative that prefigures the shipwrecks, sunderings and miraculous reunions of the late romances. What underpins both aspects is a sense of that search for one's other self without whom any person feels psychologically and emotionally incomplete.
I'm not sure that Cooke best prepares for this link by presenting the back story as a detailed re-enactment, replete with whirling helicopter rescue services, which erupts all over Bunny Christie's extraordinary, three-tier set.
With a strong Nigerian accent and cultural supersititions, Henry plays Antipholus of Syracuse, who lands in Ephesus in quest of his long-lost twin and with his servant Dromio (adorable Lucian Msamati) in tow. Ephesus in the original is a place associated with witchcraft and sorcery. Here it's like a dodgier version of present-day London and in the new-look opening, aptly for a play about unstable identity, we see the elderly Egeon (an impressive Joseph Mydell) mugged and robbed of his passport as well as condemned to death.
Henry beautifully conveys the tragicomic plight of an innocent abroad. It's typical that in this production his character declares "There's not a man but doth salute me/As if I were a well-acquainted friend", while absently nudging aside a six-foot-five transsexual in PVC miniskirt in the red-light district.
When a woman claiming to be his wife (the ever-excellent Claudie Blakely as a shrewd as well as shrewish Essex fashionista) crosses a billiard table on teetering six inch heels to remonstrate by clutching his gusset, Henry becomes an hilariously still statue of eye-rolling bafflement. He's great at the physical slapstick, but he also gives real emotional depth to the role, particularly in the scene of dignified, dawning love with his twin's sister-in-law (Michelle Terry) through whom he yearns to re-establish a sense of self.
In the final act, a production needs to show how the frantic incredulity provoked by farce shifts to the calm wonder stirred by romance. That doesn't quite happen here in a staging where the Abbess who officiates over the reunions becomes a therapist in the Abbey Clinic. Lurching from penthouses to knocking shops to Harley Street, this Comedy of Errors ends up sacrificing poetry to ingenious prose.
This production will be broadcast, as part of the NT Live season, on 1 March 2012
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Question: who directed the comedy of errors

Answer: Dominic Cooke

Question: when did henry make his debut in comedy of errors

Answer: November 2011

when did henry make his debut in comedy of errors

Question: in which shakespeare play does henry make his debut

Answer: The Comedy of Errors

in which shakespeare play does henry make his debut

Question: who did henry play in the comedy of errors

Answer: Antipholus of Syracuse

who did henry play in the comedy of errors

Question: where did henry make his debut in shakespeare's comedy of errors

Answer: London

where did henry make his debut in shakespeare's comedy of errors

Question: in what year did henry make his debut at the royal national theatre

Answer: 2011

in what year did henry make his debut at the royal national theatre

Question: where did henry make his debut in 2011

Answer: Royal National Theatre

Question: who wrote the comedy of errors

Answer: Shakespeare

Music career In 2015, Henry was asked by Sky Arts to produce a show for them, Lenny Henry's Got The Blues.

He worked with a group of musicians including Jakko Jakszyk, lead singer of King Crimson, to produce the album New Millennium Blues.

Music career In 2015 , Henry was asked by Sky Arts to produce a show for them , Lenny Henry 's Got The Blues .

He worked with a group of musicians including Jakko Jakszyk , lead singer of King Crimson , to produce the album New Millennium Blues .

Hi Lenny! You’ve just put out a blues album, New Millennium Blues. What is it with comedians and the blues (1) ?
The blues has been in my life since I was little. My parents had this massive record player in the living room, a “blue spot grand” they called it ... it used up an entire rainforest to make this thing, and it had all these records in it. Some were rock, some were reggae, but a lot was blues – Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and all that stuff.
Are you falling into the stereotype of the funny man being sad behind the scenes?
I don’t know about that. I listen to lots of blues records and some of them are funny. BB King’s How Blue Can You Get is hilarious. “I gave you six children and now you wanna give ‘em back” ... that’s funny! Howlin’ Wolf’s Meet Me In The Bottom, which I cover on my album, is another example – he talks about climbing out of a woman’s window because her husband’s coming to get him and it’s really funny! Prince does a joke right in the middle of Vicki Waiting: “Why is your organ so small? I didn’t know I was playing in a cathedral!” Now I’m sorry, but that’s basically a Bernard Manning joke! What are you doing Prince?!
When did you start writing music?
I’ve written songs since the beginning of the 80s. I did a character called Theophilus P Wildebeeste (2) on television, and all of these record companies tried to sign me because they thought they could make a fast buck out of it. I was flattered into thinking they would help imprint the brand, or some shit like that, but actually I ended up feeling that doing novelty records tarnished the music I love. It’s fine doing impressions on the telly – Michael Jackson or Earth, Wind & Fire, or something – but an album is different. You should do it properly. I went through a period of working with various people, including Trevor Horn, but then my mum said: “That’s another job! that’s a whole other career! Don’t be stupid!” So I hung my hat on comedy and that was that.
Until now …
Recently, I just thought: “Why not take on things you’re frightened of?” So I started working with Jakko Jakszyk (3) – I sent him some lyrics and a few days later these demos starting arriving on my computer. We went into the studio and I’ve got massive respect for anyone who does that for a living – it’s a nerve-wracking experience!
The title track of your album takes aim at the obesity crisis, celebrity culture, kids hooked on virtual reality and hurricanes. Which is the worst?
(Laughs) I think that was a litmus test for what’s going on at the moment. The list goes on and on … just look at food banks. I was in Uganda years ago talking about food banks. Who would have thought we’d have them in our country? You just wouldn’t, the world has changed. And that song is a list of all the things you notice.
Was it your stab at being Marvin Gaye?
Inner City Blues, it was trying to find the 21st-century equivalent of that. I thought: what would make Marvin Gaye holler now?
The Cops Don’t Know is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the US …
Yeah, it’s awful. The Guardian has got this thing where it counts all the people who get shot mistakenly by police (4) and it’s in the thousands now. It’s just a matter of fact that there are more black men in prison, more getting shot, more being profiled … the police see an 11-year-old and they immediately think they’re 18. And they say things like: “He came towards me, frothing at the mouth, he was like an animal, I drew my weapon, I got scared.” It’s an 11-year-old kid, what the hell’s going on?! Barack Obama is sick of talking about it, we’re getting inured to it … why are we inured to people opening fire on innocent citizens? If we’re not careful it could happen here soon. I love that Robin Williams joke: “The police in Britain shout “Stop! Or I’ll shout stop again!” I’m happy for that to continue.
Did you experience racist police growing up?
I experienced racism. So did my mum and my dad and my brothers. I grew up as a black person in a black family and racism was part of our lives. At one point in my life I had a fight nearly every day just on my way to school – getting called names or whatever. But it’s institutionalised too. People are scared to have the word “racism” bandied about because it’s a raw word. They think you’re having a go but you’re not. Things are changing, though. There’s a coalition of the willing emerging who realise it’s a rigged deck, and want make it a level playing field.
You wrote about meeting your hero Prince in the Guardian recently. You said he cornered you for 90 minutes to talk about his Warner Bros contract …
Yeah! Although I’m such a big fan that I didn’t really mind. He was incensed that they owned all his masters. It was basically a very early conversation about intellectual property and how creators should own their product. He was saying: “It went from my mind, my soul, on to tape – the record company shouldn’t own the tape!” It was great, though, and he was good company. He was funny.
Did you meet him on other occasions?
Yeah, I also introduced him on Top of the Pops, when he was wearing a red scarf over his face and singing a song called Get Wild. It was one of the best nights of my life. I got to see him close up – he was playing the bass, and after every performance he ran up to the gallery to watch the performance, then came down again to do it again. He did it about five times. He was very particular about the performance and that taught me a great deal. Don’t just accept it when someone says: “yep, we’ve got this!” You can always do it again. He almost wanted to direct and control everything, and that was a lesson to be learned. These people, multi-instrumentalists who write and play, are a multiple threat. And the people who produce and direct are scared of that because it puts them out of a job.
Your band Poor White Trash (5) played Jeremy Paxman’s birthday party. Is that one of the weirdest gigs ever played?
Yeah! We did a lot of birthday parties and wrap parties (6). Hugh Laurie would normally be looking at me going: “I’m in a band! I can’t believe I’m in a band!” We loved it. You might not be Stevie Wonder but you can hold a tune and make a crowd move and dance. I saw Mo Mowlam and Jeremy Paxman getting down to Sex Machine – not a lot of people have done that!
Footnotes
(1) Noted delta bluesman Hugh Laurie has put out two albums in the last few years.
(2) A parody of soul lothario Teddy Pendergrass, right down to the initials.
(3) Currently occupying the role of lead singer in King Crimson.
(4) The Counted recorded 1145 people killed by police in the US in 2015. At the time of publication, the figure for 2016 is 350.
(5) Band featuring Lenny Henry, Hugh Laurie, Ade Edmonson and Ben Elton’s wife, Sophie.
(6) The Sense And Sensibility wrap party was especially wild, according to Lenny.

Question: who is the lead singer of king crimson

Answer: Jakko Jakszyk

Question: who did lenny henry work for in 2015

Answer: Sky Arts

Question: when did lenny henry get the blues

Answer: 2015

Question: jakko jakszyk is the lead singer of which group

Answer: King Crimson

jakko jakszyk is the lead singer of which group

Question: what is the name of lenny henry's new album

Answer: New Millennium Blues

what is the name of lenny henry's new album

Question: what is the name of lenny henry's show for sky arts

Answer: Lenny Henry's Got The Blues

what is the name of lenny henry's show for sky arts

Question: who did lenny henry work with to produce new millennium blues

Answer: Jakko Jakszyk, lead singer of King Crimson

who did lenny henry work with to produce new millennium blues

The album consists of both covers of blues classics, as well as original tracks co-written by Lenny.

Henry later released "hard-hitting animated blues video" directed by Iranian filmmaker, Sam Chegini titled The Cops Don't Know which was premiered by Classic Rock magazine on 20 April 2016.

The album consists of both covers of blues classics , as well as original tracks co - written by Lenny .

Henry later released " hard - hitting animated blues video " directed by Iranian filmmaker , Sam Chegini titled The Cops Do n't Know which was premiered by Classic Rock magazine on 20 April 2016 .

Lenny Henry has released a video for The Cops Don’t Know. It’s taken from his album New Millennium Blues, which was made during the filming of the Sky Arts series Lenny Henry Gets The Blues, and recorded with King Crimson guitarist Jakko Jakszyk.
“Cops Don’t Know came out of lots of reading about Gun crime in the USA,” says Henry. “Writers like Gary Younge, film makers like Michael Moore and an amazing page on the guardian website called The Counted which collates information about all those gunned down unlawfully by the police.
“The lyrics were written over a weekend and then I sent them to Jakko, never expecting to hear anything again. The track that came back to me shortly after, complete with gospel harmonies and overdubs and buckets of soul, was a triumph. The video has the same ‘labour of love’ style vibe. Sam Chegini is clearly gifted and I want to thank him and all the students who assisted him in his efforts. It’s great work.”
“I received this undeniably powerful lyric from Lenny, but called him to say that it was too late,” adds Jakszyk. “We’d finished recording the album and had no budget left to go back to the studio with the band we’d put together. I suggested, as an alternative, that I would try and write a simple acoustic blues thing that we do with just guitars and voice.
“Next thing I knew it developed, rather quickly, into this epic. After the acoustics I tracked up 30 or so of myself singing, found the drums from another track and edited it together, played the bass, keys & some fake strings and what started as an afterthought, ended up being a significant part of the record.”
New Millenium Blues is out now. A deluxe version featuring previously unheard new songs is released on April 22.
So What's Lenny Henry Got To Sing The Blues About?

Question: who directed the animated video the cops don't know

Answer: Sam Chegini

who directed the animated video the cops don't know

Question: what is the title of the animated video directed by iranian filmmaker sam chegini

Answer: The Cops Don't Know

what is the title of the animated video directed by iranian filmmaker sam chegini

Question: what type of music is featured on the album

Answer: blues classics

what type of music is featured on the album

Question: who wrote the songs on the album

Answer: Lenny

Question: when was the cops do n 't know released

Answer: 20 April 2016

Question: who is the creators of the cops don't know

Answer: Classic Rock magazine

who is the creators of the cops don't know

Question: what magazine is the cops do n 't know on

Answer: Classic Rock

what magazine is the cops do n 't know on

Question: who directed the cops do n 't know

Answer: Iranian filmmaker, Sam Chegini

Personal life Henry met Dawn French on the alternative comedy circuit.

Personal life Henry met Dawn French on the alternative comedy circuit .

Arsonists once targeted the home of Black Country comedian Lenny Henry and his ex-wife Dawn French, she revealed.
The attack happened at a time when the couple were suffering racist abuse.
Dawn, 56, said: “It was massively shocking to me. Someone put an oily rag through our front door and tried to burn us down. Luckily I woke up and smelt it, otherwise I’m not sure we would be here.”
The comic, who has a 23-year-old daughter, called Billie, with Lenny, 55, is concerned that racist attitudes have not changed in 30 years.
Lenny, whose home town is Dudley, recently found himself at the centre of a race row after a UKIP candidate said he should leave Britain to live in a black country.
Dawn added: “It’s the little snidey comments or things people think it is OK to say, a kind of gradual erosion that I find particularly dangerous.”
The pair, who split in 2010 after 25 years of marriage, have previously spoken of other shocking abuse they suffered.
They were once targeted by members of the Ku Klux Klan who smeared excrement on their front door and doorstep and daubed graffiti on their walls.
Dawn talked about the experience on the BBC’s Radio 4 Front Row show while promoting her first solo touring show about her life, Thirty Million Minutes.

Question: who did henry meet on the alternative comedy circuit

Answer: Dawn French

who did henry meet on the alternative comedy circuit

Question: where did henry meet dawn french

Answer: alternative comedy circuit

Question: what type of comedy did dawn french do

Answer: alternative comedy

Question: what type of business is dawn french

Answer: comedy

Question: what type of comedy was dawn french

Answer: alternative

Question: what was dawn french's first name

Answer: Henry

On 6 April 2010, French and Henry announced they were "amicably" separating after 25 years of marriage.

Their divorce was finalised in 2010.

On 6 April 2010 , French and Henry announced they were " amicably " separating after 25 years of marriage .

Dawn French: The French connection
Three years after a nasty brush with the tabloids, Dawn French is still wary of the press. But here, in a rare interview, she talks frankly about marriage, motherhood, adoption, insecurity - and how she came to fall in love with an alien
How exciting. I have a rendezvous with Dawn French, who between you, me, and an absurdly ornate bedpost, I have always rather fancied. I am waiting for her in a rococo bedroom suite at Home House, a flamboyantly decorated private members' club in Portman Square, London. It is the Groucho Club-meets-Versailles. Indeed, since, in my excitement, I have arrived 20 minutes early, I have time to read in a brochure that Home House used to be the French Embassy at the time of the French Revolution. Which makes it an apt setting for a "French" rendezvous (the more so considering the sitcom she did that was set at the court of Louis XVI, a rare French & Saunders turkey called Let Them Eat Cake).
The Lady Islington suite, where I am waiting, has a vast and extravagant marble bathroom designed in the Pompeian style by the Marchese Malacrida, so the brochure informs me. When French arrives, looking short, round and gorgeous in a capacious black two-piece, I suggest doing the interview in the bathroom. She chuckles. She has a wicked chuckle.
I whip out not one but two tape-recorders. Belt- and-braces, I tell her, although, naturally, being a highly experienced journalist, I am capable of shorthand. "Right, I'm going to test you later," she says. I titter nervously. "Mind you, you could show me any old scribble and I wouldn't know." Another chuckle. For one so wary of the press, and so economical with her interviews, she seems relaxed, infectiously jolly. Her West Country vowels – her father was in the RAF and she went to boarding-school in Plymouth, her parents' home town – are more noticeable in person than they are on the telly.
Starting this Thursday, she stars in a three-part BBC drama series, a romantic comedy called Ted and Alice, set in the Lake District. She plays a tourist-information officer who falls in love with an otherworldly chap (Stephen Tompkinson), then finds that his otherworldliness is literal, for Ted is an alien.
Ted and Alice was written by Nick Vivian, the partner of Jane Horrocks. French asks whether I know him. "He's quite badly behaved and very good for drinking with. Lenny [her husband, Lenny Henry] knows him very well. He's got great stories, and he's a good writer, so there were lots of good reasons to do it."
However, filming in the Lake District meant spending time apart from her 10-year-old daughter, Billie, which filled her with angst. "I can't bear to be away from her too much, and this was the first job that has taken me away for any length of time. Even when we [she and Jennifer Saunders] were on tour, I was away for no more than three days at a time. With this, I couldn't get away all week. It was like my heart would break. I can only compare it to having a new lover, when you just can't bear to be separated and it becomes sort of obsessional, you need to see them all the time.
"I need to know what she's done nearly all day, and I'm not interested in anyone else like that. I want to know what she feels about everything, what she's seen, what she's experienced, how she's changing. She's very mercurial, and I'm fascinated by how she perceives things. I didn't know I would be quite as obsessional. It's as well I've only got one child."
Billie was adopted, and I tell French that I was, too. In fact, the next five minutes of the precious hour I have been allocated are taken up with her asking questions of me. Like Billie, I was an only child. I ask French, who is 44, whether she and Henry have ever considered adopting another child, or trying to have one naturally (not even her unofficial biographer, Alison Bowyer, who otherwise did a thoroughly nosy job, was able to find out whether one or other is unable to have children).
"We did think about it, yes. But I didn't want to do it enough. Then I started to realise that the only reason for it would be to provide a companion for her, and I didn't think I could look a kid in the face and say, 'You were really a pet'. I thought we might as well get a dog, which, in fact, we've just done.
"If another kid had happened, I guess I would have felt differently, but it's such a total life-changing thing, I'm not sure I'd have the energy to do it all over again. Motherhood has tested me beyond belief. It's absolutely not what I thought it was going to be. It's almost the opposite, in fact. I thought, in typical Dawn-style, that I'd be able to organise her into my life, but in fact we've all been organised into hers.
"And although I didn't have the hormonal thing after we adopted Billie, I still went slightly mad. When I went back to work, I'd gone a bit cardigan. I hadn't read anything, hadn't talked to anyone. Well, I had with Len, but I just felt very fat-headed. I think a lot of women go through it. It's possibly nature's way of making you go all domestic. You'd better not be longing to read a book, because you need to mash up more carrots.
"Jen [Saunders] has three kids, but she does it much better. She's one of those women who can manage [motherhood] without it taking over too much. There are others of us who can't. It totally drains you, and you realise that you're not the person you thought you were. Suddenly, you're this person called Mum – and it's not a bad thing, it's quite a good thing – but it takes a while to retrieve your personality.
"And you can't write comedy when your head feels full of cotton wool. I was angry about that. I know it's something men think happens to women when they have babies, and I was really annoyed that I had it. Because I was out to lunch for a long time. It was like walking through treacle, though I got there in the end. Which is a long explanation of why I don't really want to do it all over again. I went back to work with very little confidence, and I'd never had that before."
Just to compound that feeling of insecurity, of standing at the sidelines while the comedy bandwagon rolled on without her, it was while French took time off during the adoption process that Saunders, for want of anything better to do, turned a short sketch that the pair of them had performed into the hit sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Still, French has benefited from Saunders' Ab Fab-inspired popularity in America, for the pair are currently discussing an option to develop their stage show for US consumption. Not that it will be easy to find the time. French is committed to starring in a new sitcom, written by Simon Nye, in which she plays a grumpy Cornishwoman, enabling her to crank up those West Country vowels. Moreover, an American tour might mean further separation from Billie. French thinks it unlikely.
"Mind you," she adds, wistfully, "I do love to go to New York. Mainly for the shopping. My first stop used to be for Reese's Cup Cakes, but you can get them here now. I know all the big-girl shops in New York. They know about big girls in the States." A huge chuckle. "Lenny is very used to sitting outside them for many hours, with a good book. I don't shop at all in this country. There's nowhere for me to go other than Evans. It used to really annoy me, but now I can't be bothered wasting the energy. I do think they're foolish, though. They're missing out on a massive market."
It is a market, in actual fact, that she has successfully tapped herself. She is co-owner, with her friend, the fashion designer Helen Teague, of a shop in London called French & Teague. Their label, 16/47, also sells in Evans. She is perfectly content with her weight, she adds, but it became an issue during the adoption procedure. "I was told that I had to lose weight – it was non-negotiable. That was hard for me. No-one had ever said that to me before, and I had never agreed to do it before. I'm actually the sort of person for whom it's quite a big deal not to [lose weight]. I'm so comfortable after all these years, and I thought, 'who are they to tell me this, unless they can prove to me that I'm going to die?'.
"What they were looking at was charts. I had to be in the middle of a chart, and I don't want to be in the middle of anybody's chart. But I was told, 'These are the rules'. I had to lose five stone, and I did. They said, 'Are you going to whack it back on straight away?'. I said 'I don't know. I've never done it before. But I'm not going to spitefully eat loads of doughnuts, if that's what you mean'."
Billie has always known that she was adopted. I ask French whether she worries that her daughter will one day ask to meet her biological mother. "Well, at the moment she's more interested in herself, the story of herself. She's a complicated kid, but I don't know whether she'd be like she is if she weren't adopted. Jen says her three are all completely different: 'Other than looking a bit like us, I don't know who they are,' she says, 'so don't be too quick to think it's because of the adoption'.
"Whatever she wants to do when she's 18, we'll support her. What I do worry about is anyone else making the decision for her. I have a great fear of the press, and I'm very, very guarded. I've had to take out injunctions, because somebody wrote a biography of me and was getting very close [to revealing the identity of Billie's birth mother], and I was like, get lost, this is not about show business, this is a kid's life. I don't want anyone rocking the boat until she's ready to rock it herself."
I feel like applauding, but instead I ask how French dealt with a different assault by the media – the tabloid allegations three years ago, that Henry had spent a night in a hotel with another woman.
"It feels like you're being bullied, and I'm not a victim person, but you just have to eat it, which I find quite hard. If I was in the playground being bullied, I would first use my brain, and then my fists. But you can't do that. And these lies become your history. I'm amazed that we've become this society of gossipy twits, although I admit I do get Hello! every week. I don't mind Hello! because it's chirpy and positive. Jen and I cut out people's heads and put them on other people's bodies."
And with that rather curious thought implanted in my mind, it is time for me to leave. Another huge chuckle follows me out of the Lady Islington suite, past the Pompeian bathroom. I still wish that we'd done it in there.
'Ted and Alice' starts on Thursday, 9pm, BBC 1
Deborah Ross is away
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Question: when did french and henry split

Answer: 6 April 2010

Question: when did french and henry divorce

Answer: 2010

Question: how long did french and henry have together

Answer: 25 years

how long did french and henry have together

Question: how many years of marriage did french and henry have

Answer: 25

how many years of marriage did french and henry have

Question: who announced their separation in april 2010 after 25 years of marriage

Answer: French and Henry

who announced their separation in april 2010 after 25 years of marriage

Retrieved 13 December 2007.

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French and Henry have one adopted daughter
Comedians Lenny Henry and Dawn French are to separate after 25 years of marriage, their spokesman has said.
Neil Reading said they had made the decision in October but continued to live together in "constant discussion".
The split was "entirely amicable" and the pair hoped the media would respect "the privacy of their family", he said.
Henry, now 51, and French, 52, met in 1980 on the Comic Strip team. They married in Westminster in 1984 and have an adopted daughter, Billie, 18.
'Close friendship'
The statement said: "Lenny Henry and Dawn French are sad to announce they have decided to separate after 25 years of marriage.
"They made the decision last October and since then have been living together in constant, open and honest discussion.
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The couple tied the knot in 1984
"The separation is entirely amicable and they fully intend to maintain their close friendship.
"Their priority is to commit to the future joint parenting of their daughter."
No further comment will be made, the statement said.
French went to school in Plympton, Devon and the couple own a waterside mansion in Fowey, Cornwall.
The pair met in 1980 when Henry became involved with the Comic Strip team - one of whom was French.
French was initially critical of his stand-up routines, but despite their negative first impressions of each other, the couple got engaged, marrying in 1984 at St Paul's Church in London's Covent Garden.
French is best known for her comedy series including her collaboration with Jennifer Saunders. Their French and Saunders sketch show began in 1987.
From the 1990s she had success with Murder Most Horrid and The Vicar of Dibley.
Henry made his TV debut winning talent competition New Faces in 1975, aged 18. The Lenny Henry Show ran for a decade from 1984.
Last year he won critical acclaim for his portrayal of Othello on the London stage.
He is also one of the founding figures of Comic Relief.

Question: when did french and henry announce their separation

Answer: 13 December 2007

when did french and henry announce their separation

Question: who announced they were separating after 25 years of marriage

Answer: French and Henry

who announced they were separating after 25 years of marriage

Question: when did french and henry announce they were separating

Answer: 6 April 2010

when did french and henry announce they were separating

Question: how long had french and henry been together

Answer: after 25 years

how long had french and henry been together

Question: in what year did french and henry announce their separation

Answer: 2010

in what year did french and henry announce their separation

He subsequently studied at the latter institution for a doctorate on the role of black people in the media.

He subsequently studied at the latter institution for a doctorate on the role of black people in the media .

Lenny Henry's long road to a PhD
There can't be many academic careers that have been inspired by a Cannon and Ball seaside show.
But comedian Lenny Henry's long march towards starting a PhD - he already has a masters degree - began 29 years ago as a response to spending a long Blackpool summer season with the double act.
Contemplating that there must be more to life, Lenny Henry, at the age of 22, began the process of re-starting his education, which had been put on hold by his comedy career.
"It always felt like unfinished business," he says.
Lenny Henry is going to be the host of this year's UK Teaching Awards - and he talks passionately about the opportunities and missed chances of education.
He'd failed his 11-plus exam and gone to a local secondary school in Dudley, which he left at the age of 16.
So while he was performing two shows a night in Blackpool, the rising comedy star began studying for his O-levels, through a college in nearby Preston.'I never was an idiot'
On stage each day he was doing comedy impressions for holidaymakers - and then in his spare time he was reading Yeats, Tennyson and Shakespeare, as he fast-tracked his way through English literature and language.
"It was brilliant - I was doing this weird literature thing, feeding my brain."
“Start Quote
End Quote Lenny HenryEnd Quote Lenny Henry
When I came to London, everyone I met had been to university, everyone had a degree, I was really jealous, I wanted to punch people out.”
When it came to taking his exams, he says it baffled the other candidates: "What's the bloke from Tiswas doing sitting in the back of the exam room?"
As his career in comedy developed, he found himself surrounded by comedians who had been to university and became even more aware of what he'd missed. Education was a conversation from which he felt excluded.
And it raised hackles over the assumptions that were made about him.
"I've got a thirst for knowledge that is slightly counter to the person that people see on television... dressed as Beyonce.
"I'm not an idiot, I never was an idiot," he says.
"I was very chippy about education - I always wanted to be more knowledgeable. When I came to London, everyone I met had been to university, everyone had a degree. I was really jealous, I wanted to punch people out.
"They talked about having a Geoff Hurst [a first class degree] or a Desmond [a 2:2 degree]. I used to say 'What's that?'"Tiswas to Shakespeare
Lenny Henry talks of his mother as an inspiration for his interest in learning - and says how disappointed she was that he hadn't stayed in education longer. Her death in 1998 prompted him to "re-engage with education in a serious way".
Playing a head teacher at the time, in the Hope and Glory television series, Lenny Henry signed up for an Open University degree in English literature.
He talks with huge enthusiasm about the pleasure of studying, the support of tutors and the sense of beginning to satisfy his intellectual curiosity.
Rather than more typical celebrity hang-outs, he spends time in the British Library.
And he directly links this experience to giving him the confidence to take on the role of Othello. "I would never have done Othello last year. That's a fact," he says.
Appropriately for the slow-burn of his academic career, his performance won him a best newcomer award, at the age of 51.
After being awarded his BA, he still wanted more - saying he "missed education" - and took a masters degree in screenwriting at Royal Holloway, University of London, achieving a distinction.Tough times
The final leg of this journey up the academic Everest is his PhD, a four-year project which he is about to begin at Royal Holloway, studying the representation of black people in the media.
"The idea of me getting a PhD is the most unlikely thing ever to be mooted by anyone in the world. It's like the Krankies turning out to be rocket scientists."
As host for the teaching awards - the annual teachers' Oscars - he's been looking back at his own school days in the 1970s.
He describes his West Midlands secondary school, which has since shut, as a conveyor belt for factory workers.
"We were never encouraged to do O-levels, university was never mentioned."
There was racism - he says for one term he had a fight every single day because of racist name-calling.
Teachers were also allowed to use corporal punishment, such as hitting pupils with a plimsoll or a stick.
"There were lots of people who went to my school who should have gone to university - that's what I think. A lot of people were ignored. A lot of people in my family were very smart, but didn't go to university."
But he talks warmly about the inspiring teachers - in particular a science teacher, Mr Brookes, who first encouraged him in his comedy by letting him use a reel-to-reel recorder to rehearse funny voices.
Such teachers can have an influence that can reach long beyond the classroom, he says, unlocking ambitions.
"We all bloom towards the sunlight."
The Teaching Awards 2010 UK ceremony will be held on Sunday 31 October at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London and is broadcast on BBC2 at 6pm.
Lenny Henry BBC online comedy sketches

Question: what did he go to college for

Answer: a doctorate

Question: what did he study for a doctorate

Answer: the role of black people in the media

what did Lenny Henry study for a doctorate

Question: where did he study for a doctorate

Answer: the media

where did Lenny Henry study for a doctorate

Henry has been an open critic of British television's lack of ethnic diversity in its programmes.

During a speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in March 2014, he called the lack of minorities "appalling" and he has continued to raise the issue publicly.

Henry has been an open critic of British television 's lack of ethnic diversity in its programmes .

During a speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in March 2014 , he called the lack of minorities " appalling " and he has continued to raise the issue publicly .

Lenny Henry isn't laughing. I've told him a joke but he doesn't crack a smile. Instead, he wearily tells me that it's too old, and not funny any more. Perhaps it's not surprising. Now a critically acclaimed actor, Henry is almost unrecognisable as the cuddly comic whose suits were once as loud as his bellowed catchphrases. Lean and aloof, today he remains straight-faced as I repeat a quip told by comedians from Gina Yashere to Stephen K Amos – that the only way for a black comedian to get their own TV show, is "to wait for Lenny Henry to die".
"I guess when I had the Lenny Henry Show that was a decent joke to make," he says grudgingly, before drawling, "But I'm doing theatre now darling, so it's time for you to do your show."
I'm surprised by his sensitivity, because the gag's point is the absence of other ethnic minority stars on our TV screens – something the 55-year-old has been attacking for years.
In March Henry hit the headlines with a witheringly funny speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta), taking the sector to task for its "appalling" record on diversity. He exposed the uncomfortable truth that not only was the television industry nowhere near as diverse as the population as a whole, but that the number of black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers was plummeting.
"From making very small gains in the industry, when we had a little bit of representation, we have gone backwards," he tells me. "People aren't just hitting the glass ceiling: they are standing on a glass precipice."
The statistics speak for themselves. While the UK population, he said, is 14.5% BAME (rising to 40% in London, where most of the sector is based), currently only 5.4% of the creative industries' workforce is non-white – the lowest figure since the monitoring group Creative Skillset started counting. "Between 2006 and 2012, the number of BAMEs working in the UK TV industry has declined by 30.9%," he pointed out, going on to say that in the last three years, "the total number of BAME people in the industry has fallen by 2,000 while the industry as a whole has grown by over 4,000. Or to put it another way – for every black and Asian person who lost their job, more than two white people were employed."
The haemorrhaging of black and Asian actors to the US – from Archie Panjabi and Chiwetel Ejiofor to David Oyelowo – is just the tip of the iceberg.
It's a subject Henry is uniquely qualified to broach. It is almost 40 years since he first appeared on British screens, as a 16-year-old from Dudley in bow tie and flares who did celebrity impressions – "in colour" as he cringingely put it at the time. He went on to become the best known black British entertainer on mainstream TV – and for too long, the only one.
It's a position that is at once a privilege and a problem: he has been a pioneer, and a lightning rod for prejudice.
While still a teenager, he honed his act in working men's club of the 1970s, where the racism could be brutal. "I was literally sat in a toilet in a cubicle," he tells me, "and heard someone say, 'What's this darkie like then? He better be funny or we'll string him up in the car park.'"
His routines back then, if not in tune with these attitudes, hardly challenged them. His act included jokes about his sweat tasting like chocolate, and he even – to his regret – accepted a part in the Black and White Minstrel show. It was only when he was cast in the country's first all-black sitcom, The Fosters, a few years later, and was taken to task by his co-star Norman Beaton, that he began reassessing his act.
From then on he tried to ensure he was playing "archetypes not stereotypes", he explains. By the time alternative comedy became popular, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the scene, which refused to use the then-traditional comedy fodder of gags about women and minorities.
The reaction when he married comedian Dawn French in 1984 was proof that racism was not confined to the comedy circuit. "It was a scary time because we were a pretty high-profile mixed-race couple," he remembers. "The News of the World had put a picture of our house on their front page, and the National Front came round and smeared excrement on our front door, and tried to put petrol-soaked rags through it."
No wonder he is unimpressed by critics who suggest he is not radical or edgy enough. "I got accused of misrepresenting all people of colour in Great Britain. I would get told off a lot. 'How can you do African characters when you're not African?' But I gave it a go. Maybe if there had been more of us I could have just been Lenny Henry from the Black Country with Jamaican parents."
Through his production company, Crucial Films, he created a new writer's workshop that led to the development of the UK's first black sketch series, The Real McCoy. It was very successful, so Henry finds it perplexing that none of the black comics was given their own show, and claims it "was airbrushed out of" BBC2's recent 50th anniversary celebrations.
In the 90s he played Gareth Blackstock in Chef!, in a then-rare example of colour-blind casting. While on the Lenny Henry Show, he continued to champion comedians such as Little Miss Jocelyn and Yashere. Yashere said she had to move to the US to find the opportunities she could not find in Britain.
In 2008 he gave a speech to the Royal Television Society that was a precursor to his Bafta lecture ("It's good to be back, people" was his sarcastic opening to Bafta). But if he is fed up making the same case, it doesn't show.
"This is something worth fighting for," he tells me. "Why wouldn't you fight for this? It's not just about showbusiness – everywhere you go people are discriminated against. And if by having an organised voice against inequality and a lack of diversity we might be able to push that down – how brilliant would it be?"
To this end he has drawn up a proposal for structural change at the BBC: the Henry papers, or "I have a screen" as he has dubbed it, is modelled on the corporation's success in increasing regional diversity – ring-fenced money, specific commissioners for BAME programmes and a focus on talent behind the camera as well as on screen.
This week BBC director-general Tony Hall rejected Henry's proposal for fixed quotas of BAME staff on certain productions, but announced a new BAME development fund, new training opportunies, and welcomed Henry's acceptance of a place on a new Diversity Action Group.
Henry says: "I think it's a really positive small step forward, and it sounds like a cliche, but a journey of a thousand miles starts with a small step." He hopes other broadcasters will now follow the BBC's lead.
But he still thinks a solution more like the one adopted by the BBC in relation to the nations and regions would have been "more satisfying". The BBC's commitment to spend 50% of its budget outside London by 2016 has, he thinks, delivered huge change. "People are in denial if they think quotas don't exist," he says. "There are quotas for the amount of news, for the amount of children's TV, surely BAME people have the same rights as Peppa Pig?"
Last month a Ukip council candidate was forced to resign from the party after tweeting that Henry should emigrate. Henry says: "I was born here. I grew up in Dudley, and my first job was in British Federal welders. My mum said (he puts on a heavy Jamaican accent): 'HIN-ter-grate. If you want to get on in this country you have to HIN-ter-grate.' So I sat at my friend Gary's house eating egg and chips, having tea with his parents and watching Celebrity Squares. I'm part of this country." He was cheered by the support he received from other social media users at the time, and says such attacks will not put him off. "It is tricky, because if you put your head above the parapet, people take potshots.But I want something done now. Shakespeare said we need to hold a mirror up to this society, and we do. If you can't see, you can't be. If we don't see BAME people on the TV, or in film, we become invisible."
It's very difficult for people to understand how diverse this nation is if we keep giving [BAME] programmes one or two series and then getting rid of them."
Henry says that while the BBC is hardly the worst offender against diversity, it is held to a higher standard. "The BBC charter says it is supposed to represent the country's nations, regions and communities – and it is not fulfilling all of that promise." Whether he thinks the BBC acted correctly in not sacking Jeremy Clarkson after the Top Gear presenter was filmed using the n-word while reciting a children's nursery rhyme, he won't say.
Instead he recounts a story of his own insensitivity. "I once did a Zimbabwean comedian [character] with a grass skirt and tribal markings. A man from Nigeria who was working at LWT said to me, 'Len, are you from Africa? Do you know what Katanga means? Do you know where Katanga is? Then why are you playing a Zimbabwean character?'
"If he had been on my production team, then I wouldn't have done that character," Henry points out. "But if you have a monoculture you will get these things happening all the time."
Reading on mobile? Click here to watch Lenny Henry Bafta speech
This week Tony Hall announced 20 new traineeships for BAME graduates, but Henry says such schemes are no longer enough. "Off screen, it's about the people green-lighting [programmes], and hiring and firing. Behind the scenes, it is very male, very white. People employ who they know. They don't say, 'Let's do a diverse casting process', they just say: 'I'll ring Charlie because he was good last time.'"
He suggests a return to the ethnic minority departments that broadcasters used to have, which were closed, he claims, due to "cost-cutting". "We need them back – and not just one person looking grumpy in an office with 'Diversity' on the door."
Henry has certainly been working hard. Alongside meetings with the BBC's director-general and the heads of Channel 4 and ITV, he has spoken to Ed Vaizey and Vince Cable, and has set up a meeting with the Labour party. Meanwhile, the TV Collective, an organisation campaigning for diversity, has warned that BAME audiences may stop paying their licence fee if nothing changes.
Henry shies away from this, but says he is in favour of marches. "Maybe the next step is to be more angry. I think we have been incredibly calm, and perhaps the next step is to manifest ourself as a group and be more angry."
In the meantime, Henry has a clutch of new projects coming up, most of which he has written himself. "Writing has set me free. I was a bit trapped, feeling that I couldn't write, and I was stuck.
"Not coming from Oxbridge, I was intimidated by people who used big words and had a massive frame of reference. It was never on the cards for me to go to uni, going to a sink secondary modern in the Midlands. The threat was that if you didn't get your exams, you would end up in a factory. Which I did, but actually that was a great experience, and I would have even got an engineering diploma if I had stuck my three years out. But showbusiness came in the middle of it all, and I left skid marks outside the factory walls! I did my O levels while playing the summer season with Cannon & Ball in 1981."
Fittingly for his 40th year in TV next year, one of these will be a programme he has written, based on the first two years of his career. "They've got to find a 15-year-old black kid who can do impressions of Harold Wilson and Tommy Cooper," he deadpans. "I wish them luck."

Question: what has henry been critical of in british television

Answer: ethnic diversity

what has henry been critical of in british television

Question: where did henry speak in march 2014

Answer: British Academy of Film and Television Arts

Question: who has been an open critic of british television's lack of ethnic diversity

Answer: Henry

who has been an open critic of british television's lack of ethnic diversity

Question: when did henry speak at the british academy of film and television arts

Answer: March 2014

when did henry speak at the british academy of film and television arts

Question: how did henry describe the lack of minorities in british television

Answer: appalling

how did henry describe the lack of minorities in british television

Question: in what year did henry speak at the british academy of film and television

Answer: 2014

in what year did henry speak at the british academy of film and television

Question: what does henry call the lack of ethnic diversity in british television

Answer: minorities

what does henry call the lack of ethnic diversity in british television

Henry was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours.

Henry was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( CBE ) in the 1999 New Year Honours .

Tuesday, March 2, 1999 Published at 19:33 GMT
Entertainment
Lenny sees red over nose ban
Lenny Henry : Dismayed by ban at Roman Catholic school
Comedian Lenny Henry, who received his CBE on Tuesday, has said he is saddened by news that a headteacher has banned his pupils from taking part in Red Nose Day.
The Roman Catholic headmaster of the Rosary School in Birmingham, objects to the charity supporting some family planning groups and has told his 450 pupils not to wear red noses or collect any money at their primary school.
The charity has raised £135m since it started in 1985 and spends less than 1% on family planning projects but it is this that angers Mr Caffery.
He said: "I would not want any money to go from this school to supplement the work of these anti-social and evil charities which promote contraception, sterilisation and abortion."
'So much good'
Henry said he was dismayed by Mr Caffery's attitude.
"How strange that someone should stop such a wonderful thing that children want to be involved with.
"I think he should really think about the work Comic Relief does. It does so much good, so why stop it?"
A Comic Relief spokeswoman said the charity had never funded abortions and said the work it financed in family planning was to enable people to make informed decisions about their lives.
After being awarded the CBE by the Queen, Henry said: "I feel very humbled by the company I'm in - so many worthy people are receiving awards - I feel very honoured to be here.
"It's an extraordinary experience and I would never have dreamed that I would be so fortunate.
"My only sadness is that my mum died in August - but I think she's here with me in spirit," he said.
Comic Relief will 'break all records'
Henry, 40, first found fame on the TV show New Faces in 1974, and later on the Channel 4 show Saturday Night Live - but he is now better known for his work for the charity Comic Relief.
Speaking of the moment he received his award from the Queen, he said: "When I looked at the ribbon on the CBE, I thought it would never go over my head - but it did.
"The Queen mentioned Comic Relief and my career - and congratulated me. I told her I thought this year we're going to break all records.
"We've raised over £100m in 14 years and last time, in 1997, we managed £27m.
"The British people are very in tune with what's going on in the world and want to help," he said.
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Question: what does cbe stand for

Answer: Order of the British Empire

Question: when was henry appointed commander of the order of british empire

Answer: New Year Honours

when was henry appointed commander of the order of british empire

Question: in what year was henry appointed a commander of the order of the british

Answer: 1999

in what year was henry appointed a commander of the order of the british

Question: what title did henry receive in 1999

Answer: Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Question: when was henry appointed a commander of the order of the british empire

Answer: 1999 New Year Honours

when was henry appointed a commander of the order of the british empire

He was knighted in the Queen's 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.

In July 2016, Henry became the chancellor of Birmingham City University citing his passion to give life changing opportunities to young people from a wide range of backgrounds.

He was knighted in the Queen 's 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity .

In July 2016 , Henry became the chancellor of Birmingham City University citing his passion to give life changing opportunities to young people from a wide range of backgrounds .

Question: what university did henry become chancellor of in 2016

Answer: Birmingham City University

what university did henry become chancellor of in 2016

Question: in what year was henry knighted

Answer: 2015

Question: for what reasons was henry knighted in the queen's 2015 Birthday honours

Answer: drama and charity

for what reasons was henry knighted in the queen's 2015 Birthday honours

Question: when did henry become chancellor of birmingham city university

Answer: July 2016

when did henry become chancellor of birmingham city university

Question: in what award was henry knighted

Answer: 2015 Birthday Honours

Question: who is the chancellor of birmingham city university

Answer: Henry

who is the chancellor of birmingham city university

Question: what did henry receive in the queen's 2015 Birthday honours

Answer: knighted

what did henry receive in the queen's 2015 Birthday honours

Question: in which year was henry knighted

Answer: Queen's 2015

Henry has also been listed in the Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black Britons, including ranking fourth in 2016.

Henry has also been listed in the Powerlist of the 100 most influential Black Britons , including ranking fourth in 2016 .

Independentie
| -0.1°C Dublin
Comedian Sir Lenny Henry, double Olympic champion Mo Farah and film director Steve McQueen have been named among the most influential black Britons.
The trio, along with Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, were voted into the top 10 of the Powerlist, the annual list of the 100 most powerful people of African and Caribbean heritage in Britain, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.
But they were pipped to the top spot by cyber security expert, philanthropist and educator Tom Ilube.
The awards honour men and women from diverse industries including science, technology and the arts, and the winners will be recognised at an event at Goldsmith's Hall on Tuesday.
Mr Ilube, 53, from Richmond, west London, was a founder of internet bank Egg, set up credit rating organisation noddle.co.uk and is chief executive of technology company Crossword Cybersecurity.
He also founded technology school Hammersmith Academy in 2011, is the chairman of ADA College, a specialist computing college, and set up the charity Africa Gifted Foundation to help transform the lives of children on the continent.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: " It's vitally important that we continue to tell these stories of successful people from our black communities. By doing so, we can inspire the next generation to push through barriers, go after their dreams and reach for the top."
The Powerlist 2016 top 10 are:
1. Tom Ilube - founder of Crosssword Cybersecurity, Africa Gifted Foundation;
2. Ric Lewis - founder, chief executive and chairman, Tristan Capital Partners;
3. Arlene Isaacs-Lowe - managing director, head of relationship management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Moody's;
4. Sir Lenny Henry - actor, writer and campaigner;
5. Mo Farah - Olympic champion long-distance runner;
6. Lewis Hamilton - Formula One world champion;
7. Ismail Ahmed - founder and chief executive, WorldRemit;
8. Dr Shirley Thompson - composer;
9. Sharon White - chief executive, Ofcom;
10. Steve McQueen - film director.

Question: where did henry place on the powerlist of the 100 most influential black brit

Answer: fourth

where did henry place on the powerlist of the 100 most influential black brit

Question: in what year did henry become chancellor of birmingham city university

Answer: 2016

in what year did henry become chancellor of birmingham city university

Question: what position does james henry hold at birmingham city university

Answer: chancellor

what position does james henry hold at birmingham city university

Question: what list did henry feature in in 2016

Answer: 100 most influential Black Britons

Question: who has henry been listed on the powerlist of 100 most influential

Answer: Black Britons

who has henry been listed on the powerlist of 100 most influential

In 2016, Henry was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society.

In 2016 , Henry was made a fellow of the Royal Television Society .

Sir Lenny Henry awarded RTS fellowship and judges award
- Published
Sir Lenny Henry has been awarded a fellowship of the Royal Television Society alongside a judges award at the RTS Programme Awards.
The actor and comedian said at the London ceremony he was surprised to receive the fellowship, saying it was beyond his "wildest expectations".
Sir Lenny won the judges award for his work raising awareness of diversity within the industry.
Other winners included actress Suranne Jones and presenters Ant and Dec.
Ant and Dec, who won their first RTS award in 1995, took home the prize for best entertainment performance, but Dec admitted he had managed to break the award soon after receiving it.
Jones won the best female actor award for her role in BBC drama Dr Foster, adding to the National TV Award she won in January. Meanwhile Anthony Hopkins won the male actor award for BBC Two's The Dresser.
Emmerdale beat rivals Coronation Street and EastEnders to win best soap and continuing drama.
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies followed its Bafta success by winning two awards - best drama serial and best drama writing for Peter Morgan.
Another double winner was comedy series Catastrophe. The show's creators and stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney won best scripted comedy and best comedy writers.
Michaela Coel, star of E4's comedy Chewing Gum, won the breakthrough award, which was a new prize this year. She also won best comedy performance.
ITV2's Release the Hounds beat The Graham Norton Show and The Last Leg to win best entertainment show.
The horror-themed game show sees contestants pushed to the limit in tests taken place during the night in a remote forest with the judges remarking it was "brilliantly made, with great production values which really move the genre forward".
Reggie Yates, who hosts Release the Hounds, won the presenter award for his BBC Three programme Reggie Yates' Extreme Russia.
ITV's Judge Rinder beat This Morning to win best daytime programme, with judges calling it "incredibly watchable, distinctive and entertaining".
BBC One's DIY SOS: Homes for Veterans beat First Dates and SAS: Who Dares Wins to win the popular factual and features category.
In other drama awards, Paul Abbott's No Offence won best drama series and Coalition won best single drama.
Broadcaster and journalist Joan Bakewell received the lifetime achievement award at the ceremony, hosted by Richard Madeley.
Earlier this month the Royal Television Society announced the judging panel this year had changed to include more women and people from minority backgrounds.
The full list of winners can be seen on the RTS website.

Question: what society did henry join in 2016

Answer: the Royal Television Society

Question: when was henry made a fellow of the royal television society

Answer: 2016

when was henry made a fellow of the royal television society

Question: what is the first name of the actor who has been made a fellow of the royal

Answer: Henry

what is the first name of the actor who has been made a fellow of the royal

Question: what was henry made in 2016

Answer: a fellow of the Royal Television Society

Question: what is henry made of in the royal television society

Answer: a fellow

what is henry made of in the royal television society

Screen and stage Film Year Title Role 1987 Coast to Coast Ritchie Lee 1988 The Suicide Club Cam 1989 Work Experience Terence Welles 1991 True Identity Miles Pope 1997 Famous Fred Fred (voice) 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Shrunken Head (voice) 2008 Penelope Krull (voice) 2012 The Pirates!

Screen and stage Film Year Title Role 1987 Coast to Coast Ritchie Lee 1988 The Suicide Club Cam 1989 Work Experience Terence Welles 1991 True Identity Miles Pope 1997 Famous Fred Fred ( voice ) 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Shrunken Head ( voice ) 2008 Penelope Krull ( voice ) 2012 The Pirates !

With Sir Lenny Henry narrating the special, Hugh Skinner reprises his role as the clumsy dragon, who has now formed a trio of medical professionals with his friend Princess Pearl (Patsy Ferran) and Sir Gadabout (Daniel Ings).
Featuring a star-studded cast, including the likes of Rob Brydon, Lucian Msamati and Mark Bonnar, this festive special is set to be just as enchanting as its predecessor.
Here's everything you need to know about the cast of Zog and the Flying Doctors.
Who does Lenny Henry play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Sir Lenny Henry returns to narrate Zog's second adventure, which sees him and his friends Pearl and Gadabout tend to a number of magical creatures throughout the land.
Where have I seen Lenny Henry before? The legendary actor is best known for his stand-up comedy, his long-running sketch show and for co-founding Comic Relief. He recently appeared in Danny and the Human Zoo, Doctor Who and is set to star in Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings spin-off.
Hugh Skinner plays Zog
Who does Hugh Skinner play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Hugh Skinner reprises his role of Zog – a young dragon who is tasked with rescuing his friend Pearl after she is captured by her uncle The King.
Where have I seen Hugh Skinner before? Best known for playing the bumbling Will Humphries in W1A and Harry in Fleabags, Skinner has starred in The Windsors, Harlots, Little Birds and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Patsy Ferran plays Princess Pearl
Who does Patsy Ferran play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Patsy Ferran voices Pearl – a young princess who finally achieves her dream of becoming a doctor when her uncle The King captures her.
Where have I seen Patsy Ferran before? Spanish theatre star Patsy Ferran is best known for starring in God's Own Country and Sky One's Jamestown. She's set to appear in upcoming film Tom and Jerry and BBC One miniseries Black Narcissus.
Daniel Ings plays Sir Gadabout
Who does Daniel Ings play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Daniel Ings takes over Kit Harington's role in this Zog sequel, voicing Sir Gadabout – a knight who becomes a key member of the flying medical trio.
Where have I seen Daniel Ings before? Lovesick star Daniel Ings has appeared in series including W1A, The Crown, Instinct, Sex Education and most recently, Sky One's I Hate Suzie.
Rob Brydon plays The King
Who does Rob Brydon play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Rob Brydon voices The King – Pearl's uncle who locks her up when bad weather forces the trio to land at his palace.
Where have I seen Rob Brydon before? Welsh comedian Rob Brydon has starred in a number of Julia Donaldson's adaptations, including Stick Man, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Zog. He is best known for starring in Gavin & Stacey, presenting Would I Lie to You and appearing in BBC Two's The Trip with Steve Coogan.
Mark Bonnar plays The Unicorn
Who does Mark Bonnar play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Mark Bonnar voices The Unicorn – a magical creature who receives medical attention from Zog and his friends.
Where have I seen Mark Bonnar before? Scottish actor Mark Bonnar has appeared in Shetland, Psychoville, Line of Duty, Unforgotten and more recently, Catastrophe, Humans and Quiz.
Lucian Msamati plays The Lion
Who does Lucian Msamati play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Lucian Msamati plays the role of The Lion – another animal who is helped by Zog and his friends.
Where have I seen Lucian Msamati before? Theatre star Lucian Msamati is best known for his roles in Game of Thrones, Kiri, His Dark Materials, Gangs of London and Talking Heads.
Alexandra Roach plays The Mermaid
Who does Alexandra Roach play in Zog and the Flying Doctors? Alexandra Roach voices The Mermaid – a creature helped by Zog, Gadabout and Pearl.
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Where have I seen Alexandra Roach before? Welsh actress Alexandra Roach starred in 2013 black comedy Utopia as Becky before appearing in No Offence, Inside No. 9, Black Mirror and Killing Eve.
Buy Julia Donaldson's Zog and the Flying Doctors on Amazon. Zog is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide, or take a look at our new TV shows 2020 page to find out what’s airing this autumn and beyond.

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in an Adventure with Scientists Peg-Leg Hastings (voice) 2014 Postman Pat: The Movie Mr Bernard (Tow Truck Manager; voice) 2020 Zog and the Flying Doctors Narrator

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Television Year Title Role 1976–1977

Main content
Lenny Henry showcases brand new stand-up combined with characters reprised from his early career and some new sketches. With Ronni Ancona, Omid Djalili and Peter Serafinowicz.
Lenny Henry showcases brand new stand-up combined with characters reprised from his early career and some new sketches. For the first time in twenty years, Lenny reprises a favourite from his Lenny Henry Show days, pirate radio DJ, Delbert Wilkins. Smooth talking Donovan Bogarde returns still in hot pursuit of Mrs Johnson and new sketches include a Twilight spoof and a send up of Cee Lo Green's Forget You. Lenny is joined by guest appearances from Ronni Ancona, Omid Djalili and Peter Serafinowicz.
Clips
Dusk Sketch
Duration: 01:24
-
Credits
|Role||Contributor|
|Presenter||Lenny Henry|
|Bella||Ronni Ancona|
|TV Chef||Omid Djalili|
|Steve||Peter Serafinowicz|
|Esther||Claire Benedict|
|Mrs Johnson||Ellen Thomas|
|Mr Sanderson||Colin McFarlane|
|Swedish woman||Carolin Stoltz|
|Young Sweet'n'Low||Joshua Warner-Campbell|
|Swedish man||Martin Wenner|
|Writer||Toby Davies|
|Writer||Kim Fuller|
|Writer||James Hendrie|
|Writer||Eamonn O'Neill|
|Writer||James O'Neill|
|Writer||Martin Shea|
|Writer||Marc Warren|
|Writer||Charles Peattie|
|Executive Producer||Geoff Posner|
|Director||Geoff Posner|
|Producer||Alex Walsh-Taylor|
|Production Manager||Alison Passey|

Question: when was the last time a tv show aired

Answer: 1976–1977

Question: in which year did the us television series ‘the golden age’ begin

Answer: 1976

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Question: 1976-1977 was the first year of what

Answer: Television Year

Question: what was the name of the tv show that ran from 1976 to 1977

Answer: Television Year

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Question: what was the name of the tv series that ran from 1976 to 1977

Answer: Television Year Title Role 1976–1977

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The Fosters Sonny Foster 1978–1981 Tiswas Himself , David Bellamy , Tommy Cooper , Trevor Mcdonut & various characters 1981–1983 Three of a Kind1984–1985 , 1987–1988 , 1994 , 1995 , 2004–2005The Lenny Henry ShowHimself Delbert Wilkins ( sitcom version ) 1987–2007 , 2011 — Comic Relief Presenter1991 Alive and Kicking Bernard and the Genie Josephus the Genie1992 In Dreams Lenny 1993–1996 Chef !

Question: who starred in the original three of a kind

Answer: Sonny Foster

who starred in the original three of a kind

Question: who hosted the tv show three of a kind

Answer: Lenny Henry ShowHimself Delbert Wilkins

Question: sonny foster, david bellamy, tommy cooper, trevor mcdonut

Answer: The Fosters

sonny foster, david bellamy, tommy cooper, trevor mcdonut

Question: where was the lenny henry show held

Answer: Comic Relief

Question: what years did the lenny henry show run

Answer: 1987–2007, 2011

Question: what was the name of the tv show that ran from 1984 to 1985 featuring lenny

Answer: Three of a Kind

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Question: what was the name of sonny foster's tv show

Answer: The Fosters Sonny Foster

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Question: when was the lenny henry show hosted

Answer: 1987–2007, 2011— Comic Relief

Television Year Title Role 1976–1977 The Fosters Sonny Foster 1978–1981 Tiswas Himself , David Bellamy , Tommy Cooper , Trevor Mcdonut & various characters 1981–1983 Three of a Kind1984–1985 , 1987–1988 , 1994 , 1995 , 2004–2005The Lenny Henry ShowHimself Delbert Wilkins ( sitcom version ) 1987–2007 , 2011 — Comic Relief Presenter1991 Alive and Kicking Bernard and the Genie Josephus the Genie1992

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Question: what was the name of the show hosted by lenny henry

Answer: Comic Relief

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Answer: Three of a Kind

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Answer: Lenny Henry

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In Dreams Lenny 1993–1996 Chef!

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Answer: 1993–1996

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Answer: Chef!

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Answer: In Dreams Lenny 1993–1996

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Answer: 1996

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Answer: –1996