Terry Hall (ventriloquist) Terry Hall (ventriloquist) Terence "Terry" Hall (20 November 1926 – 3 April 2007) was an English ventriloquist. He appeared regularly on television with his puppet, Lenny the Lion, whose catchphrase was "Aw, don't embawass me!" Hall is credited with having been one of the first ventriloquists to use a non-human puppet. Hall was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, where his parents ran a working men's club. He was educated at St Patrick's School in Oldham and at De La Salle College in Pendleton, Salford. Hall initially worked as a ventriloquist with a boy dummy, named Mickey Finn, and won a talent
Lenny Henry in small local venues in the West Midlands. 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. In 2003, Henry was listed in "The Observer" as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004, he was listed in "The Sunday Times" as the fifteenth funniest black performer of all time. Henry is associated with the British Comic Relief charity organisation, along with his former wife, comedian Dawn French, and Griff Rhys Jones,