Showing results by author "Lenny Henry" in All Categories

In 1975, a gangly black 16-year-old from Dudley, decked out in floppy bow tie and Frank Spencer beret, appeared on our TV screens for the first time. So began the transformation from apprentice factory worker to future national treasure of Sir Lenny Henry. In his long-awaited autobiography, Lenny tells the extraordinary story of his early years and sudden rise to fame.

Rising to the Surface traces Lenny Henry's career through the '80s and '90s. The 16-year-old who won a talent competition now has to navigate his way through the seas of professional comedy, learning his craft through sheer graft and hard work. We follow Lenny through a period of great creativity—prize-winning TV programmes, summer seasons across Britain, the starring role in a Hollywood film, stand-up gigs in New York and a gala wedding to Dawn French. But with each rise, there is a fall, the most traumatic being the death of his mother.

At the abolition of the slave trade two centuries ago, the British government paid huge amounts of compensation to slave-owners. Only in 2015 did British taxpayers stop paying off this debt. How is it that slave-owners were paid compensation from our taxes, yet the enslaved and their families were not? Why should the descendants of former slaveowners still benefit from inherited wealth while the successors of the victims of slavery receive nothing, and may have even paid towards the debt of compensation through their taxes?

Lenny Henry used to hate Shakespeare. For over 35 years he avoided anything to do with the Bard – until, in 2006, he decided to find out just what the rest of the world saw in him. In this enthralling collection, we hear how Lenny’s late-flowering passion for the legendary playwright’s works set him on the path that led to his sell-out stage debut as Othello. Bringing together this behind-the-scenes journey with the final result, this collection culminates in Lenny’s standout performance in a dynamic full-cast radio production of Othello.

Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, 19 prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it.

In this fascinating 10-part series, Lenny Henry traces the long and painful road that black Britons have travelled on stage and screen, from the overt racial discrimination of the 19th century, via the thinly veiled slurs that persisted through the first 70 years of the 20th, to today's more equal society. Interviewing playwrights, actors, directors and filmmakers - including Mustapha Matura, Roy Williams, Lolita Chakrabarti, Michael Buffong, Horace Ové and Steve McQueen - he tells the story of black drama and the influential artists who have shaped it over the past hundred years.

Stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, TV presenter: Lenny Henry is a multi-talented Renaissance man with a wide range of interests. But there are a few things (and people) he just doesn't get, despite their iconic status - and in What's So Great About...?, he explores them to find out what makes them so appealing.

Sir Lenny Henry rang up the Office for National Statistics to confirm something he'd been thinking about for a long time. They told him that only 29.5 per cent of the United Kingdom's population is made up of white, heterosexual, able-bodied men. So, he wonders, why do they still make up the vast majority of people we see in our media? Joining forces with the former chair of the Royal Television Society's Diversity Committee Marcus Ryder, he draws on decades of experience to reveal why recent efforts to diversify media have been thus far ineffective and why they are simply not enough.

Sir Lenny Henry has had a long and successful career as a comedian, impressionist, actor and presenter. Having starred in several plays in the West End and on radio, he was inspired to complete an MA in screenwriting and in 2011 penned his first radio drama, Corrinne Come Back and Gone, which opens this collection. He continued his writing career with three more Radio 4 plays and nine episodes of his comic monologue series Lenny Henry’s Rogues Gallery. Collected here for the first time, listen to these poignant and humorous original dramas.