Sir Lenworth George Henry, CBE is a British stand-up comedian, actor,
writer, television presenter, and comedian, best known for co-founding
charity Comic Relief and presenting various television programmes, including
The Magicians for BBC One. Early life
Henry was born in Dudley, West Midlands, on 29 August 1958, the son of Jamaican
immigrants. One of seven children, he was the first to be born in the United
Kingdom. He 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 first manager was Robert Luff,
who signed him in 1975 and gave him the opportunity to perform 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 obliged to perform and
regretted his part in the show. His earliest television appearance was
on the New Faces talent show, which he won in 1975 with an impersonation of
Stevie Wonder. The following year he appeared with Norman Beaton in LWT's
sitcom The Fosters, Britain's first comedy series with predominantly black
performers. His formative years were spent in working men's clubs, where he
impersonated mainly white characters such as the Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
character Frank Spencer. He also made guest appearances on television
programmes including Celebrity Squares, Seaside Special and The Ronnie Corbett
Show. = 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, and
subsequently performed and wrote for the show Three of a Kind, with comedians
Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield. Also in 1980, he teamed up with The
Comic Strip where he met his wife, comedienne 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 black British culture,
such as Theophilus P. Wildebeeste, Brixton pirate radio disc jockey DJ
Delbert Wilkins and Trevor MacDoughnut. 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 for a
further 20 years in various incarnations. He performed impressions
such as Tina Turner, Prince, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Run DMC, among
others. 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 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 tried his hand at soul singing,
appearing, for example, as a backing singer on Kate Bush's album The Red
Shoes and, backed by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, at Amnesty International's
Big 3-0 fund raising concert. He would later say that neither move showed him
at his best, and that he felt most comfortable with character comedy. Henry
would occasionally return to singing, performing 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.
= 2000s= 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, comedienne Dawn French, and Griff
Rhys Jones, and has hosted the show and also presented filmed reports from
overseas on the work of the charity. He was the voice of the British speaking
clock for two weeks in March 2003 in aid of Comic Relief.
Henry voiced the "shrunken head" on the Knight Bus in the 2004 movie Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and read the audio book version of Neil
Gaiman's Anansi Boys. He also voices a character 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 2001, for a BBC documentary, he
sailed a trimaran from Plymouth to Antigua, Jamaica with yachtsman Tony
Bullimore. His motive was to as he put it, "have one last adventure". 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 fund raising 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
on-line 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 supplies the voices of both Big and Small in the BBC
CBeebies Children's programs Big & Small.
= 2010s= 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 to hold the fort at home.
In 2009, he became the face of budget hotel operator Premier Inn, and to date
continues to star in adverts for them. One of the adverts caused controversy
and was banned from children's programming hours. The advert, from
2010, parodied a well-known scene from the film The Shining, with Lenny Henry
spoofing the scene originally starring Jack Nicholson, by 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, where the four celebrities
were sent to Kibera in Kenya, Africa's largest slum.
Henry was criticized 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".
Henry said: "I thought the King's Speech sketch was funny. Very funny. I make no
apologies for it." He has presented the Teachers Awards on
BBC television. Henry played Iggy the African on an
episode of Phineas and Ferb called "Where's Perry".
In 2012, Henry was one of the Diamond Jubilee Concert presenters. He also
provided the voice of Peg-Leg Hastings in The Pirates! In an Adventure with
Scientists!. In 2014, it was announced that Henry wrote Danny and the Human Zoo
for BBC One. In 2014, Lenny 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 2015, Lenny starred in a play at the Chichester Festival Theatre Mineva
Theatre. The play was Educating Rita. A two-man show which was a success. On
press night after Lenny forgot his lines he walked off stage and said sorry. This
was not popular. In 2015 Danny and the Human Zoo a
ninety-minute film for television was made and shown, written by Henry and
directed by Destiny Ekaragha, it was a fictionalised account of the former's
life as a teenager in 1970s Dudley. Shakespeare
In February 2009, Henry appeared in the Northern Broadsides production of
Othello, in the title role, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, directed
by Barrie Rutter, who, before the production opened, 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 September 11 to December 12, 2009, to be performed
at the Trafalgar Studios in Whitehall. He 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 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 Ephesus. 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 generally very
positive reviews. Paul Taylor in The Independent wrote that "Henry
beautifully conveys the tragicomic plight of an innocent abroad."
Music career In 2015, Lenny was asked by Sky Arts to
produce a show for them called Lenny Henry's Got The Blues, Lenny got
together 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.
Personal life Henry met Dawn French on the alternative
comedy circuit. They married in 1984 in Westminster, London; and have a
daughter, Billie, whom they adopted. He graduated in English Literature,, with
the Open University in 2007. He studied for an MA at Royal Holloway, University
of London in screenwriting for television and film, where he received a
distinction and where he is now studying for a PhD on the role of black people in
the media. On 6 April 2010, French and Henry
announced they were separating after 25 years of marriage. It was reported that
the separation was amicable. They had decided to separate in October the
previous year but left it until then as they were still in discussion over the
separation. Their divorce was finalised in 2010.
Henry has been an outspoken critic of British television's lack of ethnic
diversity in its programming. 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 since. His
guest editing of BBC Radio 4's Today programme received mixed reviews with
some claiming "discrimination" as Henry disallowed white people from taking
part. It was reported in June 2015 that Henry
was to receive a knighthood. In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours, it was
announced that he had been made a Knight Bachelor 'for services to drama and
charity' and therefore granted the title 'sir'.
Bibliography Margolis, Jonathan. Lenny Henry – A
Biography, Orion, 1995; ISBN 978-0-7528-0087-5
Narration Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman 2005.
Filmography Film
Television References
External links Interview with Lenny Henry and Barrie
Rutter on BBC News Lenny Henry at the BFI's Screenonline
Lenny Henry at the MBC's Encyclopedia of Television
Lenny Henry at the bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy
Lenny Henry at the Internet Movie Database
Learn how to write stories with Lenny Henry. BBC raw words
Articles "Not enough black people in top media
jobs, says Henry" Messenger News interview, May 2008
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