#015 - Sir Lenny Henry

Lenny’s work stretches from classical theatre to arena tours, music to film, Comic Relief to studying a PhD on the role of people of colour in the media. He continues to balance comedy, drama, activism and entertainment on radio, TV and live. Since bursting onto our screens as winner of New Faces, Sir Lenny Henry has been firmly established as one Britain’s most well known comedians. From Tiswas to Shakespeare via singing the Blues - Sir Lenny Henry is a diverse and well loved comedian and sometime actor. Best known as co-founder of Comic Relief, Sir Lenny Henry has won numerous awards, including Lifetime Achievement at the National Comedy Awards, and a Special Award from BAFTA.  Working his way around working men’s clubs, and eventually gaining some recognition in the form of the New Faces talent show in 1975, Lenny enjoyed his TV breakthrough in LWTs sitcom The Fosters – the UK’s first comedy series featuring predominantly black performers. Lenny then made his mark on Tiswas before progressing to sketch show Three of a Kind alongside Tracy Ullman and David Copperfield. But it wasn’t until he landed his own vehicle that his best-known comic creations emerged in the forms of Delbert Wilkins and the one man sex machine Theophilus P Wildebeest. It established Lenny as a versatile comic pioneer, as comfortable with sketches and standup as he was with sitcoms, musical comedy and impressions. Lenny’s career went on to include more sketch series, Christmas specials, his own comedy series, Chef!, and a Hollywood debut in Disney’s True Identity. Returning to Britain he starred in the hard-hitting drama Alive and Kicking with Robbie Coltrane - winning a Golden Nymph Award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, as well as the acclaimed Hope And Glory, based on the real-life work of headteacher William Atkinson. Lenny has also developed another string to his bow with his love of Shakespeare; treading the boards to great acclaim as Othello, leading to other critically praised stage roles in Fences and The Comedy of Errors. As well known as his performing is Lenny’s tireless campaigning work. One of the co-founders of Comic Relief he has travelled the world seeing the charity’s work first hand and has been a part of every event the organisations has staged. He is also a vocal campaigner for higher profile roles for BAME people in the media, including undertaking a PhD on the subject. The music for the podcast is Twiggy's version of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks and can be found on Apple Music at this link https://music.apple.com/gb/album/romantically-yours/693460953 If you’ve enjoyed listening to “Tea With Twiggy” please give take a moment to give us a lovely 5 STAR rating on Apple Podcasts. It really helps other people to find the show.If you haven’t done so already please subscribe to this podcast so you auto-magically get the next episodes for free and do tell all your friends and family about it too. If you want to connect with me I’d love to hear from you. You can find me on Twitter @Twiggy Or you can find me on Instagram @Twiggy Lawson My thanks go to all the people that have helped this podcast happen: ● Many thanks to James Carrol and all the team at Northbank Talent Management ● Thanks to all the team at Stripped Media including Ben Williams, who edits the show, my producer Kobi Omenaka and Executive Producers Tom Whalley and Dave Corkery If you want to know more about this podcast and other produced by Stripped Media please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices