 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 Cuarón).
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
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FILM & TV CREDITS
