Showing results by narrator "Lenny Henry" in Biographies & Memoirs

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.

"My first experience of Shakespeare was reading it out in class and none of us understanding it, and we only got it when we saw the Zeffirelli film of Romeo and Juliet and realised - oh it’s a story! Why didn't he say that!" Starting at the recreated globe theatre, Lenny takes a journey of discovery through the plays he's now passionate about to find out why we so often put the bard on a pedestal.

Having been put off Shakespeare by unimaginative schoolteachers, Lenny Henry recently confessed to a late-flowering passion for the plays. Pursuing his new-found enthusiasm, he now gets to grips with how the magic comes to life, watching Sir Peter Hall in rehearsal for a triumphant Measure for Measure and by even trying his own hand at Othello.