Showing results by author "Lenny Henry"

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.

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.

"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.

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.

Here's a collection of children's stories that are ideal for travel, voiced by our favourite celebrities, from a fantastic edition of Sinbad the Sailor, read by the brilliant comedian, writer and actor Rik Mayall, to the incredibly captivating Alice in Wonderland, told by the renowned Bobby Davro, and many more.