O SHOWBIZ ROYALTY
In Africa we talked to little kids who’d lost their entire families Shakespeare was posh white people in tights I told Trevor: 40 years ago you’d have been the guy on security
Lenny was involved in Comic Relief from the beginning in 1985.
He says: “Richard Curtis went to Africa to see what we could do and I think he was shocked. He went in one room and everybody was dead.
“He went to another room and people were half dead. He went into another room and people were just about going to survive. He asked what the comedy community could do to help.”
From that moment, people fell in love with Comic Relief and Red Nose Day – the first one raised €16.7million. Lenny also visited countries like Ethiopia and Somalia to make important documentaries Lenny makes plenty of comment on diversity in his new sketches.
One of the lyrics to his rap video is: “This is the TV reflecting society, not much diversity.” He also remembers that he used to be the only black man among the Comic Relief crew when they visited Ethiopia.
“It used to be all white guys and me,” he recalls.
“Everyone thought I
At Red Nose Day ‘97 about how donations were desperately needed. “It was tough. We talked to little kids who had lost their families. I talked to a great grandfather who had lost his kids and their kids and he was in charge of the great grandchildren.
“He said if there’s any trouble in Britain, get a message to me and I’ll sort it. People were brilliant..” He is asked if the switch from funnyman to serious acting was easy. “It was really difficult,” he replies, “because I couldn’t act.”
A chance meeting with a theatre producer after hosting a radio show led to him doing Shakespeare in 2009. “The thing that changed my life was Othello. That was the real beginning of it,” he says, revealing he thought working class people from Dudley wouldn’t be the sort of people to do Shakespeare.
“Shakespeare was always posh white people in tights with a cabbage down the front. They always had a lisp,” he laughs. He recalls one performance where two women, their faces hidden by niqabs, watched intensely.
After his final monologue and dramatic death scene, he heard one say: “Shame man”, the other replied: “Innit though”. was from Ethiopia. Now crews are a bit more diverse.” But speaking to Sir Trevor, Lenny says: “Things must have changed because we’re two brothers talking to each other on prime time TV. Forty years ago you’d have been the guy on security, stopping people coming into the BBC. “People like us were not on the telly. “We were occasionally on screen. You never really saw a lot of people of colour. “We’ve still got a long way to go.” says: “We’re so proud this global success story began at C4 and that a second series is on its way.”
The show, with Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden as the teen heroes, is “truly unique”, she says.