0:00:05 > 0:00:08Lenny Henry started off as being a comic...
0:00:08 > 0:00:12"Get up! It's time for Sunday school!"
0:00:12 > 0:00:13You'd go, "God!"
0:00:13 > 0:00:16And she'd go, "Yes, he's going to be there as well!"
0:00:16 > 0:00:19..and has transformed himself, by a lot of hard work,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22into one of the most brilliant actors.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24Oh, my fair warrior!
0:00:24 > 0:00:25Oh, my dear Othello.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29And he's a man of many, many talents.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30And it's amazing how he does it.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32He makes it look so easy.
0:00:36 > 0:00:37He's tried all sorts of things.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40But unlike most people who try lots of things
0:00:40 > 0:00:41and fall flat on their face,
0:00:41 > 0:00:43the sickening thing about Lenny,
0:00:43 > 0:00:44he can actually do most of them as well.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46He actually can do just about everything.
0:00:49 > 0:00:50Are you enjoying this?
0:00:53 > 0:00:56I can think of few people in TV
0:00:56 > 0:01:00who have used their fame more brilliantly.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02I mean, in his case, for the diversity issue
0:01:02 > 0:01:04and for Comic Relief.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05Welcome to Comic Relief!
0:01:07 > 0:01:10The BAFTA Special Award goes to a man I am proud to call a friend.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13Please make some noise for Sir Lenny Henry.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51I was born in Dudley in the West Midlands in 1958.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54My parents had come over previously
0:01:54 > 0:01:57to find work and to start a new life.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59My mum came over first.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Because my Uncle Clifton said you can earn money here,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04up to 30 shillings a week.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09There was a sense of disconnect because my dad was still in Jamaica.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12She fell in love with somebody while she was here.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13And I'm the result of that.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20So when my dad came over from Jamaica,
0:02:20 > 0:02:24negotiations had to be negotiated.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Otherwise, things weren't going to work.
0:02:27 > 0:02:28So...
0:02:28 > 0:02:32What was amazing was my father raised me as his child.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34But I always felt weird. I always felt a bit different.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37And I always, kind of, felt odd.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44I went to the Bluecoat Secondary Modern,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47which is just up the road from our house.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Parents nowadays do research and look at league tables
0:02:50 > 0:02:52and talk to people at Ofsted,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55and personally go around all the schools in the area
0:02:55 > 0:02:58to look at what school might be suitable for their children.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00My mum looked out the window, and said,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02"There's a school up there, that's where you're going.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04"It's got a fence around it so you can't get out."
0:03:07 > 0:03:09There were, like, over 30 children in most of the classes.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11It was quite a diverse school.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13There was a lot of racism flying around.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16It was quite tough and working-class.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19So I was a bit lost, and didn't really know
0:03:19 > 0:03:22where I fit in for quite a long time, and...
0:03:22 > 0:03:28Mr Brooks was the one, though, who recognised that I was...funny.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30I was also the, kind of, comedy jukebox.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33I was the one that entertained everybody else.
0:03:33 > 0:03:34I killed my friends with jokes.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36They thought I was hilarious.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38Anything I did, I was the guy.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41When I first started, I did Top Cat.
0:03:41 > 0:03:42Which is sort of...
0:03:42 > 0:03:44"OK, man, let's move, move, move!"
0:03:44 > 0:03:45There was Top Cat.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47"OK, Top Cat. OK, TC."
0:03:47 > 0:03:50People would poke me and I'd just come out with a voice.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52So that was my teens, really.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55That's how I got to talk to girls. I had no conversation.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58But could do Frank Spencer at the drop of a hat!
0:03:58 > 0:04:00We're going to hear the patter
0:04:00 > 0:04:01of tiny little feet.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Oh, no, no, no, no, Betty.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10I'm not having another cat in this house.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12AS FRANK: "Hello, would you like me to buy you a drink?
0:04:12 > 0:04:15"I've got no money or anything, but I'll buy you a pony."
0:04:15 > 0:04:17You know, ridiculous.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24I got up at the Queen Mary Ballroom when I was 15.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27I wasn't supposed to be in there, but we all snuck in.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29It was just full of 14-year-olds.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31I don't know what the management thought they were doing.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34You'd probably get closed down now, wouldn't you?
0:04:34 > 0:04:38But there were all these kids in there pretending to be over 18!
0:04:38 > 0:04:40All trying to do their science homework
0:04:40 > 0:04:42before Curtis Mayfield came on, you know.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46There was a DJ there called Oscar Michael,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48and he did a talent competition every week.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50This one week, Greg and Max said,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53"Why don't you get up and do that stuff that you do? It's funny."
0:04:53 > 0:04:54And I was always a bit scared
0:04:54 > 0:04:58and worried about doing it for the general public.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00I just thought it was for us, you know?
0:05:00 > 0:05:02And they said, "Oh, get up and do Elvis."
0:05:02 > 0:05:04And Elvis was one thing I could do.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08# Warden threw a party in the county jail... #
0:05:08 > 0:05:10And I knew all the words.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13# The warden threw a party in the county jail... #
0:05:13 > 0:05:15So I got up and I did Jailhouse Rock.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17And, oh, my God...
0:05:19 > 0:05:21..for the first time,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24I saw over 100 people all looking this way, at me,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28with a spotlight on me, with a mic in my hand, sort of,
0:05:28 > 0:05:29pretending to be Elvis - "Thank you."
0:05:29 > 0:05:31# ..dancing to the Jailhouse Rock... #
0:05:31 > 0:05:34And it was somehow entertaining.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37And I just thought, "I'll have some of this! This is great!"
0:05:37 > 0:05:40MUSIC: You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate
0:05:50 > 0:05:52Enjoying yourselves, are you?
0:05:52 > 0:05:53I'll soon change that.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54A man walked into a bar.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Oops, was an iron bar!
0:05:56 > 0:05:58# I believe in miracles
0:05:59 > 0:06:02# Where you from
0:06:02 > 0:06:03# You sexy thing? #
0:06:03 > 0:06:05I went to this club in Birmingham to do an audition.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Bunked off school. My parents didn't know where I was.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09This was the day where I thought,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11"Oh, if this is show business, I'm in!"
0:06:11 > 0:06:14I just thought, "This is fantastic! What a great world!
0:06:14 > 0:06:17"You get to wear sparkly costumes, and you get to have props,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20"and you get to sing songs and do jokes.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22"This is a great world. I want to be in this world."
0:06:22 > 0:06:25And so when they called my name, and it was about six o'clock,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27I'd had all day to be scared.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29And I don't know what was happening.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32I think the gods just went like this...
0:06:32 > 0:06:35And it just went... And I walked on stage,
0:06:35 > 0:06:36and I put my Tommy Cooper hat on,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38and I walked up to the mic and said...
0:06:38 > 0:06:41AS TOMMY COOPER: "You may have seen some of these impressions before,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43"ladies and gentlemen, but not in colour."
0:06:43 > 0:06:46And the whole audience did this thing
0:06:46 > 0:06:48where it wasn't just a laugh,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51it was, kind of, a recognition of something.
0:06:51 > 0:06:52And it was...
0:06:55 > 0:06:57..extraordinary.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02Extraordinary moment where the stars aligned and suddenly, I had them.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05I had them there. And that was it.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07I went on television in the January of 1975.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09My life changed for ever.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13# You're a star, you're a star
0:07:13 > 0:07:16# A lame suit and a new guitar
0:07:16 > 0:07:22# And I know that you'll go far Cos you're a star... #
0:07:22 > 0:07:23OK, Paul.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29He's a really new exciting face to television. Just 16 years old.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Enough from me - let him express himself in three minutes,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34as we bring on Mr Lenny Henry.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35APPLAUSE
0:07:35 > 0:07:38THEME MUSIC TO SOME MOTHERS DO 'AVE 'EM
0:07:38 > 0:07:39Everybody did Frank Spencer.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42And this figure with a mac and a beret, we were going,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44"Oh, no, it's going to be another Frank Spencer."
0:07:44 > 0:07:47And this very young, bony, black face turned around going,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49"Mm, Betty." And we went, "This is extraordinary!"
0:07:49 > 0:07:54We saw the Queen on Christmas Day, didn't we, my darling?
0:07:54 > 0:07:56That's my baby, Jessica, that is.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Oh! There's a lot of people out there.
0:08:07 > 0:08:08We were in a transition
0:08:08 > 0:08:10from never seeing a black face on television
0:08:10 > 0:08:13to beginning to see people trying to break through.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16And you had to acknowledge the fact, in a way,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19which Lenny was very smart at doing,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22that this was a surprise for the audience.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25So, it's a comment about the period,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and the fact that he had to do that to get across to the audience
0:08:28 > 0:08:32rather than, "He shouldn't have been doing that material," you know.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34AS CLIFF RICHARD: # Got myself a cryin', talkin'
0:08:34 > 0:08:36# Sleepin', walkin'
0:08:36 > 0:08:38# Living doll... #
0:08:39 > 0:08:42What was great about the New Faces thing was that,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45as a Caribbean family growing up in the UK,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48there weren't any representations of us on TV.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52So for us, it was like, you definitely watched TV
0:08:52 > 0:08:54when he was on - the whole house was watching it.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56I'm Lenny Henry, and I'm on the New Faces winners show
0:08:56 > 0:08:58a week on Saturday.
0:08:58 > 0:08:59It's time you old faces moved over
0:08:59 > 0:09:01a bit and let us new ones get in.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Old faces?
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And I knew I was famous cos I was in Leicester
0:09:11 > 0:09:13a few weeks afterwards.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15And the bus driver stopped the traffic in the middle of the...
0:09:15 > 0:09:17"Lenny Henry! I saw you on television!
0:09:17 > 0:09:19"You were brilliant on New Faces!
0:09:19 > 0:09:22"Thank you, my son! Keep going!"
0:09:22 > 0:09:23This guy stopped traffic,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25left his bus in the middle of the street,
0:09:25 > 0:09:26got out, you know,
0:09:26 > 0:09:28all the passengers like this, going...
0:09:28 > 0:09:31"I'd really like to get to my destination.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33"But the Jamaican bus driver seems to be talking to a celebrity."
0:09:36 > 0:09:39# We wish you a merry Christmas
0:09:39 > 0:09:42# We wish you a merry Christmas... #
0:09:42 > 0:09:44I got signed up to do The Black And White Minstrel Show,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48famously because I was at the Portman Hotel with Robert Luff,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51who eventually became my manager, who was the entrepreneur
0:09:51 > 0:09:53who owned the rights to The Black And White Minstrel Show
0:09:53 > 0:09:56and they were having a philosophical conversation,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59the grown-ups, about what kind of show should Lenny do.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02And what I didn't know at the time, and I know this now,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05is that the Race Relations Board had been giving Robert Luff stick
0:10:05 > 0:10:07about The Black And White Minstrel Show.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09No matter how beautiful the costumes were,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12no matter how great the songs were, it was based on a racist premise
0:10:12 > 0:10:14and you don't employ any black people.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15It's wrong.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17I didn't know any of that.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20I just knew it was this old bloke who was talking about show business,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24and I was slightly drifting off, and looking at the sweet trolley.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And then, 45 minutes later,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29I'd signed away my whole career
0:10:29 > 0:10:32to be in The Black And White Minstrel Show
0:10:32 > 0:10:33for the next five years.
0:10:33 > 0:10:44# We're dreaming of a white Christmas... #
0:10:44 > 0:10:46You've got no chance!
0:10:48 > 0:10:50It's very controversial, isn't it?
0:10:50 > 0:10:52Because the whole business of, you know,
0:10:52 > 0:10:55people blacking up or whatever.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57But I mean, Lenny would have thought very carefully
0:10:57 > 0:11:00about what he wanted to do.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02I could have said, "No, I'm not going to do it."
0:11:02 > 0:11:06But there was a childlike element in me that just thought,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08"If I don't do what I'm told, I'll get in trouble,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11"and they'll take show business away!"
0:11:11 > 0:11:12So...
0:11:12 > 0:11:16"They'll take all of show business away if I say no to this!"
0:11:16 > 0:11:18So basically, I said yes, cos I was scared.
0:11:18 > 0:11:19MUSIC: London Calling by The Clash
0:11:19 > 0:11:23Then Michael Grade, in 1976, must have seen me,
0:11:23 > 0:11:24because he asked me to come to London,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26to London Weekend Television studios.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34I'd seen him on New Faces, but more importantly,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37I'd seen him on stage when, believe it or not,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40he was in The Black And White Minstrel Show's stage show.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42He sat me down
0:11:42 > 0:11:43and he said, "Watch this."
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And for half an hour, we watched this show called Good Times.
0:11:46 > 0:11:47# Good times
0:11:47 > 0:11:50- # Any time you meet a payment - Good times
0:11:50 > 0:11:53- # Any time you meet a friend - Good times... #
0:11:53 > 0:11:56It was extremely funny.
0:11:56 > 0:11:57It wasn't about race.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00It was about an ordinary family, having the same problems
0:12:00 > 0:12:04that a white, working-class, blue-collar family would be having.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Hey, Junior, what you doing home so early?
0:12:07 > 0:12:10- It ain't but eight o'clock. - It was a bad scene, man.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14I knocked on the girl's door.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Her father answered the door,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19smelled the mouthwash on my breath...
0:12:21 > 0:12:23..saw the gleam in my eye...
0:12:24 > 0:12:27..and slammed the door right in my face.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31And Michael Grade said, "Would you like to play the eldest son
0:12:31 > 0:12:33"in a British version of this?"
0:12:33 > 0:12:37And so I saw this fantastic episode of Good Times
0:12:37 > 0:12:39and went, "Yeah."
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Hello, gorgeous people.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Pretty sister. Lovely mother. Handsome father.
0:12:50 > 0:12:51Get your wallet out, Samuel.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55That's a real, "Could you lend me a couple of quid?" greeting
0:12:55 > 0:12:56if ever I heard one!
0:12:56 > 0:12:58I know. Forget it, sonny.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01My wallet is so empty, boy, it would make a mugger cry.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03Dad, Mum,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05how could you even think I had anything on my mind
0:13:05 > 0:13:07other than pure niceness?
0:13:07 > 0:13:08And we got a fantastic cast.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Everybody said we wouldn't be able to cast it.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Carmen Munroe and Norman Beaton, who became a big star in Desmond's.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Norman Beaton was brilliant.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20And Norman Beaton taught me as much about acting as anybody.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22And Lenny was wonderful in it.
0:13:22 > 0:13:23I mean, if he'd said no,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26the show would never have happened cos I couldn't imagine
0:13:26 > 0:13:28how else we would have cast the lead character.
0:13:28 > 0:13:29Hello!
0:13:29 > 0:13:32This is the Casanova of the Caribbean.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Otherwise known as Dial-a-Thrill.
0:13:36 > 0:13:37Speak first, it's your tuppence that...
0:13:37 > 0:13:39What? Who?
0:13:39 > 0:13:43McDonald who? Oh, at the chip shop.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44We could have been any family, really.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46But the fact we were a black family
0:13:46 > 0:13:47made us different to everything else.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50So for two years, it did very well.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59I was in a, kind of, a weird place as a performer,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02doing the clubs and panto, and stuff,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05and then Chris Tarrant came to see me in Great Yarmouth,
0:14:05 > 0:14:06at the behest of Frank Carson.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08AS CARSON: "You should go and see Lenny. He's funny."
0:14:08 > 0:14:10There's a young black guy.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12That black guy who did New Faces, Lenny Henry.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14I went, "Oh, where is he?" He said, "He's down in Yarmouth."
0:14:14 > 0:14:16I went to see him. The only thing I remember, really,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19apart from him being just a big amiable guy,
0:14:19 > 0:14:21was that his flies burst onstage.
0:14:21 > 0:14:22I was improvising and messing around,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24cos I didn't have enough material, really.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26But I was messing around a lot.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28And Tarrant was in that night.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30I remember in the dressing room afterwards, we were chatting,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32and he said, "That's not supposed to happen."
0:14:32 > 0:14:35I said, "I thought that was part of the act. It's very clever."
0:14:35 > 0:14:37He said, "No, that's the first time it's happened.
0:14:37 > 0:14:38"Hope it never happens again!"
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And afterwards he said, "I don't know what you're doing in this show,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44"but that was pretty funny - do you want to be in Tiswas?"
0:14:46 > 0:14:49# Saturday, Saturday
0:14:49 > 0:14:52# Saturday is Tiswas day... #
0:14:52 > 0:14:55What I thought he wanted from me was,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58AS FRANK SPENCER: "Hello, Betty!" AS COOPER: "Thank you very much."
0:14:58 > 0:15:00I thought he wanted me to do my act every week. But he didn't.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04Thank you very much. I was driving past a farmhouse the other day,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06and I saw the farm on the doorstep.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09I said, "Hey! Six of your hens have just stopped laying."
0:15:09 > 0:15:10He said, "How do you know?
0:15:10 > 0:15:12I said, "I've just run them over!"
0:15:15 > 0:15:20At the end of the very first series of Tiswas, we almost got rid of him.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22We loved him - as a guy, he was brilliant,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25brilliant fun, and we all looked after him as one of our gang.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26But he then came up with this...
0:15:26 > 0:15:29He said, "I think I'd like to do David Bellamy",
0:15:29 > 0:15:32and we're going, "But, you know, David Bellamy's sort of big,
0:15:32 > 0:15:33"and old and has got a beard.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35"You're young and black look nothing like him."
0:15:35 > 0:15:37He said, "No, but I could do the voice and whatever."
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And that kind of changed everything.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42AS BELLAMY: Well, it's really wonderful to be back here
0:15:42 > 0:15:44- on Compost Corner.. - Compost Corner!
0:15:44 > 0:15:46..with my wonderful friend, pig manure.
0:15:46 > 0:15:47Now, what you need to do...
0:15:53 > 0:15:55You found a thing to talk about every week
0:15:55 > 0:15:57and you found a way to get jokes in.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59And that meant you weren't doing your act all the time.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01And that, kind of, saved my life.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Because it was live and it was very much made up, you know,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06on the back of a beer mat,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08he thrived on it.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12And he enjoyed... He was able to do anything.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16It meant I could improvise.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18It meant I could mess around.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19And I learned how to be on live telly,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21because I was watching Tarrant,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23who was a master of being relaxed on television.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28# Saturday is Tiswas day... #
0:16:28 > 0:16:33I suddenly had grown into this quite experienced performer.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36It was nice to be back.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40I think I've just changed my outlook on the whole situation.
0:16:40 > 0:16:41And there was a record called...
0:16:41 > 0:16:43# OK Fred...
0:16:43 > 0:16:46# Now I'm a yaga yaga... #
0:16:46 > 0:16:48# OK Fred
0:16:48 > 0:16:52# Now you're a yaga yaga... #
0:16:52 > 0:16:56And I thought, "Well, I should do a Rastafarian who says 'OK...'"
0:16:56 > 0:16:58That was, like, I mean, really basic.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00Comedy 101.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03# I do not want you to say OK
0:17:03 > 0:17:06# O-O-O-K... #
0:17:06 > 0:17:09'My dad used to take bread and condensed milk sandwiches to work.'
0:17:09 > 0:17:11I thought, "This guy should eat bread and condensed milk sandwiches."
0:17:11 > 0:17:14The good thing about bread and condensed milk sandwiches
0:17:14 > 0:17:16is you can really get into the dunking.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Oh, that's revolting!
0:17:18 > 0:17:22It's really great. In fact, I'm dunking for Jamaica!
0:17:22 > 0:17:23We did a thing called This Is Your Life,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27where I was Eamonn Andrews with a silly wig on, and...
0:17:27 > 0:17:28Lenny Henry, you thought you were here
0:17:28 > 0:17:32to do an unconvincing impression of a well-known newscaster
0:17:32 > 0:17:34and get a bucket of water thrown over your head.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37In fact, Lenny Henry, comedian catastrophic,
0:17:37 > 0:17:39This Is Your Life.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43"THIS IS YOUR LIFE THEME" PLAYS
0:17:43 > 0:17:45And one week, it was my joke This Is Your Life,
0:17:45 > 0:17:47and then my mum walked on!
0:17:47 > 0:17:49CHEERING
0:17:55 > 0:17:58My mum is usually wrestling a whole sheep to the ground,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00and cooking mutton soup on a Saturday.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Why is she here, in a TV studio,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05where there are people in the cage being covered in water
0:18:05 > 0:18:06every five minutes?
0:18:06 > 0:18:08Why is my mum here?
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Why aren't you at bingo with Bernie?
0:18:13 > 0:18:15He was terribly protective about his mum,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17who was a wonderful woman,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21who made me the best Christmas cake of my life, every Christmas.
0:18:21 > 0:18:2595% rum, the first Christmas, 96 the second.
0:18:25 > 0:18:26It was the most wonderful cake.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33I just had this silly idea that I didn't think would happen.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35And I just said, quietly to my director, I said,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38"Wouldn't it be good if we could get the real Trevor McDonald on,
0:18:38 > 0:18:39"the real Trevor McDoughnut?
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Chris Tarrant, I think, is the person who called me.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43And I thought it was great fun.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45THEME MUSIC TO "THE PROFESSIONALS"
0:18:47 > 0:18:49There had to be great subterfuge
0:18:49 > 0:18:54and I remember Chris Tarrant took me around the side of the building
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and went in through a side entrance under a blanket.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Now it might surprise you to hear me say
0:19:00 > 0:19:04that that's the first time I'd ever been made to enter a building
0:19:04 > 0:19:06under such a disguise.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Walked him in. Took the blanket off his head.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11And I remember vividly putting him right beside Lenny,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13who was doing his Trevor McDoughnut impression,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15and just sort of tapped him on the shoulder.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20In Oxford Street today, a suicidal Japanese fighter pilot...
0:19:20 > 0:19:22- Len...- Pardon?
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Argh...!
0:19:31 > 0:19:33He was absolutely shocked.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Well, good morning, Daddy.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39There he was, next to me.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41And it was like this homage.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43I suddenly... It was like...
0:19:43 > 0:19:45You know, he was my hero.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47- You listen carefully now. - Can I throw some water?
0:19:47 > 0:19:49No. No water. No water.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55It would have been rather churlish not to, I felt,
0:19:55 > 0:19:57and unstylish and uncool.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01So I decided to allow myself to be doused with water
0:20:01 > 0:20:02by Lenny Henry and his friends.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06A doctor has tied a rope around his ankles and says he's certain
0:20:06 > 0:20:08that the man will pull through.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16# Stand by me... #
0:20:16 > 0:20:18I was a fan, and he was my fan.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20And suddenly, we were each other's fan.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24I was responsible for helping him to buy his first car.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29It made my day. It made my year.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31People still talk it to this day.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34# Yeah, it's such a thrill
0:20:34 > 0:20:37# Yeah, he's your little Bill
0:20:37 > 0:20:40# Please tell me who's the dad
0:20:40 > 0:20:41# It's you, Ron, Ron, Ron
0:20:41 > 0:20:43# No, you, John, John... #
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Paul Jackson had seen me.
0:20:45 > 0:20:46He was the producer of Three Of A Kind,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and he found me and David Copperfield from clubland
0:20:49 > 0:20:52and Tracey Ullman from a Les Blair play,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54and he put the three of us together.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57# I think I know the one
0:20:57 > 0:20:58# It's you Ron, Ron
0:20:58 > 0:21:00# It's you Ron, Ron... #
0:21:00 > 0:21:01Paul Jackson was brilliant,
0:21:01 > 0:21:06cos he allowed us to be the arbiters of our own show.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09We got to choose. It was our show. We chose the characters.
0:21:09 > 0:21:10We chose the sketches.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13And I said, "Well, I want to do jokes that aren't about
0:21:13 > 0:21:15"the fact that I'm black.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18"I want to do jokes that support who I am,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21"where I can espouse my community and my culture
0:21:21 > 0:21:24"without having to apologise for it all the time."
0:21:24 > 0:21:26All the writers went, "Yeah, OK, we've got you, Len."
0:21:26 > 0:21:29The idea of Three Of A Kind was we weren't going to do
0:21:29 > 0:21:33anything that was specifically ethnically defined, in a way.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35So if we wanted a policeman,
0:21:35 > 0:21:38it didn't matter if it was Lenny, or if it was Tracey, or whatever.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42And the fact that Lenny was a policeman in some of the sketches,
0:21:42 > 0:21:43it wasn't that he was a black policeman.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45He was a policeman.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47- Any clues? - Well, we found the body here, ma'am.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49He had a rope around his neck, a gun by his side,
0:21:49 > 0:21:50and he was holding a knife.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52So what do you think?
0:21:52 > 0:21:53I think he were poisoned.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58For the characters, I was encouraged by Tracey Ullman, who just said,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02"You know, base it on members of your family, base it on anybody."
0:22:02 > 0:22:05And because she'd done a kind of Mike Leigh, Les Blair,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08improv-type acting stuff,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12watching her peel the layers of a character, like an onion,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14and really getting into it,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17it made me want to do that too.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Christ, Chrissy, when are you going to get a job?
0:22:22 > 0:22:24I don't know, Angie, I don't know.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28We've had nothing to eat for months. All we had to eat is black stuff.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31We've had boiled black stuff, grilled black stuff,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34black stuff pudding. black stuff in their jackets...
0:22:34 > 0:22:35The kids are sick of it.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38They've got black stuff coming out of their ears.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40What kids?
0:22:40 > 0:22:42What do you mean, what kids?
0:22:42 > 0:22:44We've got two kids.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47- Since when? - Since about 12 years ago.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48Well, that's bloody great, that is.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50On top of everything else, I've got two kids.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Nobody tells me anything!
0:22:52 > 0:22:55He would have the physicality of the character,
0:22:55 > 0:22:57and he'd know how the character walked,
0:22:57 > 0:22:59how the characters spoke.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01And then I'd think,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05"He's doing that bit, so let's try and find the style."
0:23:05 > 0:23:08My name is Dermot Wilkins, and I'm from Brixton.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Hub of the universe.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Brixton. That well-known South London resort.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Well, the last resort, anyway!
0:23:16 > 0:23:18HE CACKLES
0:23:18 > 0:23:21Delbert came from a guy called Kev,
0:23:21 > 0:23:23who was a dancer I spent some time with.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28I hung out with him one day and Kev had this, kind of, weird,
0:23:28 > 0:23:35kind of, very, sort of, nice thing going on with his voice,
0:23:35 > 0:23:40quite camp, but, kind of, absolutely in your face
0:23:40 > 0:23:41about everything.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44Very vehement about the way he talked about things.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47He'd say, "You know what I mean?" at the end of everything.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49"You know what they mean? You get me? you understand?"
0:23:49 > 0:23:52You're a well crucial audience, you know what I mean?
0:23:52 > 0:23:54HE CACKLES
0:23:54 > 0:23:55And we did Fred Dredd.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Good evening. When this government came into power,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01we promised to defeat inflation.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04# Terrible and wicked inflation
0:24:04 > 0:24:07# Caused by the last administration
0:24:07 > 0:24:10# An economic dour situation
0:24:10 > 0:24:13# All around us fists are waving in the air
0:24:13 > 0:24:15# But what do we care? #
0:24:15 > 0:24:17He was getting political attitudes
0:24:17 > 0:24:21that he was able to express in a comic setting,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25and with the, kind of, buffer of a comic character.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28It was kind of alternative-lite, if you like.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31So it had all the appearance of alternative comedy,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33but with none of the calories.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37# You know it causes me distress when I read in the press
0:24:37 > 0:24:40# The stories of nuclear destruction
0:24:40 > 0:24:43# How it would mean a population reduction
0:24:43 > 0:24:47# And lower my chance of seduction
0:24:47 > 0:24:50# But I don't want a bomb on my house... #
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It's funny. He made fun of his culture,
0:24:52 > 0:24:55but he did it in a way that was endearing.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It brought a lot of attention to Caribbean culture, you know,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00in a really positive way, even though he was taking the mick,
0:25:00 > 0:25:02and that's clever.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04# I been hanging around for eternity
0:25:04 > 0:25:07# Waiting for you to turn on to me
0:25:07 > 0:25:09# But now you're here there's no turning back
0:25:09 > 0:25:10# Prepare yourself for a laugh attack... #
0:25:10 > 0:25:12When I got my own show, I had no idea
0:25:12 > 0:25:13what I was going to do on the show.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I just, sort of, hoped it would be a bit like Three Of A Kind,
0:25:16 > 0:25:17but just with me.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19You're into Dermot Wilkins
0:25:19 > 0:25:21on the Brixton Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24- Are you feeling totally spondicious? CROWD:- Yes!
0:25:24 > 0:25:28Well, I'm not, because my one and only two-litre Ford Wicked
0:25:28 > 0:25:29has been stolen.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Yeah, that's right,
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Vorsprung Durch Nicked!
0:25:33 > 0:25:36And I migrated some of my characters from Three Of A Kind,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38but I also was allowed to do different stuff.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41My name is Deakus.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43I come from, um...
0:25:47 > 0:25:49..Jamaica.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Deakus - "Good evening!" -
0:25:52 > 0:25:55was based on a man called Earl.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57We called him Early, and he was the bread man.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01He delivered bread and Jamaican Bun, he had a van,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and every time he came in, he'd go "Hello, hello, hello."
0:26:05 > 0:26:06When I first come here,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09people told me the only way to get a job in Hengland,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11was with the old school tie.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14So I wore my old school tie for three years.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15Not a damn thing happened!
0:26:16 > 0:26:18What made it more funny for us
0:26:18 > 0:26:20is that you knew someone in your family who was like that.
0:26:20 > 0:26:21That was the thing.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24So watching him was just like watching your uncle,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27or someone who'd come round on a Sunday for dinner.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29And you'd all, you know... He was that guy.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32He'd draw on everything. He's like a magpie, really.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35If he sees any influences, if he sees anything he likes,
0:26:35 > 0:26:39he'll internalise it and it'll come out somewhere,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41in a sketch, or when we're writing.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43My name is Theophilus P Wildebeeste.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46They call me that because I'm a wild beast.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I shed hair all over your carpet.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52And tonight, I'm going to sing a song for all the ladies out there.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56If you look at the first Teddy Pendergass album cover,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58it's pretty much what Theo ended up looking like.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01# As I lay here next to you... #
0:27:01 > 0:27:06But the music and the talking, that was all about Barry White.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10I've heard people say that...
0:27:11 > 0:27:15..too much of anything is not good for you, baby...
0:27:15 > 0:27:17"My name is Theophilus P Wildebeeste."
0:27:17 > 0:27:21It just, kind of, was my idea of what a soul singer talked like.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23"Take your panties off." You know, it was all of that.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26He was... Oh, man, he was just hilarious.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I was creasing up with laughter. I couldn't even cope. He was funny.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31# I want you here with me, babe
0:27:31 > 0:27:34# I want to look into your little
0:27:34 > 0:27:37# Greeny, bluey, pinky eyes... #
0:27:37 > 0:27:41He came along with the look, with the voice,
0:27:41 > 0:27:43with the mannerisms and with the general attitude.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46It was all there. So, for me, it was a question of, well,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50let's just carve this into some comic material, then.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52# Sit down and I'll show you
0:27:52 > 0:27:54# Just what to do
0:27:54 > 0:27:57# I'll show you how much I care
0:27:57 > 0:27:59# Tell her about the rabbit
0:27:59 > 0:28:00I will...
0:28:00 > 0:28:01# I used to have a rabbit
0:28:01 > 0:28:03# But he ran away
0:28:03 > 0:28:08# So you'll have to run your fingers through my hair... #
0:28:08 > 0:28:10I did Michael Jackson's Thriller
0:28:10 > 0:28:11and that was another game-changer.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Because who knew I could do that?
0:28:13 > 0:28:15I had no idea I could do that.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17# I'm getting thinner
0:28:17 > 0:28:19# Thinner now
0:28:19 > 0:28:21# They say I'm anorexic
0:28:21 > 0:28:23# And that would explain why I can't eat my
0:28:23 > 0:28:25# Dinner... #
0:28:25 > 0:28:27The other thing is his physicality -
0:28:27 > 0:28:30for a big man, he's incredibly pliable
0:28:30 > 0:28:32and he's a great dancer.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35# I'm getting shriller
0:28:35 > 0:28:36# Shriller now
0:28:36 > 0:28:38# These guys are really frightening
0:28:38 > 0:28:40# And they look as if they're fans
0:28:40 > 0:28:42# Of Aston Villa
0:28:42 > 0:28:44# They don't really like me
0:28:44 > 0:28:47# I wish my mum was here Don't want to grow up
0:28:47 > 0:28:48# Grow up... #
0:28:49 > 0:28:51In those parodies,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55he gets the movement, he copies what they do.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58That, I can't do it, but that Michael Jackson, dum-dum...
0:29:02 > 0:29:04..and the hand on the crotch thing.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06# Need a girl
0:29:06 > 0:29:08# It ain't no use... #
0:29:08 > 0:29:10And he just perfects that.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13And all you need is a few of those signposts in a song,
0:29:13 > 0:29:14for an audience to go,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16"God, it really does look like Michael Jackson."
0:29:16 > 0:29:18# Don't get on with humans
0:29:18 > 0:29:20# Best friend's a chimpanzee
0:29:20 > 0:29:22# Not just a little crazy
0:29:22 > 0:29:25# I'm completely off my tree
0:29:25 > 0:29:27# I'm mad, I'm mad
0:29:27 > 0:29:29# Three bricks short of a load... #
0:29:29 > 0:29:33We then just, kind of, mined that scene with Lenny, you know.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38All the great black entertainers, singers, you know,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Prince, Tina Turner.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43We thought, "Right, we'll just go for it. We'll just do it."
0:29:43 > 0:29:46# When I was a little girl
0:29:46 > 0:29:48# I had a rag doll... #
0:29:48 > 0:29:50We did Beyonce years later.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53I mean, even years later, we did Beyonce.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55And he looked ridiculous.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57# Here I am, coming out of nowhere
0:29:57 > 0:30:00# A girl with big ass, boobs and hair
0:30:00 > 0:30:02# Not many people knew who I was before
0:30:02 > 0:30:05# How I got rich, baby I'm not really sure
0:30:05 > 0:30:07# The press all seem to gang up on me
0:30:07 > 0:30:09# All day I'm hounded by the paparazzi
0:30:09 > 0:30:12# Trying to get shots of me sitting on the can
0:30:12 > 0:30:15# There's even rumours that I might be a man... #
0:30:15 > 0:30:19What was great was I was allowed to belong,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22I was welcomed as part of a gang,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24which was, basically, primetime BBC One,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27and I was given the resources to do it.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28How many times, lad.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30You'll never earn brass down t'pit.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32It's plays, point work and pas de deux
0:30:32 > 0:30:34that pay bills and put food on't table.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Now, get on with it.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39But coal mining's the only thing that's ever made me feel...
0:30:39 > 0:30:41really alive.
0:30:41 > 0:30:42Get home and get in front of that mirror.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44I want pirouettes until tea-time.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Go on!
0:30:47 > 0:30:50All these great collaborators, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall...
0:30:50 > 0:30:52- Everybody... - Action!
0:30:54 > 0:30:55..Nigel Planer...
0:30:55 > 0:30:57We can't go to Paris looking like this.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03French and Saunders. All these amazing performers.
0:31:03 > 0:31:05HE YELLS
0:31:08 > 0:31:10I have to admit, I'm a bit upset now.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14And it was amazing. I loved it. I loved doing it.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17MUSIC: Do They Know It's Christmas by Band Aid
0:31:20 > 0:31:22A percentage of all the money
0:31:22 > 0:31:25from the calls that we receive today
0:31:25 > 0:31:28will be donated by British Telecom to a new charity
0:31:28 > 0:31:30called Comic Relief.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36First of all, it was this initiative that began in the Sudan,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40Helen Fielding did a live broadcast on The Late, Late Breakfast Show.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43The sites opened up about a year ago
0:31:43 > 0:31:45and they're full of refugees from Ethiopia.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49It's full of happy children, life is starting up again.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51They're well fed. It's organised.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53And the point is that the money does work.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55If you send money, it achieves results.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57It was in response to Live Aid
0:31:57 > 0:32:01and Michael Buerk's brilliant film footage
0:32:01 > 0:32:03of what was going on out there with the refugees,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05and with the famine and stuff.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill overnight
0:32:09 > 0:32:11on the plain outside Korem,
0:32:11 > 0:32:13it lights up a biblical famine.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15Now, in the 20th century.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19We all wanted to do something.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22Everybody wanted to help, but nobody knew how.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24I got back from a trip to Ethiopia.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27I got in touch with anyone I knew in the business and said,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"Let's do a show like The Secret Policeman's Ball."
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Richard contacted us and said, "I'm doing this show,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36"a night of comic relief, at the Shaftesbury's Theatre,
0:32:36 > 0:32:37"come and hang out."
0:32:37 > 0:32:40So I said, "I'll do stand-up, and I'm going to do Theo."
0:32:40 > 0:32:41"OK, cool."
0:32:41 > 0:32:44My name is Lenny Henry, and as you can see,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47I've had a tragic disaster with my hair.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50So let's do all the jokes now before it gets boring.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52Yes, I do look like a black aircraft carrier.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Yes, I do look like Grace Jones.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Theophilus P Wildebeeste sketch with someone who turned out to be Hugh Laurie's wife.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Jo, tonight is your night,
0:33:06 > 0:33:09I'm going to let you have my body. All of it.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Even the long, wobbly, floppy dangly bits.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Jo was the best person to get on stage to do Theo
0:33:17 > 0:33:18at that particular moment in time.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21And she was as funny as I was. She was hilarious.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23It was very, very funny.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25You see, Jo, these nipples are yours tonight...
0:33:27 > 0:33:28..to do with as you will,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30because I feel so sexy tonight.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34'And literally the night that show was over'
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Lenny and me were sitting round and he said,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41"Why do we always do stuff on stage when we're really TV people?"
0:33:41 > 0:33:43"I think it should be a night on the telly."
0:33:43 > 0:33:45And so he was absolutely crucial.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49In that first year, Lenny and I together, as it were,
0:33:49 > 0:33:50wrote 150 letters.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Letters used to exist then.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55And Richard was very shy and just said, you know,
0:33:55 > 0:33:57"I'll write the letters, and you sign them."
0:33:57 > 0:33:58So that's what we did.
0:33:58 > 0:33:59And I'd say to Lenny,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02"When was the last time you bumped into Jimmy Tarbuck,"
0:34:02 > 0:34:04and then we write, "Oh, dear Jim... So and so and so..."
0:34:04 > 0:34:08It was his enthusiasm which was absolutely key.
0:34:08 > 0:34:09So now on BBC One,
0:34:09 > 0:34:11here we go with eight hours of entertainment
0:34:11 > 0:34:13as we don our red noses
0:34:13 > 0:34:17and hand over to Comic Relief.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21And welcome to a night of Comic Relief.
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Yes, my name is Griff Rhys Jones.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24And my name is Mel Smith.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30And then he presented the show with Jonathan and Griff,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33seven hours of almost disastrous TV.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Remember, whenever you laugh, ring.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42And if you're thinking of laughing, then switch off...
0:34:42 > 0:34:44What?
0:34:44 > 0:34:45Whenever you laugh, ring.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47And whenever you ring, laugh.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50And wherever you're thinking about ringing, then laugh.
0:34:50 > 0:34:51What do you think, Griff?
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Forget me. I'm just doing what I'm told, all right?
0:34:56 > 0:34:58It was incredibly chaotic.
0:34:58 > 0:34:59Entirely unrehearsed.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01We didn't know what quite they were going to say.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05We were writing their script during the pre-recorded bits.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07We're doing the plates now.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09- Are we doing the plates now? - We are, yeah.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12And as we'd be talking,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14things would come up on the autocue
0:35:14 > 0:35:17which we had never seen before.
0:35:17 > 0:35:20I believe we're coming live in here...
0:35:20 > 0:35:22- Get on with it!- Sorry!
0:35:22 > 0:35:24I didn't know how to produce a TV show.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27No-one had done a seven-hour one before.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31But I think some of the optimism, enthusiasm and chaos
0:35:31 > 0:35:35actually were quite...appealing.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37And I...I kind of miss that now.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39We're very slick now.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52He was one of the greatest-ever comedian presenters.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54There are a lot of lively presenters,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56and there are lots of quite sorted comedians.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Lenny was actually able to be live, chaotic, and seriously,
0:36:00 > 0:36:02a great comedian at the same time.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Does my bum look big in this?
0:36:04 > 0:36:05- No, not at all.- Ooh!
0:36:05 > 0:36:09There was a fantastic moment in that first Comic Relief.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13We were shooting links about why people should give money.
0:36:13 > 0:36:19And we filmed with this young girl who we'd seen fetching water
0:36:19 > 0:36:21from a well that was ten miles away.
0:36:21 > 0:36:22You first.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24And now a word from our sponsor.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40And I just started to giggle, because I'd got my lines wrong.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42And this girl started to laugh.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And they used that clip a lot.
0:36:44 > 0:36:45Well, there you are.
0:36:47 > 0:36:48THEY CHUCKLE
0:36:48 > 0:36:51It was another image of Africa.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55It was a way of saying, "Oh, we can equate this with Africa.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59"We don't have to equate the emaciated child all the time."
0:36:59 > 0:37:01What it comes down to is this.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05To immunise Mohammed against the six preventable diseases costs just 50p.
0:37:05 > 0:37:0650p.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09One of the things he's also done is spoken from his heart after films
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and put the script aside and said, you know, just as human to human,
0:37:13 > 0:37:17"Surely there's something, you know, you want to do now?"
0:37:17 > 0:37:18What we do know is this -
0:37:18 > 0:37:22if this was happening to a neighbour of yours, you'd bust a gut to help.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24If you knew somebody, you know, on your doorstep,
0:37:24 > 0:37:26who'd walked 11 days cos they were starving
0:37:26 > 0:37:28and they needed a quid for food,
0:37:28 > 0:37:30you'd say, "Have a bloody quid," you know?
0:37:30 > 0:37:32"Actually, here, have five."
0:37:32 > 0:37:34The point is, forget geography.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36These ARE your neighbours.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38This IS your doorstep.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40Please help.
0:37:40 > 0:37:46Lenny was always sincere and honest in his reactions.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Kibera was a properly steep learning curve for me.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00Lenny will be sharing his new home with a family of five orphans.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04I spent one night in a horrible room
0:38:04 > 0:38:08that was airless, that was next to three toilets
0:38:08 > 0:38:10with an open sewer running down the middle.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12It was really tough.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15And I don't really know how we survived it.
0:38:15 > 0:38:16It literally changed my life.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19It changed my... I cried on telly. I've never cried on telly before.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22HE SOBS
0:38:22 > 0:38:24Oh, Jesus Christ!
0:38:29 > 0:38:32He never feels he's doing enough
0:38:32 > 0:38:34and he's always trying to go at it with truth.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37So the... In the slums thing,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41he just decided he would really try and experience life for real.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43And the rawness of his emotions there,
0:38:43 > 0:38:45and the sense that he still wasn't prepared for it...
0:38:45 > 0:38:48He wasn't prepared for the conditions the kids were in.
0:38:48 > 0:38:49He wasn't prepared to leave
0:38:49 > 0:38:51this kid, Bernard, and his family all alone.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54I wanted those kids out of that house now.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56I was prepared to stop the documentary
0:38:56 > 0:38:57and do something about it.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59It was the first time that's ever happened.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02Usually I'd have been, "Come on, we've got to keep filming,"
0:39:02 > 0:39:04but I just thought, "This isn't right.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06"We've got to do something." And so we did something.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09So you're talking about buying a house, a small house.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12- Yes.- That they could live in. That's £1,200.
0:39:12 > 0:39:13I can do that.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17- This is your new home. - This is our new home? Wow!
0:39:17 > 0:39:20This is your home now. This is where you're going to sleep.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23For me, it's a change in my life.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24That's good.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27We couldn't have done Comic Relief initially without Lenny,
0:39:27 > 0:39:33and he's been responsible for many of the best serious moments
0:39:33 > 0:39:35in our long enterprise.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40When somebody from our industry makes a connection like that,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43it's important to keep it going,
0:39:43 > 0:39:45and it's not just a thing for five minutes
0:39:45 > 0:39:46while you're on the telly -
0:39:46 > 0:39:49it's something that'll stick with you for your whole life.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55BOTH: Let the noses blow!
0:39:57 > 0:40:00With Len, it's a sort of continuum.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02I've been here for 27 years.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05From the very first moment of putting a pie in someone's face,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08to the extraordinary moment of him saying "We've reached a billion".
0:40:08 > 0:40:11The total raised by Comic Relief and Sport Relief
0:40:11 > 0:40:14since we first started is...
0:40:14 > 0:40:17over £1 billion!
0:40:19 > 0:40:21We announced £1 billion on this stage.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23And that was...
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Still, unbelievable, really.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Since 1988, over £1 billion has been raised.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31It's an extraordinary achievement.
0:40:31 > 0:40:32It's a billion
0:40:32 > 0:40:37and that sort of money can really make a difference
0:40:37 > 0:40:39to real people, to people.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47This was a brilliant thing that the public have done
0:40:47 > 0:40:49and I was just honoured and privileged to be a part of it.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53# What I did for love... #
0:41:01 > 0:41:04# Hollywood
0:41:04 > 0:41:06# Hollywood swinging... #
0:41:09 > 0:41:11Disney had this film that Eddie Murphy had sort of passed on
0:41:11 > 0:41:14and they figured, "Who can we get that's cheaper than Eddie Murphy?
0:41:14 > 0:41:17"Get that English guy who does all the voices."
0:41:17 > 0:41:18And they got me to do it.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22And suddenly I'm in America, sort of,
0:41:22 > 0:41:23desperately trying to lose weight
0:41:23 > 0:41:26and having this script that wasn't very good but thinking,
0:41:26 > 0:41:29"I'm in a film! I'm in a film in America! Arrrrrgh!"
0:41:29 > 0:41:32# Hollywood
0:41:32 > 0:41:34# Hollywood swinging... #
0:41:34 > 0:41:37And how weird is this - I'm playing a film
0:41:37 > 0:41:39where I'm a white guy for most of the film.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41So it's like shades of the Minstrels again!
0:41:41 > 0:41:44I've gone from people blacking up to me whiting up!
0:41:44 > 0:41:46What the hell is that, God?
0:41:46 > 0:41:47Thanks a lot!
0:41:50 > 0:41:52All right? You can open your eyes now.
0:41:52 > 0:41:53Keep an open mind...
0:41:53 > 0:41:55HE SCREAMS
0:41:55 > 0:41:57You made me into a white guy? I can't believe this.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00What's the matter with you? I wanted to look like Prince.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02You made me look like Wayne Newton.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04For a brief five seconds,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08my name is above the title in a Touchstone movie.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12And then, it was in the Indian shop, in the bargain bin,
0:42:12 > 0:42:14before the plane touched down...
0:42:15 > 0:42:16LAUGHING: ..when I got back.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20I was really cross.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25But luckily, I'd started to think about Chef while I was in LA,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28cos I was so frustrated at the lack of control over there.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32And my family were sending me magazines from, you know,
0:42:32 > 0:42:34the Observer Magazine, Times Magazine
0:42:34 > 0:42:36and I was reading about all these superstar chefs,
0:42:36 > 0:42:38behaving outrageously.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40I thought, "There's something in this",
0:42:40 > 0:42:42and I formed a production company called Crucial Films.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45- Well, I think... - And we started to develop Chef,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47and many other things.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Do you any idea of how many highly skilled man hours,
0:42:50 > 0:42:53over a three-day period, have gone into producing this dish
0:42:53 > 0:42:56which has brought to your table at the zenith of its powers,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58its taste, flavour, textures,
0:42:58 > 0:43:01temperature at the peak of perfection,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04and without tasting it, you call for salt?
0:43:04 > 0:43:06Your salt, sir.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08I hate you with a passion you can only dream of.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11And it was difficult.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14It was me, and I was inexperienced,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17so it did feel a bit like me yelling at people a lot.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19But there was a sweet spot there where I thought,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21"This is...this is great." I loved it.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31OK, lads, over and under. You know what to do. Go!
0:43:33 > 0:43:35Come on! Come on!
0:43:35 > 0:43:37'Alive And Kicking came about
0:43:37 > 0:43:39'because I was reading the newspapers'
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and there was this article about a football team in Glasgow,
0:43:42 > 0:43:47and they were all recovering junkies or alcoholics or something.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51It was an initiative run by a man called Davie Bryce,
0:43:51 > 0:43:56who'd been a convict, and an addict, and he'd come out of jail,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and he wanted to get better, and recover,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02and so he'd started this football team
0:44:02 > 0:44:08where if you were straight...you could play.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11I spent five years trying to keep one drug addict out of this place,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13now you send me a whole bloody teamful!
0:44:13 > 0:44:14Think of it as a challenge.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19And so I played the gangster guy, and Robbie Coltrane played Liam,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22the guy who ran the rehab centre.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24And Robbie and I were both known for comedy,
0:44:24 > 0:44:25and suddenly, there we were,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27on the front of the Radio Times
0:44:27 > 0:44:29in this very serious drama.
0:44:31 > 0:44:33Are you enjoying this?
0:44:33 > 0:44:36They pay you to help people like me, and so far, you've done bugger all!
0:44:36 > 0:44:40I think were finally seeing some channelled aggression, Stevie.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42It was fantastic, directed by a man called Robert Young,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45who was a very good director, he directed GBH.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48He'd say things like, "I'm not quite believing this, Len.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51"It's a bit jokey. Try and find a way to make this more realistic."
0:44:51 > 0:44:54And he didn't say that to Robbie, because Robbie would've chinned him.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58Oi! You do not walk away from me, woman.
0:44:58 > 0:44:59Get your hands off me!
0:44:59 > 0:45:01You don't touch me, right?
0:45:01 > 0:45:02You're like a disease, you are.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04And you're so bleeding pure, are you?
0:45:04 > 0:45:06Get your stuff, you're coming home with me now.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08You really want me back with you, you get clean,
0:45:08 > 0:45:09then I might think about it.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16Between us, we enjoyed the thing of being regarded as proper actors,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20and so we sort of performed out of our skins,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22because we wanted it to be good and we wanted to honour the material.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24Occupy my time, right.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26I want to occupy my time running a football team -
0:45:26 > 0:45:31no poetry, no bloody games, no stupid confessions, just this.
0:45:31 > 0:45:32I'll see what I can do.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34Thank you ever so bleeding much!
0:45:36 > 0:45:39David Thompson, who produced that film,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41because of my contribution,
0:45:41 > 0:45:43coming up with the story and the idea,
0:45:43 > 0:45:44gave Crucial Films a credit,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47and I'll always be grateful to him for that,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49because it made me start to think that I should be someone
0:45:49 > 0:45:54who comes up with stories as well as being a performer too.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56I just kept thinking, "There's got to be another way of doing this."
0:45:56 > 0:45:58And acting was the way forward.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04My mum passed away, but it was like somebody
0:46:04 > 0:46:06had pulled the rug away from your entire world,
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and so I was just a bit off-piste,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11thinking, "What am I going to do?"
0:46:11 > 0:46:13And I decided to go back to school.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16So I did an Open University college degree.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And I got a BA Honours in English Literature.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21The penultimate year of that was a year of Shakespeare,
0:46:21 > 0:46:23which I really did not enjoy.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26But, by the end of it,
0:46:26 > 0:46:29I just started to develop this thing of,
0:46:29 > 0:46:30"I know what these plays are like."
0:46:30 > 0:46:32And I'd kind of listen to the plays -
0:46:32 > 0:46:35I'd drive into London, listen to the first half,
0:46:35 > 0:46:38and drive back home to Reading and listen to part two.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42I was listening to a play a day, every day, for a year.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chaps,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48And fixed his head upon our battlements.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54And suddenly, inculcated within me, was this thing of...
0:46:54 > 0:46:56It was like Neo, in The Matrix, you know?
0:46:56 > 0:46:59Suddenly, it was like... "I know kung fu."
0:46:59 > 0:47:02Suddenly, I knew Shakespeare.
0:47:02 > 0:47:03Me and Shakespeare.
0:47:03 > 0:47:04Shakespeare?
0:47:04 > 0:47:06You've got to be joking!
0:47:06 > 0:47:09You see, I had this strange allergy to Shakespeare.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12'I did a radio show called Lenny And Will'
0:47:12 > 0:47:14about how it felt like a very middle-class, Oxbridge thing,
0:47:14 > 0:47:17it didn't feel like my kind of thing.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19It was always people going, "How, fee, thy foe, thy filleth."
0:47:19 > 0:47:21You know, it always felt like that to me.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23People with lisps, with a cabbage down their front.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25When I met Barry Rutter, who said to me,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29"Shakespeare's for everybody. We're both working-class lads.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32"Shakespeare's for us as well as them."
0:47:32 > 0:47:35And he did, "O, for a muse of fire" from Henry V.
0:47:35 > 0:47:36He did the chorus speech for me.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40But he did it in a broad, unadorned Northern accent.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
0:47:44 > 0:47:47The brightest heaven of invention,
0:47:47 > 0:47:49A kingdom for a stage.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54And he blew my socks off, and I went, "I want to do that."
0:47:55 > 0:47:57Oh, my fair warrior!
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Oh, my dear Othello.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02It gives me wonder great as my content
0:48:02 > 0:48:03To see you here before me.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04O, my soul's joy!
0:48:04 > 0:48:07If after every tempest come such calms...
0:48:07 > 0:48:10We've all been offered parts in A Midsummer's Nights Dream
0:48:10 > 0:48:13and said, "Oh, yeah, maybe I'll have a go at Bottom", all that stuff.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15But the first Shakespeare he did was Othello.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19To pick it up and take on
0:48:19 > 0:48:25a gigantic, major, dramatic role like that would require,
0:48:25 > 0:48:27I suppose, that you opened yourself up
0:48:27 > 0:48:30and said, "How do I do this?
0:48:30 > 0:48:32For him to, you know, be known as a comedian
0:48:32 > 0:48:34and then, suddenly, he's Othello, everyone was like,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36"Really? Are you having a laugh?" But he was so good.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38And then you suddenly just go, "Actually...
0:48:38 > 0:48:41"I'll just have to shut up, really, because he's actually quite good."
0:48:41 > 0:48:44If more thou dost perceive, let me know more.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Set thy wife on to observe.
0:48:46 > 0:48:47Leave me, Iago.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50My lord, I take my leave.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52'I keep thinking of, you know,
0:48:52 > 0:48:54'myself as a 16-year-old kid, you know.'
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Going, "Shakespeare's rubbish!"
0:48:56 > 0:48:58HE LAUGHS
0:48:58 > 0:49:01So to be here now is extraordinary, you know?
0:49:03 > 0:49:05This is the National Theatre.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08We are in the Olivier, which is the biggest arena.
0:49:08 > 0:49:12For the last three months, I've been doing Comedy Of Errors here.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14He that commends me to mine own content
0:49:14 > 0:49:16Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19'There's going to be a global telecast'
0:49:19 > 0:49:22and I'm going to be performing on this stage,
0:49:22 > 0:49:24with my fellow cast members
0:49:24 > 0:49:28to an audience of potentially thousands, maybe millions.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32You know, he could have made a very good living the rest of his life
0:49:32 > 0:49:35doing stand-up and sketches and a bit of this and a bit of that.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37But he's a restless boy
0:49:37 > 0:49:40who is always exploring his own talent,
0:49:40 > 0:49:42the boundaries of his own talent.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Many people who've been through the whole university background,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49one of the things that distinguishes them all, God bless them,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53is they're all know-it-alls before they start.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55And whenever I've met Lenny,
0:49:55 > 0:49:59he's been working at learning about something.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06He was just an actor. You know, for us,
0:50:06 > 0:50:08he was just one of the actors.
0:50:08 > 0:50:14But you forget that he was probably being very heavily judged.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16But it didn't feel like that.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21Everybody, in all my acting experiences,
0:50:21 > 0:50:22nobody has once said,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25- "Yeah, but you're just that- BLEEP- comedian."
0:50:25 > 0:50:29They all, kind of, go, "Come on, then, let's play."
0:50:30 > 0:50:35Which of you two did dine with me today?
0:50:35 > 0:50:38LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:50:40 > 0:50:41I, gentle mistress.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43And you not my husband?
0:50:43 > 0:50:45No, I say nay to that.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48And so do I. Yet she did call me so.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53did call me brother.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56What I told you then, I hope I shall have leisure to make good.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02I felt like he was living a dream, performing.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04Because he had...
0:51:04 > 0:51:08He was so excited and had so much energy.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12And it was, he was like a kid.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14EXCITED LAUGHTER
0:51:21 > 0:51:23I love acting. I want to be an actor.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26So if anybody's out there, who has a job,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30I'm on lennypleasegivemeajob.com.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Danny And The Human Zoo was a big thing for me.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41The film ended up being about something real
0:51:41 > 0:51:49but it was refracted through memory, magic realism and name-changing.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52So I did all of those things and was able to tell my story,
0:51:52 > 0:51:54but without it being MY story.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04The stuff about my mum was true,
0:52:04 > 0:52:06which was...tricky,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09cos my family had to make a decision
0:52:09 > 0:52:11about whether this was all right to do.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13I think there's still things to be worked out about that.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16You know, not everybody likes their business chatted about in public.
0:52:16 > 0:52:21The bloke you were dancing with is the spitting image of me.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24What are you...?
0:52:25 > 0:52:27What are you talking about?
0:52:27 > 0:52:31I'd known about my upbringing for a very long time
0:52:31 > 0:52:33and I just thought it was time, you know?
0:52:33 > 0:52:35I'm over 50.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38If I can't say that my birth father
0:52:38 > 0:52:40is different to the person that raised me,
0:52:40 > 0:52:42then, you know, what good is being an adult?
0:52:42 > 0:52:46Me fall pregnant with you in the autumn.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51And me have to write and tell him the situation.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58Calvin wouldn't break up his family and I didn't want that either.
0:52:58 > 0:52:59And Kascion Franklin,
0:52:59 > 0:53:01you've got to fall in love with that boy's face.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04He was fantastic. He'd never done impressions before.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06- AS TOMMY COOPER: - Ladies and gentlemen.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09You may have seen some of these impressions before.
0:53:09 > 0:53:10But not in colour.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12THEY LAUGH
0:53:12 > 0:53:16He'd acted a lot, but he literally didn't know who Tommy Cooper was.
0:53:16 > 0:53:17I had to...
0:53:17 > 0:53:19AS TOMMY COOPER: I had to sit in this hotel room...
0:53:19 > 0:53:22It was very funny - we were both in the hotel room
0:53:22 > 0:53:24going, "Hello, Betty." "Is it like that?"
0:53:24 > 0:53:26"No... Hello, Betty.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28"A bit more..."
0:53:28 > 0:53:33I said to my mum, I'm going to marry Betty from next door.
0:53:33 > 0:53:35She said, "What about if babies come? What then?"
0:53:35 > 0:53:40I said, "Well, we talked about it and if she lays any eggs
0:53:40 > 0:53:42"then I'll just stamp on them."
0:53:44 > 0:53:48We had a premiere in a cinema in Dudley.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52People from Dudley, who were probably in that story,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55were able to watch it unfold on a big screen
0:53:55 > 0:53:58like they were watching On Golden Pond or something.
0:53:58 > 0:53:59It was a...
0:53:59 > 0:54:01That was a major moment.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14I made a very low-budget, very lo-fi album with some friends,
0:54:14 > 0:54:16and it became a thing, it was fantastic.
0:54:16 > 0:54:18I made a record called The Cops Don't Know.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20# If black lives matter
0:54:20 > 0:54:24# Then how come the cops don't know?
0:54:26 > 0:54:29# The cops don't know... #
0:54:29 > 0:54:31'I wanted people to know that'
0:54:31 > 0:54:33there was a solidarity there.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37I'd seen the news about Trayvon and all these terrible shootings
0:54:37 > 0:54:40and I'd read Gary Younge's reports from America
0:54:40 > 0:54:42about all of these people being shot by the police.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44And I wrote a song about it.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46# If black lives matter
0:54:46 > 0:54:50# Then how come the cops don't know?
0:54:53 > 0:54:56# How come the cops don't know? #
0:54:56 > 0:54:58I'm under no illusions that I can sing,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00but I do love singing.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03Jools Holland lets me sing with him sometimes.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05# You got me begging
0:55:05 > 0:55:07# You got me begging
0:55:07 > 0:55:09# You got me begging
0:55:09 > 0:55:10# You got me begging... #
0:55:14 > 0:55:15Lenny Henry.
0:55:15 > 0:55:16It's very much a fan singing.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19And I love the blues, I've recently discovered the blues,
0:55:19 > 0:55:20and I found that I can sing the blues.
0:55:20 > 0:55:22# 21st century
0:55:22 > 0:55:25# I'm just a bit confused
0:55:25 > 0:55:27# Now you got me singing
0:55:27 > 0:55:31# New millennium blues... #
0:55:33 > 0:55:36# New millennium blues... # Yeah.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38It really suits him when he sings the blues.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40He looks great. He puts his suit on
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and he's got the little Blues Brother thing going on. I love it.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46I think it really, really works for him.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48# A man walked past
0:55:48 > 0:55:52# Just trying to stare me down
0:55:56 > 0:55:58# And when I looked at you
0:55:58 > 0:56:02# You would look at the ground... #
0:56:02 > 0:56:07When he asked me to collaborate a couple of times with him
0:56:07 > 0:56:10on his shows, I was jumping at the chance.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12# Got my mojo working
0:56:12 > 0:56:14# Got my mojo working
0:56:14 > 0:56:16# Got my mojo working
0:56:16 > 0:56:18# Got my mojo working... #
0:56:18 > 0:56:20And after singing all night my voice was going,
0:56:20 > 0:56:23so you could hear me going, HOARSE: # I've got my mojo... #
0:56:23 > 0:56:25It was literally like Les Dawson.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27# Got my mojo working
0:56:27 > 0:56:29# Got my mojo working
0:56:29 > 0:56:31# Got my mojo working
0:56:31 > 0:56:33# Got my mojo working
0:56:33 > 0:56:35# Got my mojo working. #
0:56:35 > 0:56:37You've been fantastic. Thank you very much.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39Goodnight, we love you.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41It was an amazing night. And I loved it.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48He's a very multi-talented individual.
0:56:48 > 0:56:55And to have a career that spanned so many years, like, I mean,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58consistently evolving into different aspects of himself -
0:56:58 > 0:57:01that takes a lot of guts and courage.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05And also, being really good at those things, too.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07That's really very special.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18Everything he touches, actually,
0:57:18 > 0:57:21it seems that he makes a success out of it.
0:57:21 > 0:57:27Because his heart is 100% in it.
0:57:27 > 0:57:28- How old are you, Bernard?- I'm 16.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30- You're 16?- Yeah.- OK.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32I'm 26.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38I do think that his...
0:57:38 > 0:57:43taking leadership of the diversity issue has been an amazing thing.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47The speeches he's given, in the forums in which he's done so,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50shows that he's really, really concerned about it.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53If it feels like I'm banging on a bit about diversity all the time
0:57:53 > 0:57:56it's because I believe in increasing it,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59so that we truly reflect our fantastic nation,
0:57:59 > 0:58:01ensuring that all those 14-year-olds out there,
0:58:01 > 0:58:03superglued to their phones,
0:58:03 > 0:58:08who hope to work in TV irrespective of their race, gender, sexuality,
0:58:08 > 0:58:10class, disability,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14can realise that ambition, as I was able to realise mine.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16I bump into him occasionally now and the nice thing is,
0:58:16 > 0:58:18he hasn't forgotten me.
0:58:18 > 0:58:20And my part in his downfall!
0:58:20 > 0:58:23No, my part in his career, which I'm very proud of.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26AS FRANK SPENCER: Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28Some of these skills have come in quite handy!
0:58:29 > 0:58:31He is a national treasure.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34I know national treasure is a bit of a cliche, but he is.
0:58:34 > 0:58:35You know, people love him.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38And I don't know how he keeps managing to do it, to be honest.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41People of Britain, give big phone.
0:58:41 > 0:58:43But now... I've always wanted to say that.
0:58:43 > 0:58:45I can't get you at the moment, I'm on the phone.
0:58:47 > 0:58:49People respect what Lenny Henry does.
0:58:49 > 0:58:51And they like what Lenny Henry does.
0:58:51 > 0:58:55That's... You've scooped the pool if you can get all that.