Lenny Henry Show, The

1 9 8 4 – 1 9 8 5 (UK)
12 x 30 minute episodes
1 9 8 7 – 1 9 8 8 (UK)
2 x 40 minute episodes

Nine years after winning New Faces, cheeky Dudley-born comedian Lenny Henry finally scored his own show with this BBC series after successful appearances on Three of a Kind.

Lenny took some of his characters with him from Three of a Kind – including the soul-singing “one man sex machine” Theophilus P Wildebeeste; the elderly philosophising Jamaican, Deakus; television botanist David Bellamy, and newsreader Trevor McDonut – and interspersed the impressions with sketches, spoof musical numbers (impersonating black artists like Prince and Michael Jackson) and a lengthy stand-up monologue each week.

The first six episodes aired in September and October 1984, with a further six episodes broadcast in September and October of the following year. Henry returned at Christmas 1987 and 1988 with special one-off episodes.

Despite the series having ten scriptwriters, the humour was patchy, and the series received a lukewarm reception from most critics and reviewers.

Guests included Robbie Coltrane, Nicholas Lyndhurst, (Henry’s future wife) Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Liz Smith, Nigel Planer, Frank Bruno, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, Chris Barrie, Alexei Sayle, Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, with appearances from music acts including UB40, The Style Council, Alison Moyet, ABC, Musical Youth, Terence Trent D’Arby, Darts and Five Star.

Lenny Henry returned in a 1987 sitcom – also confusingly called The Lenny Henry Show – as Delbert Wilkins, a well-meaning but trouble-prone pirate radio DJ at the (fictional) Brixton Broadcasting Corporation.