Lenny Henry makes professional arrogance funny by giving it conviction. His move into drama has been convincing, though our strongest recommendations are ensemble pieces in which he takes a supporting role.
Fi1m perspective
Henry's sitcom chef Gareth Blackstock is a perfectionist with an inventive supply of insults. The timing matters, but so does the conviction: Henry gives professional obsession enough weight to explain the character's unpleasantness without excusing it. We rate him most highly when the jokes come from somebody who has a particular job to do and cannot bear the way other people do it.
The Lenny Henry Show (1984) established him as a leading sketch comedian; Hope and Glory (1999) gave him the dramatic lead as headteacher Ian George. Turning around a failing school is a different task from running a kitchen, but the part again puts professional responsibility at the centre. The move into straight drama was credible well before the classical stage roles. In Northern Broadsides' Othello (2009), with director Barrie Rutter, he took the title part.
Broadchurch (2013) makes a different demand: in its third series, from 2017, Henry plays Ed Burnett within the community around Julie Hesmondhalgh's Trish Winterman. He is part of the supporting cast, and the programme has no need to become a star vehicle. We were moved by Hesmondhalgh's plain performance as Trish; the programme lets her distress matter without embellishing it. Chibnall and Louise Fox's scripts restore much of the first series' concern for people after a badly misjudged second run. Henry's place here is worth recognising without pretending the series belongs to him.
In Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024), Henry supplies the voice of Mr. Convenience. It is another supporting assignment, this time in a warm, funny adventure whose silent characters do the finest work. The familiar plot and the police detours keep it from being quite as good as its animation, but the central friendship earns our recommendation. Henry's dramatic turn has not required him to give up this sort of comedy, and there is no reason it should. For a longer encounter with the actor, try Hope and Glory.
Biography
Sir Lenworth George Henry CBE, known as Lenny Henry, is a British comedian, actor, presenter and writer. Born on 29 August 1958 in Dudley, West Midlands, he began performing impressions as a teenager and gained national attention after appearing on the talent show New Faces in 1975. He became a regular on Tiswas and later starred in his own sketch and sitcom series, The Lenny Henry Show.
Henry co-founded the charity Comic Relief with Richard Curtis in 1985. He has appeared in dramatic roles including in Hope and Glory (1999–2000), Chef! (1993–1996) and the third series of Broadchurch (2017) as Ed Burnett. His film credits include Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). He was appointed CBE in 1999 and knighted in 2015. He was married to comedian Dawn French from 1984 to 2010.
