Lenny Henry was never very funny but it seems that he IS now the Cultural Kommisar for Ethnicity on the BBC
ACTOR and comedian Lenny Henry yesterday slammed the BBC’s £2.1million plan to foster ethnic talent.
The corporation’s director-general Tony Hall announced a new “diversity creative talentfund” last week to help “fast track” shows by minorities. But referring to 12 Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor and Idris Elba, from TV crime drama Luther, Mr Henry said: “They didn’t need more training, they just needed a break.”
Earlier this year, he complained that the number of ethnic workers in British TV had plunged by a third between 2006 and 2012 to just 5.4 per cent of the broadcast workforce. He called for new laws and targets to reverse that decline. Mr Henry told the Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport committee yesterday the UK had been haemorrhaging talent to America because of a mistaken belief that black ethnic minority actors “don’t have enough star power to drive a feature film or a long-running TV series”. Talking about Mr Hall’s plan, he said: “Development is great but there are people absolutely trained and ready to rock. “The inference seems to be ‘oh you’re not ready yet, here’s a little bit of development money, go away and practise a bit more until you’re ready’.”
So Henry wants to see racial discrimination as the best way of avoiding racial discrimination. It just depends which race you are discriminating against I suppose?
I actually did find Lenny Henry funny once, a long, long time ago. Then suddenly he seemed to discover that he was black, and it played an increasing part of his repetoire. After that he gave up trying altogether and retired to an annual appearance on Red Nose Day (“Ha ha ha! Hold on for another hour and we’ll give you 15 seconds from a 20 year old epsiode of Blackadder”). Still, he now has a career doing adverts for a budget hotel chain… when he could have been Britain’s answer to Richard Pryor. What a waste.
Even if he was the only black actor available I would still not give him a job. He is CR*P.
Stephen k Amos, brilliant and funny black comedian said “The ultimate goal is to have my own TV show,” he tells the audience. “But, as we all know, the BBC have a diversity policy. Apparently I have to wait for Lenny Henry to die.”
This won’t make for easy banter across (around? I guess ‘heads of’ must be banned, surely) the table…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/exclusive-bbcs-race-problem-gets-worse-as-more-ethnic-minority-staff-quit-the-corporation-last-year-than-joined-9563262.html
‘The BBC is going backwards’
Yes, well, not exactly news, but OK.
Tone, Danny, Hugs, James, James…. must all be down the staff sun lounger (or maybe tinkering with the corridor baked spud microwave) as we speak to try and do something about that hideously problematic market rate mix that looks more Milky Bar than Allsorts.
http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/4.html
However, in priority terms, maybe they’d be better obsessing about cultures that create near zero staff faith in internal complaints about bullying (or worse in car parks) than seeing a nicely balanced ‘any you like but pink scores tops, if not literally’ colour swatch, competence not required.
He appeared on the Black and White Minstrel Show back in the 1970s as the guest ‘comedian’, I suspect he keeps that part of his life quiet.
Odd they never show reruns of that show. It was the lowlight of my Saturday night
When clowns cease to be funny they go political eg: Brand, Coogan etc. Quite frankly Lenny Henry is abusing his BBC privilege. BBC man tells BBC man to put more ethnic minorities on the TV. Christ, it is like watching the Human Centipede. Don’t expect us to swallow that crap.
Don’t know what Lenny is complaining about, effniks have got a whole programmed devoted to themselves, Crimewatch !!
I was going to say if the BBC want to show more ethnics they should have crimewatch on as a weekly programme
Lenny seems to forget it was all those nasty white racists who voted for him on New Faces back in 1975 and launched his career.
In fact I don’t think he’s been funny since, apart from a brief interlude in 1983 along side Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield in Three Of A Kind, ironically wasn’t 33% over representative back then?
Perhaps it reflects my youth and impressionability at the time, but I used to like him on Tiswas. I recall he used to regularly do an impression of Trevor McDonald, and one day, unbeknownst to him, Trevor McDonald was standing behind him while he did it. Lenny Henry turned round and, though initially thrown, recovered brilliantly with a cry of “Daddy!” and the recollection still makes me smile to this day.
These days are long gone for him.
He used to do a great David Bellamy impression also. Another person no longer welcome by the BBC for his climate change views.
Lenny was funny at times. But times move on.
I can’t say I remember those times – his act was about the most racist that the BBC has ever promoted – but it’s Ok because he has the right ethnicity.
Theophilius T Wildebeest being perhaps the most egregious example.
Of course Sacha Baron Cohen was also horribly racist – but he had an ethnicity to hid behind too.
Perhaps Lenny should remember when he, himself tried to crack America, and it was not because “effniks” couldn’t get a TV break, he went over there for the money, plain and simple (The film, was called “True Identity”, made in 1991, notable for old Len “whiting up”…f’king racist…)
Coming soon, ‘Lenny’s (100% diverse) Dream School’
‘ Dream School’ ??? more like a nightmare.
Perhaps the reason why ethnic minorities like Lenny don’t chime with the populace is because they simply aren’t funny, just like The Kumars wasn’t funny. British humour was and is best when it is irreverent and politically incorrect as early episodes of Only Fools and Horses and the Two Ronnies will illustrate. But because the Left, like they’ve done and are continuing to do across Europe, hate tradition and national identity of the white Christian countries, they’ve flloded this country with immigrants, many of whom don’t integrate. Then lefties at companies like the BBC discriminate and impose these shifts in artificial multiculturalism on everyone else through useless media projects. It’s truly pathethic. The bBC simply has to go.
Some decent non-pc comedy does get through every now and again and ironically on the bbc! Comedies from the League of Gentleman lot are excellent and they are always producing new material that is very funny.
On the other hand you have the likes of Russell Howard who is insufferably left wing and he just isn’t funny. Like all of the white, middle class left-wing comedians it is just propaganda and if they just removed the chips from their shoulders and they might be able to come up with some decent stuff
he has become a national bore.
Totally agree, I’ve recently been watching the first series of OFAH and although underrated, it is gloriously un PC especially the 2nd episode in the gay bar and the third with the warring Asians (who incidentally get the better of Del).
I found myself laughing out loud, something that any recent comedy output from the bBC has failed to do.
I think there’s a danger of focusing here on Lenny Henry, rather than the BBC. As a whitey I don’t feel over represented by BBC TV news presenters, and as a straight guy born in England who didn’t go to public school I feel woefully unrepresented by R4 news presenters. I’d also say I’d never seen or heard a sympathetic portrayal in BBC drama of Christians, Israelis, American agents or business people – never.
Incidentally Lenny Henry was excellent as Othello on R4, though of course ironically it is type casting.
But doesn’t that in itself make you laugh?
Why does it need a black actor to play Othello on the radio?
see the thing is about lenny henry is he does not relise how well off he is compared to the ordinary working class white citixens living up and down the country in poor working class white areas,if it anybody should be playing the race card it is the discriminated against forgotten white working class communitys in this country,i for one dont need lectures from rich millionaires like lenny henry whos latest mission seems to be dividing the races and turning communitys against each other which i find very dangerous.