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The Documentary Podcast

In the Studio: Sir Lenny Henry

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.32.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sir Lenny Henry's new one man show - August in England gives an insight into the lives impacted by the Windrush scandal. In 2017, thousands of legal residents who arrived from Commonwealth countries from the late 1940s to early 1970s were misclassified as illegal immigrants and were wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights. Their experience inspired Sir Lenny Henry to write and perform his very first one man show from the perspective of August, a grocer and father based in the West Midlands in England, who faces deportation from a country he has lived in for the past 52 years. Presenter Vishva Samani follows Sir Lenny as he prepares for his exciting playwriting debut at The Bush Theatre in London.

Transcript

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0:00.0

An original audio drama series from the BBC World Service, Fukushima tells the story of the 2011 disaster.

0:09.0

At Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

0:13.0

We lose the Daiichi plant, then we lose Japan as we know it.

0:17.0

Listen to the series now by searching for Fukushima, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

0:24.0

This is a circular train to a promise miss.

0:29.0

The next station is Shedansvush Market.

0:45.0

Welcome to West London and the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service.

0:51.0

The programme that follows some of the most individual minds in the world as they develop a creative idea from its very beginnings.

0:59.0

Through the artistic process, write up to its introduction to an audience.

1:04.0

I'm Vishva Samani and this week we're following British comedian, writer and actor, so Lenny Henry as he creates and performs his debut play Augustine England at London's Bush Theatre.

1:18.0

Lenny Henry has been a household name in Britain since the 70s, a pioneering black British comedian of Jamaican heritage who was a regular fixture on my TV screen growing up.

1:30.0

He introduced the nation to characters who mocked and celebrated African Caribbean British culture, co-founded a major charity based on TV comedy and was known for his spoofs of iconic celebrities and comedy sketches.

1:46.0

Lenny, you ready to go?

1:48.0

I feel funny.

1:49.0

But that's good, isn't it?

1:51.0

No, I feel sick. Can you get me glass of water please?

1:54.0

Can I get a water for Lenny Henry ASAP?

1:56.0

No, not ASAP, it's CBE.

2:00.0

Since then, so Lenny Henry CBE, Commander of the British Empire has published books and performed drama on stage and screen.

2:10.0

HMT Empire Windrush was a ship which brought people from the Caribbean to England in 1948.

2:22.0

70 years later, it coined the name of the Windrush Political Scandal which saw Commonwealth citizens wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights by the UK Home Office.

2:35.0

This Scandal is the subject and focus of the first ever play Lenny Henry's written which opens around six weeks from now.

...

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