Lennie James, actor

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lennie James is a British actor and writer. In 2025, he received the BAFTA for Leading Actor for his portrayal of Barrington Walker in the TV adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Mr. Loverman.

This award adds to his collection, which also includes accolades for writing. At seventeen, he wrote Trial and Error and won the National Youth Theatre–Texaco Playwriting Competition, earning the title of Most Prominent Playwright Under 21.

For a decade, Lennie played Morgan Jones in The Walking Dead and its spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, gaining such global recognition that he was even recognised by Vatican guards.

He also created and starred in the critically acclaimed Sky Atlantic drama Save Me, which premiered in 2018. Its second season, Save Me Too, won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Drama Series in 2021.

Raised by his mother Phyllis, who emigrated from Trinidad to work as a nurse, Lennie faced hardship after her death when he was eleven. He and his brother Kestor were placed in a children’s home, and later Lennie moved into foster care after the home was sold by Wandsworth Council.

Encouraged by a youth theatre group, Lennie pursued acting and later trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He met his wife, Giselle, at seventeen in the same youth theatre group. They have three daughters and divide their time between the US and the UK.

DISC ONE: Touch The Hem Of His Garment - Gene Martin DISC TWO: I Found Lovin’ - Fatback Band DISC THREE: Doesn't Make It Alright - The Specials DISC FOUR: Living For The City - Stevie Wonder DISC FIVE: Any Old Time - Artie Shaw and his Orchestra with Billie Holiday DISC SIX: For me... Formidable - Charles Aznavour DISC SEVEN: Champagne Supernova - Oasis DISC EIGHT: Try a Little Tenderness - Otis Redding

BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Novels of Toni Morrison LUXURY ITEM: A guitar CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: For me... Formidable - Charles Aznavour

Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast many actors and writers away including the author of Mr. Loverman, Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo and the creator of Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it.
0:13.3	But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go?
0:19.2	I remember having this very sharp thought that what you do right now, this is it.
0:24.3	This defines your life.
0:26.0	I'm ready to talk and ready to listen.
0:28.3	I'm insulted by how little the medical community is ever bothered with this.
0:33.9	Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard, is my new podcast.
0:37.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:38.7	Hello, I'm Lauren Levern and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4.
0:43.6	Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury that they'd wanted to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:50.9	For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can
0:54.7	find a version with longer music tracks on BBC Sounds. Listeners will also get access to episodes
1:00.3	28 days earlier than everyone else. I hope you enjoy listening. My castaway this week is the actor and writer Lenny James. This year he took home the best actor
1:30.1	trophy at the Bafters for his starring role in Mr Loverman, playing a British Caribbean patriarch
1:35.5	who's secretly in love with his male best friend. It was the latest achievement in a career
1:40.6	which has been as varied as it has successful. His first play was published and won an award while he was still in his teens.
1:47.3	His breakout role was as a small-time gangster in the film Snatch.
1:51.1	For over a decade, he played Morgan Jones in The Walking Dead.
1:54.3	He was a bent copper in the line of duty and wrote and starred in Sky's BAFTA-winning Save Me.
1:59.7	He also found a way to tell his own story, born in Nottingham and brought up in South London.
2:04.8	In his teenage years, Lenny spent time in care.
	...

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