Who am I, again? by Lenny Henry

Author:Lenny Henry [Lenny Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571342624
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2019-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

THE FOSTERS

Shortly after signing with the Black and White Minstrels, I was invited down to London to meet with Michael Grade, who at the time was the deputy controller of programming at London Weekend Television. What I didn’t know was that he’d just purchased the ‘change of format’ rights to an American series called Good Times. This was an earthy African American situation comedy set in a housing project in a black inner-city neighbourhood in Chicago. The series was all about a black family’s struggles to overcome poverty. LWT intended to create a British version of the show with an Afro-Caribbean cast.

I sat and drank tea, as Grade fiddled with the massive video recorder underneath his TV. I watched an episode called ‘Black Jesus’ and was captivated by a character called JJ, a lanky, goofy, wise-cracking teenager. I laughed a lot and enjoyed his capering and wordplay. He said things like, ‘I am … Kid Dyno-mite!’ and cracked gags such as, ‘I’m gonna make like a tree and leave.’ I was still a teenager and thought, ‘I think I can do that.’ And so I said yes to this new series, which was to be called The Fosters – the first all-black situation comedy on British television.

I was invited down to London for rehearsals and to tape the first show in the series, which, to all intents and purposes, was a pilot. (Former Crackerjack star and my future mentor Don Maclean would often say that pilot was an acronym for Produced In Little ’Ope of Transmission.)

For the first few days I stayed at the Grosvenor Victoria, a huge hotel near Victoria Station. This was a forbidding place in which you could absolutely lose yourself, a massive block of a building, dirty and imposing. I found myself wandering the floors every night when I got in. Lonely and scared of what was to follow, thoughts kept galloping through my mind. Would I be any good in this show? What did people think of me?

I travelled to work every day by black cab. I was running up a considerable tab but didn’t know any better. After four days of rehearsals, I was starting to lose my mind. I was working from ten till six every day, and then returning to my hotel room to learn my lines and take in what I’d been taught that day.

Norman Beaton was playing the dad, Samuel Foster. I had seen him play Nanki-Poo six times in The Black Mikado at the Cambridge Theatre in London. He and his co-star Derek Griffiths had me in stitches each time. I loved the way Norman drove the plot with his wordplay and singing. Griffiths was impressively improvisational in his role: if someone arrived late, he’d castigate them from the stage or raise his eyebrows. The crowd would roar their approval.

Once I knew Norman was going to play my dad, I made a point of going round to the stage door to say hi. I was shown up to his

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