Sir Lenny Henry

A Victorian actor.

Check it out, ladies and gentlemen.

I have no idea.

That's the truth.

There was an inkling... Because I was going through stuff in the late 90s.

My mum had just died and I was starting to get angry with everything.

And...

I'd done my O-levels with Cannonball in 1980-something in Blackpool, which was hilarious.

I mean, literally, when you were on tour with... No, no, I did the North Pier at Blackpool, and I was with Cannonball, and so that I didn't get bored witless, I decided to take my A-levels.

So I did...

No, I did my A-levels, and I studied Henry IV, Part I. And it was my introduction to studying Shakespeare proper.

I quite enjoyed it.

And then there was a pause.

And then when I was doing Hope and Glory by Lucy Gannon, which I loved, I was playing an idealistic head teacher.

And I was in the make-up room one day, and I was looking.

My mum had passed away by this time.

I was looking at the Open University, and my mum had always said, you must get a education, Len.

Keep looking for your education so you have something to file back on.

And because she'd passed away and she was in my heart, I was looking at the Open University and I thought, I'm going to write away to see what that is.

And I got the prospectus and I'm in makeup and all the women are there going, well, you should do this.