Sir Lenny Henry

And I signed up for it.

We had one year.

There was just Shakespeare, and it thrilled me.

Because my experience of Shakespeare in Dudley at Blue Coat Secretary Martin was me and Ronnie Barton reading from Romeo and Juliet, because Mr. Nash said we had to.

Romeo, Romeo, we're for our dear Romeo.

And it wasn't great.

So it didn't really turn us on or anything.

And that's why we did it on Comic Relief with Frank Bruno.

Juliet, Juliet, Juliet, I haven't seen thee since the way in.

You know.

The old ones are the best, ladies and gentlemen.

And then Barry Rutter came on the phone from Northern Broadside's theatre company, actor manager, been doing Shakespeare for his whole life.

And he offered me the role of Othello at the Northern... Well, I was really scared.

And I was even more scared on the first day of the read-through when I walked down the street towards the West Yorkshire Playhouse and a picture of me with no shirt on is looking out from the poster.

LAUGHTER Like a slightly podgy Denzel.

And he said, Lady Henry is a fellow.

And I thought, not bloody yet he isn't.

We haven't done the read-through yet.

And it was amazing.

The whole thing was an amazing experience.