Lenny Henry reveals why he was pleasantly surprised by his homecoming gig

Lenny Henry joined Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio for a chat about his current tour, 'Still at Large'. The actor and comedian started his tour last month, and still has many more dates, taking him across the UK, ending in November 2026.

Speaking about his tour, Lenny told Simon how the show is different every night. Split into two halves, the comedian starts his gig with a stand-up routine. The second half is a Q&A session, with questions submitted by the audience that night via a QR code.

One of the dates on his tour was his homecoming gig in Dudley, where the actor grew up. He told Simon the show was "legendary", admitting he hadn't played there for 15 years, and previously it hasn't gone that well.

However, this time was different, with the press gathered, Lenny recounted: "I walked on stage and they were going, ‘Dudley, Dudley, Dudley’, like that. It was like a football match and they just... everything I said, they just loved it."

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He continued: "They roared with appreciation because I was talking about them as well as me growing up in Dudley. You know, Tipton... there's a guy with a horse in the front yard.

"Why, you know... but battered saveloy. What is a battered saveloy? And I learned all of these things growing up in Dudley. This was not Caribbean culture. This is Dudley culture. So they really roared a lot. And that's the one all the press came to."

Lenny admitted when his partner Lisa asked him about the tour, he told her: "I won't tell you what I'm doing, you'll have to come and see it.

"When she saw it, she said, 'Oh, it's stand-up'. I went, 'Yeah, yeah, it is'. That's what I used to... that was my hello, that was my career. She was interested because she hadn't really seen me do a load of stand-up before. She really enjoyed it."

He then went on to reveal: "She had some notes, of course, but she really enjoyed it and it made me want to impress her."

Lenny will be touring across the UK throughout June, and after a short break, September to November. You can see the full list of dates here.

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