The Lenny Henry Show (1984)

"Katanga my friends!" This is the first of Lenny Henry's stand-up/sketch shows which had a similar format to the present (2004) version. In each show Lenny would stand in front of an audience telling jokes about his past life, joking about the antics of his part Birmingham, part Jamaica upbringing. He also touched on topical events in amusing ways. Many sketches were featured featuring recurring Henry characters, including the first appearances of the soul-singing sex-god Theophilus P Wildebeeste, PC Ganga, dear old Deakus, one of the first batch of post-war Jamaican immigrants who "came to h-England in um...in um in a boat!" and Derek The Teacher, a lampoon of the sort of student-teachers torn to shreds by inner-city schoolkids. Lenny also impersonated celebs including Prince, Michael Jackson and the one and only David Bellemy... "Gwapple me gwapenuts!". One key feature which has also made a sporadic appearance in more recent series of Lenny Henry's shows, were parodies