![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LOTR_LennyHenry-e1607283593407.jpg\")
Sir Lenworth George Henry CBE<\/strong> was born in Dudley (in the West Midlands, England) in 1958. He first came to prominence as an impressionist on the television talent show New Faces<\/em>, which he won in 1975. This led to work as a stand-up comedian, impersonator, and children’s television host. At the beginning of the 1980s, he moved into the alternative comedy scene, joining the group The Comic Strip<\/em>. It was there that he met his wife (from 1984 to 2010), comedian and actor Dawn French. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lenny Henry Show<\/em> began on the BBC in 1984, and as a British child of the 1980s myself, Lenny Henry was a big part of my childhood television viewing. From appearing in the final episode of The Young Ones<\/em>, to his 1990s series Chef!<\/em>, he was a feature of much of the comedy we loved in that era. A personal favourite of mine was the Richard Curtis penned, Christmas 1991 show Bernard and the Genie<\/em>; Henry starred in this alongside Alan Cumming and Rowan Atkinson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1985, Henry was a co-founder of the charity organisation Comic Relief<\/a>, which is still going strong: Red Nose Day 2021 (the 19th such occasion) will be March 19th. (He received his knighthood in 2015, for ‘services to drama and charity’.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Henry has form in the realms of fantasy and literature: in 1996 he collaborated with none other than Neil Gaiman, to devise the ‘urban fantasy’ television series Neverwhere<\/em>. (Gaiman later adapted the series into a novel.) Henry’s voice can be heard in the Harry Potter<\/em> franchise, as ‘Dre Head’, the shrunken head on board the Knight Bus; and at the beginning of this year, Henry played the role of Daniel Barton in the two part opening of Doctor Who<\/em>‘s latest season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Henry first branched out into a serious role in 1999, in the BBC drama Hope and Glory<\/em>. He surprised the critics as an excellent lead in Othello <\/em>(in the 2009 Northern Broadsides production), and has since played Antipholus of Syracuse in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors<\/em> at the National Theatre (2011). A man of many talents, who has also been a radio dj, screenwriter, singer, and composer, in recent years it seems to have been his desire to focus on being a more ‘serious’ actor. Since his appearance at the National Theatre, he has trod the boards in plays such as Fences<\/em>, Educating Rita<\/em>, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui<\/em>. This makes me think that his casting in Amazon’s series is not a ‘Barry Humphries’ style appearance. The headshot Amazon are using (seen at the top of this article) also makes that pretty clear: Henry is being hired as a straight actor, not as a funny man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what could his role be? Now 62, Henry has a gravitas in his face – in the past, always seeming so ready to break into a huge grin – which lends itself to the ‘elder statesman’ type of character. Lately, he often takes on roles of folks who are in some ways worn down by their experiences; or at least, are wiser (if sadder) for the life they have lived. I see Henry playing a Numenorean leader; someone with nobility, courage, but perhaps with troubles or bitterness. Tar-Ancalimon, leader of an increasingly divided Numenor, perchance? Whatever his role may be, I for one am very excited to see one of my favourite performers step in to my favourite fantasy realm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor Note:<\/strong> Join TheOneRing.net as we focus on the recent cast member announcements<\/a> for Amazon TV\u2019s The Lord of the Rings inspired TV series. Throughout the month, and as part of our Tolkien Advent Calendar celebration<\/a>, we will be taking a deep-dive into their previous work, relating that to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Today’s calendar is below! <\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today we take a look at what many regard as one of the most exciting casting announcements from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":109165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,3394,3405,149,152],"tags":[3123,3206,3208,3407,853,170,3406,721,3408,730],"class_list":["post-109311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-tv-series","category-casting-news","category-lenny-henry","category-lotr","category-tolkien","tag-amazon-middle-earth-tv-series-amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series","tag-amazon-studios","tag-amazon-tv-series","tag-comic-relief","tag-doctor-who","tag-harry-potter","tag-lenny-henry","tag-neil-gaiman","tag-neverwhere","tag-shakespeare"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/LOTR_LennyHenry-e1607283593407.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-sr5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109311"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109331,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109311\/revisions\/109331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Lenny-Henry-Red-Nose-Day.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/TORn-advent-2020-dec7-742x1024.jpg\")