Sir Lenny Henry's last Comic 救済 hurrah! As the beloved comedian takes to the Red Nose Day 行う／開催する／段階 for one final time, MailOnline looks 支援する at the most memorable moments of his five-１０年間 career

Sir Lenny takes to the 行う／開催する／段階 during Comic 救済 Live at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1986

Presenters for the Night of TV 1989 開始する，打ち上げるd Red Nose Day 1989 on the Terry Wogan Show. (Clockwise from left: マイク Smith, Stephen Fry, Robbie Coltrane, Hugh Laurie, Lenny Henry, 夜明け French and Griff Rhys-Jones)

Sir Lenny joins pop icons the Spice Girls for Red Nose Day in London in 1997

Jennifer Saunders (far left), Tony Robinson (4th from left), Jonathon Ross (second from 権利) and Lenny Henry (far 権利) all 提起する／ポーズをとる with red noses at the 開始する，打ち上げる of Red Nose Day 1991

The 65-year-old was honoured with a 尊敬の印 from McFly as they sang their 2005 Red Nose Day 選び出す／独身 It's All About You, before it was 明らかにする／漏らすd Sir Lenny had helped raise £1.5B since 1988?

Sir Lenny Henry onstage during Comic 救済 Live at London Palladium on February 26, 2024

Before becoming the 直面する of Red Nose Day, Sir Lenny was famed for his edgy stand-up 決まりきった仕事s and outrageous characters that would poke fun at his Jamaican roots (pictured in 2024)

In later years, the actor and comic has become an 行動主義者 fighting for racial equality, having 以前 （人命などを）奪う，主張するd to have been used as a 'political football' when he appeared in '黒人／ボイコット 直面する' on the 黒人／ボイコット And White Minstrels show as a 十代の少年少女 in the 1975 (pictured in 2024)

In an on-空気／公表する 雑談（する）, she told her co-presenter Dan Walker: 'Every time I have been told, as a woman of colour, to go 支援する to where I （機の）カム from, that was embedded in 人種差別主義,' 追加するing: 'I'm not 告発する／非難するing anyone of anything here, but you know what 確かな phrases mean.'

Questioned その上の by Mr Walker, she said she was '絶対 furious a man in that position thinks it's 承認する to skirt the lines by using language like that'.

But the BBC みなすd she had gone too far with the discussion and けん責（する），戒告d her - 誘発するing a 猛烈な／残忍な （激しい）反発, led by Sir Lenny.?

A letter 調印するd by the comic and dozens of other 星／主役にするs said: '人種差別主義 is not a valid opinion on which an 'impartial' 姿勢 can or should be 持続するd.

'For communities and individuals who experience 人種差別主義者 乱用 ? 含むing Munchetty ? 存在 推定する／予想するd to 扱う／治療する 人種差別主義者 ideas as 潜在的に valid has 破滅的な and maybe 違法な consequences for our dignity and ability to work in a professional 環境, 同様に as 存在 contrary to race equality and human 権利s 法律制定;

'To 示唆する a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 can 'talk about her own experiences of 人種差別主義' while 保留するing a critique on the author of 人種差別主義 (in this 事例／患者 大統領 Trump) has the ludicrous 関わりあい／含蓄 that such 人種差別主義 may be 合法的 and should be 熟視する／熟考するd as such.'

Impressionist Sir Lenny has 以前 述べるd how he used the 人種差別主義 he 直面するd as a child to 奮起させる many of his 早期に sketch characters in the 1970s and 80s. But he said if he had started his career now, it would 'all have to change'.

'My partner would go 'most of the 70s and 80s should be 辞職するd to the 貯蔵所, you can't do any of that s*** anymore',' he said. 'I'm very aware that if I was starting now, there's a lot of stuff I wouldn't do.'

Impressionist Sir Lenny has 以前 述べるd how he used the 人種差別主義 he 直面するd as a child to 奮起させる many of his 早期に sketch characters (he is pictured in December 2023)

He 特記する／引用するd the example of Donovan Bogarde, a character from 'Lenny Henry in Pieces', which 空気／公表するd between 2000 and 2003.?

With a 厚い West Indian accent, Bogarde was a lecherous pensioner?who 絶えず used 性の innuendos in conversations with Mrs Johnson, a woman he was 追求するing.

He also said he would have to turn his character?Theophilus P Wildebeeste ? an amorous soul singer who appeared on The Lenny Henry Show in the 1980s ? 'woke' if creating him now.?

The outrageous TV personality famously appeared during the 1991 分割払い of Comic 救済, Sir Lenny took to the 行う／開催する／段階 as Wildebeeste と一緒に Welsh music icon Sir Tom Jones in the '戦う／戦い of the Sex Gods'.

The hilarious skit saw the leather-覆う？ 二人組 冒険的な bulging, luminous red cod pieces as they thrust and gyrated provocatively on 行う／開催する／段階 while singing in 前線 of millions of Brits.

But in 2022 Sir Lenny told British GQ Magazine that Wildebeeste was one of his comic 創造s that he now regretted.?

'I probably wouldn't do that now. He'd have to be woke. You know, 'girl, I 尊敬（する）・点 you'. You'd have to be like that. 'I reserve the 権利 to 尊敬（する）・点 you and be a proto-feminist myself'. I think it would all have to change. And that's a good [thing].'

Sir Lenny was born to Jamaican parents in Dudley - but his childhood in the '黒人／ボイコット Country' market town was far from a laughing m atter.?

The comic's mother had moved to the West Midlands in the 中央の-1950s, に引き続いて in the footsteps of her brother,?Clifton, who had?約束d 職業s for all the family.

But in his unflinching autobiography, Sir Lenny said his mother was '直面するd by 人種差別主義 on a daily basis'.?

Sir Lenny Henry in 1978 growing up as a young man in Dudley, West Midlands?

Lenny with his mum, Auntie Pearl and family in 1974 after his New 直面するs audition

Sir Lenny said his family was 的d by 人種差別主義者s during the 早期に 1970s in Dudley?

In an 抽出する from the 調書をとる／予約する, 株d with the Daily Mail in 2019, Sir Lenny wrote: 'She would be followed 負かす／撃墜する the street by children who 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know where she was hiding her tail; on the bus, women would feel her 直面する with their 手渡すs and ask her whether her 肌 colour （機の）カム off; men on the street would make monkey noises at her as she passed. That was when there were 調印するs in all 搭乗 house windows 説, 'No 黒人／ボイコットs, No Irish, No Dogs'. So if you were a 黒人／ボイコット Irish wolfhound, you had no chance, as my old gag-writer Kim Fuller once 公式文書，認めるd.'

A young Lenny was also 的d by bigots. He was 選ぶd on at school, with いじめ（る）s taunting him by 説 hateful things like 'Hey, darky. Oi nig-nog', the comic wrote.?

But things started to change for Lenny when he discovered comedy, turning horrid comments about him into jokes.?

'By the time I was 12 or 13, I'd had an epiphany. I knew I could make people laugh with the things I said, but now I was doing something else: I'd begun to impersonate 発言する／表明するs, people, things, all the time,' he said.?

His big break （機の）カム when he was still in school, as he appeared on 攻撃する，衝突する talent show New 直面するs - which kick-started his career in the スポットライト.

After his audition he became the モミst 黒人／ボイコット performer to 参加する The 黒人／ボイコット and White Minstrel Show, which 空気／公表するd on the BBC from 1958 to 1978.

The entertainment show was known for its use of white singers and actors donning blackface to 成し遂げる minstrel songs.

But Henry said he was used as a 'political football' after appearing on the programme.?

1986: Sir Lenny Henry takes to the 行う／開催する／段階 at London's?Shaftesbury Theatre for Comic 救済?

A young Lenny was 的d by bigots - but he used the いじめ（る）ing to 奮起させる his comedy (he is pictured in 1986)

In an interview with The Times, Sir Lenny, said he regretted 存在 説得するd by his family and 管理／経営 to work on the show, which was considered 不快な／攻撃 at the time, for five years.

'People used to say Lenny was the only one who didn't need make-up,' the comedian said. 'It was half funny once, but to hear that every day for five years was a bit of a p***er.'

Henry 追加するd his 傾向 was used as proof for the Race Relations Board that the show wasn't 人種差別主義者.

'I had become a political football,' Sir Lenny said. 'My way through all of this was to bury my 長，率いる in the sand and let any 論争 wash over me.'

He has 以前 said he was contractually 強いるd to 成し遂げる on the 議論の的になる show and that he struggled in a '深遠な wormhole of 不景気' after it 空気／公表するd.?

'If you were 黒人／ボイコット and on TV in the Seventies, the jokes told tended to be against yourself rather than about any other 支配する. This was a 生き残り technique... 支配する number one seemed to be: get all the dodgy 人種差別主義者 jokes in before they did,' he 追加するd in his autobiography.?

In October Sir Lenny 認める his jokes about the 欠如（する） of 黒人／ボイコット people on television became serious over time - 誘発するing him to question why there were so few in the 産業.?

Lenny Henry in 2015. 'I was born in August 1958 and, in many 尊敬（する）・点s, I was a surprise ? not least to Mama, who hadn't banked on producing yet another Henry while her husband was still in the Caribbean,' he wrote in his autobiography?

2022: Sir Lenny joins David Tennant and Alesha Dixon during the Red Nose Day night of TV for Comic 救済 on March 18, 2022 in Manchester

Red Nose Day returns! Alison Hammond, Davina McCall, Dame Joan Collins, Nick Grimshaw, Rosie Jones, Simon Cowell and more join Sir Lenny Henry in new sketch to 開始する，打ち上げる （選挙などの）運動をする for 2024?

The 行動主義者 - who was the 支配する of an ITV special, 肩書を与えるd Lenny Henry: One Of A 肉親，親類d, in which he is celebrated by famous friends 含むing Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Elton and Richard Curtis - said the topic became ますます more important to him.

反映するing on his 早期に comedy 決まりきった仕事 in the programme, he says: 'I had this whole nine-minute 決まりきった仕事 about 黒人／ボイコット people on TV and why aren't there more of us.

'That developed into a thought 過程. It stopped 存在 about jokes and became a thing that I did think.

'Why is it when I go filming, there's no people of colour behind the camera?

'Why is it when I go into a 会合 there's never anybody that looks like me? The 'why' became really important.'

He 追加するd: 'やめる often, people from a working-class background or people of colour go 'Oh 井戸／弁護士席, that's not for me because I don't see myself doing that'.

'I 断言する if I'd met a 黒人／ボイコット director of photography when I was at school, I'd be a director of photography now. Because these things 奮起させる you to do those things.'

In 最近の years, Sir Lenny has turned に向かって fighting for racial equality as a 黒人／ボイコット 権利s 選挙運動者.?

He edited a 調書をとる／予約する '黒人／ボイコット British Lives 事柄' in 2021, a collection of essays and conversations by 目だつ 黒人／ボイコット British 人物／姿／数字s on why 黒人／ボイコット 代表 was so important.?

Sir Lenny Henry 明らかにする／漏らすd?he will be stepping 負かす／撃墜する as host of the?Comic 救済?after almost 40 years.?

He co-設立するd the charity in 1985 と一緒に Love 現実に screenwriter Richard Curtis, has been hosting the BBC show Red Nose Day for １０年間s.

Sir Lenny co-hosted the first Comic 救済 show in 1988, which raised £15million during an eight-hour TV event featuring some of the 最高の，を越す 星／主役にするs of the day.?

Since then, 寄付s have より勝るd more than £1.5billion, with cash raised each year helping to 取り組む poverty, 供給する food, health care and 避難所 f or some of the poorest people in the UK and around the world.?

Sir Lenny co-hosted the first Comic 救済 show in 1988, which raised £15million during an eight-hour TV event featuring some of the 最高の，を越す 星／主役にするs of the day (he is pictured with partner?Lisa Makin in November 2023)?

2005: Sir Lenny with his former wife, comedian 夜明け French?

Remarkably, the actor and comic has only taken one year off from the 役割, which was while he was starring in a 行う／開催する／段階 生産／産物 of Othello.??

But speaking 以前, Sir Lenny said it was 'time to 手渡す on to the new 世代' and 許す 'new 直面するs' to take the 舵輪／支配.?

He told BBC Breakfast: 'I'm not going to be hosting any more Comic 救済s after this.

'I will make special 外見s because I'm a life 大統領，／社長. I'll be doing fundraising stuff, but I just won't be hosting on the night.

'I'll probably still do 文書のs and 告示s and things. But this is my last time of hosting the evening.

'I've only ever had one night off. That was when I did Othello at West Yorkshire Playhouse. But this will be the last time I host, because I think it's time to 手渡す on to the new 世代.

'There's all these new, wonderful comedians with podcasts and nine million 信奉者s and those guys or women should be hosting Comic 救済 now.

'So that the young people and the new influx of テレビ視聴者s can plug into the next 行う／開催する／段階 of Comic 救済, because there will be a next 行う／開催する／段階, and because we want to continue 取り組むing 問題／発行するs of poverty and 不正.

'It's time to を引き渡す the reins, as it were.'

Speaking ahead of his first 外見, he told the BBC:?'I think it needs new 血, and I'm definitely old 血. So it's time for change.'

Tonight, the results of a publi c 投票（する） to choose the best moments of the comedy legend will be 明らかにする／漏らすd.

The 最高の，を越す three 選択s are his 業績／成果 of Romeo opposite boxer Frank Bruno's Juliet in 1986, his 2016 sketch as Luther's brother with Idris Elba and a 1991 duet with Tom Jones.

Sir Lenny will remain 伴う／関わるd in Comic 救済 as a life 大統領，／社長. He told the BBC he is 'incredibly proud' that it was a part of his life.