Lenny Henry given Legend Of Comedy award
- The Leicester Comedy Festival Awards 2021 have named Lenny Henry a Legend Of Comedy
- Comedian Patrick Monahan picked up the Lifetime Contribution award via the festival's online ceremony
- Best Show: Esther Manito. Best Festival Appearance: Ahir Shah. Best Kids Show: Jonny Awsum
Lenny Henry has been named a Legend Of Comedy in the Leicester Comedy Festival Awards 2021.
The comedian and writer joins previous recipients of the title; Victoria Wood, Barry Cryer, Johnny Vegas, Rik Mayall, Jo Brand, Nicholas Parsons, Ken Dodd and Sir Norman Wisdom.
The Leicester Comedy Festival Awards were set up in 2006 to recognise the contribution people make to the annual February-based festival.
This year's results were revealed in an online ceremony hosted by Zoe Lyons. The other winners include:
Lifetime Contribution
Best Show
Best Festival Appearance
Best Kids Show
Best Podcast
Pappy's Flatshare Slamdown
TripleCeePee was named Best Promoter, and their show No More Jockeys Live took the Liberty Award/Spirit of the Festival title.
Streaming platform NextUp was awarded the Contribution To LCF21 title, for overseeing the technical aspects of this year's shows, with all of the 2021 programme streamed online.
Festival director Geoff Rowe explains: "Last year was a very strange year for all of us, but I am so incredibly proud that with the support of so many people, we managed to produce both Leicester Comedy Festival and The UK Kids' Comedy Festival in February 2021. Although things were a bit different, the festivals included over 350 performances, featuring over 150 comedians and over 27,000 people watched the online events from around the world."
Speaking about the results, Rowe adds: "It was particularly fantastic to be able to recognise Lenny Henry and present him with the Legend of Comedy Award. I've been a huge fan of Lenny since the early 1980s and it was amazing to honour the contribution he has made to British comedy. Huge congratulations to him and all the other nominees and winners. We'll see you all again when Leicester Comedy Festival & The UK Kids' Comedy Festival return in February 2022!"