Lenny Henry creates fictionalised account of his life for BBC One
A fictionalised account of Lenny Henry's life as a working-class teenager in 1970s Dudley is to be turned into a one-off comedy drama for BBC One.
Danny And The Human Zoo, a TV film which has been written by Lenny Henry (pictured), centres round Danny Fearon, a talented impressionist. The 90 minute comic drama observes what happens as he rises to fame as a stand-up comedian, and also focuses on his working-class Jamaican family.
The BBC says: "It is a distinctive portrait of ordinary life in a first-generation Jamaican family, a world not often seen on British TV, and beautifully brought to life by Lenny's warm-hearted script.
"Danny's world is a series of complex minefields which he has to negotiate. His home life - which his ebullient mother rules with an iron fist in an iron glove; his love life - where the white Irish girl he's in love with won't give him the time of day until he wins his first competition - and finally the ups and downs of his emerging career.
"When Danny wins a talent competition at the local club he soon finds himself working the comedy circuit. Audiences can't get enough and applaud Danny as he effortlessly morphs into Muhammad Ali, Tommy Cooper and Frank Spencer; eventually hitting the big time on TV, an unheard-of achievement for a young black boy. But an unscrupulous agent takes advantage of Danny and forces him to star in a show, which even by Seventies' standards, was a byword for racism - The Black And White Minstrel Show. Danny hits rock bottom. Having made his name by becoming other people, Danny has to save himself by finding out who he really is."
The BBC concludes: "Danny And The Human Zoo is a drama about a kid trying to make it big. It's a high-energy, nostalgic period piece about the decade we love to hate, and its music, fashion and television."
Lenny Henry himself comments: "I'm so excited about bringing my fictional teen memoir to the nation! I've crammed the first two years of a very long career into 90 minutes - it's gonna rock. I think, although it's not exactly what happened, that we'll get a strong sense of what it might have been like for a young black kid from Dudley to be suddenly hurled into the maelstrom of this business we call show... Can't wait!"
Nicola Shindler, from RED Production Company, adds: "I'm extremely excited to be making Danny And The Human Zoo with Lenny, whose skill as a writer has been so impressive and assured. This is a funny, moving and important script about growing up as a black, comic talent in a white, crazy world - in the not too distant past."
The show will be filmed later this year, with further casting due to be announced nearer the time.
Below is a clip of Henry starring in the mid-1970s ITV sitcom The Fosters:
Also announced by the BBC today is a drama series starring David Walliams (pictured) as Agatha Christie's detective Tommy Beresford.
The Little Britain star says: "In bringing these thrilling stories to the screen, it is our ambition for Tommy and Tuppence to finally take their rightful place alongside Poirot and Marple as iconic Agatha Christie characters. I was first drawn to the delicious notion of a married couple solving crimes together, and the more I read of the Tommy and Tuppence novels and short stories I realised they are among Christie's very best work."