Lenny Live and Unleashed

It takes a truck-load of ego and one hell of a track record to take on 90 minutes of one-person stand-up comedy on the big screen. Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin can do it, and here Lenny Henry fulfils his aspirations to be fourth on the list with relative ease. In the Hackney Empire, Lenny keeps the live audience on their toes with a script devised by himself and his long-standing writing partner Kim Fuller. Tried and tested favourites Delbert Wilkins, Deakus and Theophilus P Wildebeeste are all pulled out of the trunk, as well as a less exposed character, blues singer Hound Dog Smith. Henry has successfully overridden the criticisms of black stereotyping (simply by ignoring the issue), but there's never been any debate over his skills as an impersonator; and here he excels as he miraculously transforms himself into mirror images of Pryor, Murphy and Martin.