Richie, Sir Lenny Henry & The Black Country
We Mention That We’re Wondering If His Mum Had To Travel To Dudley To Work or If They Lived There In The Same Neighbourhood, Because We Known That Sir Lenny Henry Is Famously From The Dudley Area Too. His Reply Is Amazing.
RS: “There’s A Story. I’m Glad You Said That. When We Came To England, We Moved To Dudley, West Midlands And We Were Lenny Henry’s Next Door Neighbour On The Black Acre Road. And We All Used To Play As Kids.”
He Mentions One of A Number of Lenny Henry Documentaries In Which The Comedian Reviews His Childhood And Says He Knows Some The Areas Sir Henry Mentions Including Buffrey Park. And Blackheath & Blue Coats School Which He Went To.
Ever The Teacher, Richie gives Us A Much Appreciated Mini Geography Lesson. For Which We’re Grateful Because Although We’ve Heard Reference To The Area Over The Years, We Never Heard It Explained How It Got Its Name.
RS: “It’s The Wrens Nest Area In Dudley. Over There You’ll Find The Seven Sisters Caves, Where They Dig Out All The Minerals To Extract The Iron. That’s Why It’s Called The Black Country. Because of All The Iron And The Pollution The Clouds Always Used To Be Black. That’s Dudley In The West Mindlands, And Area’s Called The Wren’s Nest.“
He Remembers It Being Strange & Cold.
RS: “I Actually Went To Dudley Grammer School. Because They Decided That I Was “Bright”.
TO.P: That’s Quite Unusual. There Has Been So Much Reporting On Racism In Education And How Black Childrent Were Deemed Sub-Normal Educationally.
RS: “I Just Lived Through It, Went Through It, Went On To Leicester University To Study Science And The Rest Is History.”
Happily It Is A Fortunate Black British History Story Indeed. He Was Able To Work His Way Successfully Through The British Education System And Come Out Successfully At The Other End. The Local Grammer School, Then Dudley College of Science And Technology, Then Leicester University. And Then He Eventually Become A Science Teacher.
TO.P: Amazing. So You Lived Next Door Together And You Both Entered The Entertainment Business. So Are You Guys Still Friends Then?
RS: “I Haven’t Seen Him For A Long Long Time As Obviously We Went off And Did Our Own Thing, I Became A Chemistry And Science Teacher. He Became A Big Celebrity, A Comedian And Got A Knighthood. I’m Still Working On The Knighthood!”
TO.P: But Now You’re Both In The Entertainment Industry.
RS: We Are. And I’m Loving Every Minute of It. I’m Living The Dream. We’ve Been Doing So Well With This Project, With Soul Kinda Wonderful (SKW). From That Splendid Era of Motown And The 50s And 60s, The P & O Cruises, And The Reaction We’re Getting, Which Is Absolutely Fabulous.
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