Lenny's Britain (From Stourbridge News)

Lenny's Britain

"What's green and hard? A frog with a flick knife," Lenny Henry chuckles. "Or what's brown and sticky? A stick."

Funnyman Lenny is re-telling a few of the gags broadcast by the general public in the travelling joke booth' that followed him around the country in his latest four-part series, Lenny,s Britain.

"I journey around Britain exploring British humour by plunging into a variety of situations like some kind of comedic lab rat," Lenny laughs. "It's about me interacting with the public and exploring whether humour has changed over the years. Britain prides itself on its sense of humour but has political correctness affected us as a nation of gag crackers?"

During the series, Lenny examines humour in families, the workplace, leisure time and within communities. This week, in an exploration of his own family's humour, Lenny heads to his hometown of Dudley, in the West Midlands.

"My brothers and sisters are really funny, my mum was funny - my dad was a miserable git so he was funny," Lenny says.

"So there was a natural family vibe. The family humour wasn't people showing off - it was more self-deprecating, slightly sarky humour, particularly if you ate too fast, or didn't eat enough or ate too much.

"If you did crap at school, or didn't get out of bed in time, there would be something said that would tease you and put a firework up your bum. So I grew up in a house where, although it wasn't like being in the Morecambe and Wise show every day, there was humour to be had. I think that inspired my comedy."

Lenny launched his own comedy career back in the 1970s on the ITV talent show New Faces, which completely stunned his mum, who Lenny describes as the funniest person in his house.

"She was tough with us, but she could make us all laugh very much indeed when she wanted to," Lenny recalls. "The day I came home when I was 15, having done an audition for New Faces, it was like an alien had walked in, because in our house you wouldn't say boo to a goose. You could have knocked her over with a feather. She made me stand in the hallway and do my act. It was phenomenal. And she laughed as well! I was doing impressions and mimicry and telling jokes and stuff, and she was like, What's come into my house?' and I hope it gets me a colour TV', which I did."

Clearly, humour can arise in almost any situation, as Lenny discovered during this week's episode when he witnessed a baby being born.

"It was very moving," Lenny says. "We adopted our daughter Billie so I've never seen a childbirth - it was extraordinary."

"This timid woman was having a baby, and her husband went to the toilet for a really long time, and left me as primary birth partner. She pressed my hand like Mike Tyson! When the baby was born, we all cried."

From childbirth to the elderly, Lenny then visited 79-year-old pensioner Doreen who has a fondness for dirty jokes.

"Words can't describe what this old woman is like - she's scandalous," Lenny exclaims. "She told me she'd taken the money she'd put aside for her funeral and thought, bugger it, I'm going to buy a vibrating bed! We had a go on it and it was great."

Over the two months of filming across the country, Lenny also looked at how humour is used in the community, travelling to a Welsh working mine, and chatting to a group of comedians in Belfast.

"Humour breaks down barricades," Lenny says. "If somebody explains a joke to me from their culture and I get it, then it's worth more to me than any self-serving politician preaching about values or some rubbish like that."

British humour has changed irreconcilably since Lenny first began his career as a stand-up comic 30 years ago, due in part to political correctness.

"Back in the dark ages of the 1970s, people were okay to tell jokes about black people and sexist, homophobic jokes - it was the thing," Lenny explains.

"When political correctness came along in the early 1980s, you'd have thought that would have all changed. But here we are in the 21st century, and people still came into our joke booths and told Irish jokes, jokes against their wives, even 9/11 jokes. A lot of the jokes are based on ignorance, but it's still going on."

Even now, it's tough being a female comedian. Being married to one of Britain's most famous comediennes, Dawn French, Lenny has had first hand experience of general prejudice towards funny women.

"Before the feminism stuff, men would tell the jokes, while their wives pulled faces behind their backs," Lenny says. "Men still have that, and there's still a slight prejudice against women being funny, but now, women are feeling more confident in their ability to crack gags. I'm married to one of the funniest women in the world and I see her regularly surprise people with her humour and ability to think on her feet.

"However, I still think there is a prejudice against female stand ups - they have it much tougher. I remember Dawn saying that she'd get up on stage, and people would shout, Get 'em out' - that kind of thing. But there are so many different types of female comedians now like Jo Brand, Ronni Ancona, Catherine Tate. And it's not just jokes about hating blokes and periods. Women are exploring many more things to be funny about, which is great."

However, Lenny disagrees with the theory that underneath their jovial exterior, comedians are generally miserable folk using humour to cover up their unhappiness.

"All comedians are human!" he exclaims. "They are perfectly capable of being both miserable, and happy, thank you very much. What matters is they come out and make you laugh. I don't care if a comedian is miserable or not. What I care about is if I paid £40 to see somebody, they'd better be funny. I don't care what kind of day you've had pal - crack some gags!"

But does Lenny, as an experienced comedian, feel pressure to be funny all the time?

"When I was on camera filming this documentary, it was a pressure but I think it would have been a pretty dull programme if I'd just been miserable," he muses.

"If something funny occurs, I'm going to react to it. I'm on this show because my job is to communicate these things to the people at home. But generally people don't expect me to be funny all the time, and I'm not funny all the time, because to me, being funny is work."

Clearly, Lenny hopes that people won't just have a laugh watching the series - they'll learn something too.

"It's not just Lenny Henry being funny, it's me thinking my way through this," he says. "It's not analysing comedy but a sense that we're on a journey. There are some very funny moments, but there's also some thoughtful stuff about how we use humour and who we are as a people."

Real name: Lenworth George Henry Birthdate: August 29, 1958Significant other: Lives with wife Dawn French and their adopted daughter BillieCareer high: Being awarded the CBE in 1999Career low: His Hollywood film True Identity was a flopFamous for: Fronting the BBC's live coverage of Red Nose DayWords of wisdom: "I'm actually small, quiet and super-genius. As Muhammad Ali used to say, I'm not as dumb as I look'."