Lenny Henry

“There are comics who choose to be controversial, and people have to make a judgment call. You either watch it or you don't. It's possible to be funny about anything, it just depends on how you approach it and if you've got good self-editing skills.”

“I failed my 11-plus and ended up working in a factory after I left school. But then I passed my audition on 'New Faces' and I was on the telly. Suddenly, I was living in London, and sending my parents money that they could never have imagined. It was a massive thing for me; I was a 17-year-old kid who was able to support his family!”

“I love the BBC but I just want this thing of BAME inclusion in the demographic of the people who make the decisions about what we do and how we do it, to change.”

“I believe that if we want to change our industry we must look beyond what we see on our TV screens and fix the bigger problems lying beneath. When it comes to racial diversity that means looking at who commissions and makes the programmes.”

“I've written songs since the beginning of the 80s.”

“With standup, I was thrown into the deep end at a very early age, without being able to swim. Acting was the same.”

“Perfection isn't everything, some mistakes are pretty groovy.”

“Stand-up's a lottery - you think it's funny but the audience can disagree.”

“Nothing surprises me as far as racism is concerned in this country.”

“My mum came to Britain from Clarendon, in the south of Jamaica, to make a better life for her family.”

“My mum was very, very tough.”

“Mum would hit us with anything. You'd see her looking for something to hit you with, and you'd think, please let it be something reasonably soft. She threw a chair at me once. It was like being in a western.”

“When you've lived in a country for 50 years and you pay your tax, you have a pension and insurance, you've raised a family and sent your kids to uni. To get to an age and be told you don't belong here and you have to go back to where you come from is really saddening and infuriating.”

“Corden's a comedy powerhouse.”

“What a gift it would be if every child in the country could hear a professional orchestra at least once.”

“I haven't got an exact number for my carbon footprint although if it's anywhere near my normal footprint it'll be size 13 wide.”

“It's nice to get home and do normal stuff. Put the rubbish out, do the school run - it means you stay grounded. I knew a horn player who was so used to being on the road that he became institutionalised; he could never adjust to being at home. I'm really glad I didn't let it get that far.”

“My mum was a fixed point in my universe who was never going to grow old or die; she was always going to be there. And when she got sick, I was on the road all the time, I wasn't at home much, there was a lot of pressure. It was an awful time, and when she died, it was like your world falls apart.”

“I like to play characters who are flawed - the big man brought down.”

“We used to live in a one-room bedsit in Dudley with an Indian family.”