Lenny Henry praises Doctor Who for casting black actor as fans have waited 'a while'

express.co.uk:

Doctor Who is long overdue. "A lot of black fans have been looking at our watches for a while!" he has declared.The 63-year-old once took part in a spoof as the doctor, on the Lenny Henry Show 37 years ago, but now a person of colour has been cast in the role for real - and Lenny is delighted.Insisting that the black community needs greater representation on TV and in society in general, he questioned: "The Crown is great, but can we see ourselves on TV too?""More power to Russell T Davies," he added to the Radio Times, showing his praise of the director responsible for casting Ncuti.The Rwandan will make his debut next year, following in the footsteps of previous doctors including David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker and Christopher Eccleston.He will be replacing Jodie, who announced last summer that she would be leaving her role in favour of pastures new.Ncuti has previously made a name for himself via the Netflix hit Sex Education, in which he played Eric Effiong.His performance in the show won him a BAFTA in the Scottish award ceremony back in 2020.He was also a nominee at this year's BAFTA TV Awards - and the future is looking increasingly bright for this rising star.Meanwhile Lenny is next due to perform in the BBC adaptation of the book My Name Is Leon, by Kit de Waal.It features the traumas of a young black boy from Birmingham, who is grappling with growing up in the care system.The drama, set in the 1980s, has won Lenny's praise."I grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in the Black Country, I want to see those stories," he continued to the aforementioned publication.He added: "With people like Kit, Steve McQueen, Malorie Blackman and our team on this - writer Shola Amoo and director Lynette Linton - we're securing.