Sir Lenny Henry's chancellorship a 'huge honour'

“It’s such an achievement, it’s a huge honour,” Sir Lenny Henry has told the BBC, as he officially steps down from his role as chancellor of Birmingham City University (BCU).

The comedian, actor, presenter and writer has spent eight years in the role, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At a ceremony on Tuesday at the city’s Grand Hotel, he passed the baton on to presenter, journalist, disability campaigner and Paralympic medallist Ade Adepitan.

Speaking before the ceremony, Mr Adepitan said he had butterflies.

“If someone had told me when I was a kid, going to comprehensive school, that one day that I’d be a chancellor of a university, I would’ve said: ‘You’re mad,’” Mr Adepitan said.

He added that he had always considered Sir Lenny to be one of his heroes.

During his time at BCU, Sir Lenny helped to set up the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

It went on to become one of the largest producers of creative professionals outside the south-east of England.

Sir Lenny said it had been a privilege to represent an institution which had given hope and opportunity to many.

“The fact that it’s one of the most diverse universities in the country is wonderful,” he said.

He added: “Wherever you’re from, whatever your gender or ethnicity, these are your people, and you’re giving them the [graduation ceremony] day that they are going to remember for the rest of their lives.”

He said he would miss it because of the people he had met, and said the university staff had been “great”.

“The students have applied themselves and worked so hard,” he said.

“People just bring it all when they come to the graduation ceremony. It’s been beautiful.”

Mr Adepitan said he was looking forward to taking up his new role.

“What I see and what I hear, and the ambition – it excites me.

“I’ve got ideas - in terms of the fact that I’ve travelled the world, my journalistic background, making documentaries, being an elite athlete, playing at the Paralympics - and the stuff I want to do with disability rights and disability advocacy and getting more disabled kids into higher education.”

He added that it had been because of Sir Lenny that he had felt able to take on the role himself.

“You have to see it to know that you can be it,” he said.

The 51-year-old was a member of the GB wheelchair basketball team that won bronze at the 2004 Games in Athens.

He has presented programmes and documentaries for a number of broadcasters, including the BBC and Channel 4.

He has also co-presented the BBC’s Children in Need appeal and has appeared in episodes of Casualty, and he was the lead actor in CBBC children’s drama Desperados.

He received an MBE for services to disability sport in 2005 and continues to support a number of charities, including Go Kids Go, which he is patron of.

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