Lenny Henry has written a one-off fictionalised account of his life as a working-class teenager in 1970s Dudley.

Danny and the Human Zoo centres round Danny Fearon, a talented impressionist, and his working-class Jamaican family, as he rises to fame as a stand-up comedian.

The 90-minute drama is described as “a high-energy, nostalgic period piece about the decade we love to hate, and its music, fashion and television”.

Lenny Henry commented: “I’m so excited about bringing my fictional teen memoir to the nation! I’ve crammed the first two years of a very long career into 90 minutes – it’s gonna rock. I think , although it’s not exactly what happened, that we’ll get a strong sense of what it might have been like for a young black kid from Dudley to be suddenly hurled into the maelstrom of this business we call show… Can’t wait!”

Executive producer Nicola Shindler added: “I’m extremely excited to be making Danny and the Human Zoo with Lenny whose skill as a writer has been so impressive and assured. This is a funny, moving and important script about growing up as a black, comic talent in a white, crazy world – in the not too distant past.”

The official synopsis reads: “Danny’s world is a series of complex minefields which he has to negotiate. His home life – which his ebullient mother rules with an iron fist in an iron glove; his love life – where the white Irish girl he’s in love with won’t give him the time of day until he wins his first competition – and finally the ups and downs of his emerging career.

“When Danny wins a talent competition at the local club he soon finds himself working the comedy circuit. Audiences can’t get enough and applaud Danny as he effortlessly morphs into Mohammed Ali, Tommy Cooper and Frank Spencer; eventually hitting the big time on TV, an unheard-of achievement for a young black boy. But an unscrupulous agent takes advantage of Danny and forces him to star in a show, which even by Seventies’ standards, was a byword for racism – The Black And White Minstrel Show. Danny hits rock bottom. Having made his name by becoming other people, Danny has to save himself by finding out who he really is.”

Are you looking forward to Danny and the Human Zoo? Let us know below…