Lenny Henry

Lenny Henry

Lenny Henry still has a great relationship with his ex-wife Dawn French.

The 56-year-old comedian-and-actor split from the actress in April 2010 after 25 years of marriage.

At the time the break-up was said to be amicable and Lenny has now revealed the pair - who have a grown-up daughter Billie together - are still close friends despite no longer being a couple.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, he said: "Dawn's a good person. Why wouldn't I be friends with Dawn? She's a great mum."

Lenny is currently rehearsing a new comedy stage show, 'Rudy's Rare Records', which is based on an invented conversation with his late father, who died when the star was just 19.

Creating the show has brought back a lot of memories of his dad and Lenny admits his father was not a man who showed his affections.

He said: "My dad never did hugging, never said, 'I love you.' It wasn't until my mum was poorly near the end of her life that we started saying, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.'

"He was very unknowable. You never saw his face, you just heard his voice, 'Stop the noise. Leave your sister alone. Move! I want to watch the cricket.' My older brothers Seymour and Hilton - who were grown-up when I was a kid - went to the pub with him and talked about things like the shape of the beer glass, the beauty of the stroke in cricket. I never had a conversation with him like that."