ITV News have become embroiled in a race storm after mistaking Lenny Henry for
Ainsley Harriott during coverage of the Comic Relief star receiving a
knighthood.
An archive clip of Strictly star and celebrity chef Ainsley, 58, performing at
London’s Comedy Store was broadcast as Lenny, 57, spoke about issues of
diversity outside Windsor Castle in a segment that aired this afternoon.
Lenny was knighted by The Queen yesterday for services to drama and charity.
The wrong clip aired as Lenny told ITV: “If it means inclusivity for
everybody, then I do champion diversity.
“Everybody should get a fair shake. Everybody deserves an opportunity,
everybody deserves a leg up.”
Shocked viewers accused ITV of “casual racism” and called the
slip-up “beyond embarrassing”.
Twitter user Simon Alcock wrote: “#itvnews doing a piece on Lenny Henry
and diversity…showed Comedy Store footage of Ainsley Harriot. All look the
same? Most diverse of you”
@SharlzikDarlz added: “ITV can’t tell black people apart, they thought
Ainsley was Lenny Henry.”
ITV covered up the gaffe when the segment aired an hour later on +1 with a
still image reading: “If you can see this it means legally we’re not
allowed to show you what was on earlier.”
Dudley-born Lenny called for has long championed diversity and last year
called for new legislation to reverse the “appalling” lack of
black and Asian people in the creative industries.
He chaired a talk about diversity at Bafta’s London headquarters just two
weeks ago, where he joked: “Welcome to this, my 927th speech on
diversity in the television industry.”
He previously said: “We’re at the beginning of the journey, we’re not at
the end. There’s a long way to go.”
“Perhaps we’ve made progress as far as on-screen representation is
concerned, but there’s a lot of work to be done in the furthering of
diversity behind the camera.
“It’s happening. I believe we’re pushing against the open door. It’s just
that people need to be encouraged to work a bit faster.”
Lenny earlier described his knighthood as “mind-blowing” and “wonderful”.
An ITV News spokesperson said: “ITV News apologises for the error broadcast in
the lunchtime news package today regarding Sir Lenny Henry’s knighthood at
the palace. This was the result of an error in the production process in a
piece intended to celebrate Sir Lenny’s significant achievements in British
entertainment.”