Lenny Henry has said that King Charles III may have “an interest” in the conversation around slavery and reparations in Britain.
The 64-year-old actor, who last year wrote a play about the Windrush scandal that saw hundreds of Commonwealth citizens deported and denied their legal rights, reflected on a recent announcement by Buckingham Palace.
The palace said earlier this month that the King is supporting research into the royal family’s links to slavery by allowing academics access to the Royal Collection and Archives.
Historical Royal Palaces is assisting Dutch academic Camilla de Koning with her PhD thesis on the role of the Royal African Company on slavery, as it was established by two British kings.
In a new interview with The Times, published on Friday (14 April), Henry said: “I think King Charles has an interest. You know, the Prince’s Trust works with working class people, Black people, brown people, he has an interest. I think he might do something.”
The Lenny Henry Show star said that, if the UK were to engage in the conversation about reparations, it is “not going to be about money”, adding: “They would have to sell the whole of London to pay.”
“I think there’s going to be a thing where people are talking about reparations in terms of justice,” Henry continued. “It’s got to be about some kind of social engineering. Some people need to be given a leg-up, not a handout.”
He added that people advocating for reparations are “going to have to find away to get round” the UK government because “they’re not doing anything”.
Elsewhere in the interview, Henry recalled the racist abuse his family was subjected to while he was growing up. He revealed that his mother “was chased down the street by people asking where her tail was”.
Henry is set to make his playwriting debut with his one-man show, August in England, which will open at the end of April at the Bush Theatre in west London.
The play is inspired by his BBC production Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle that was released in 2019.
