The moment that Lenny Rush found out he was in the running for a Bafta, he was in a hospital bed, recovering from spinal surgery. “That wasn’t a good mix,” he says, “because my mum went, ‘You’ve been nominated’ and I went …” He pretends to punch the air in triumph, then mimics extreme pain. “Aargh!” He laughs. In May, he won the TV Bafta for best male comedy performance for his role as Ollie in the BBC series Am I Being Unreasonable? as well as two Royal Television Society Programme awards in March. The show has, says Rush, “changed my life”.
Rush, 14, is about to be one of the presenters of Children in Need. He doesn’t know what he will be doing yet; last year, he overshadowed everyone in a sketch as the hapless manager of a celebrity call centre, but this time he will be presenting live. Is he nervous? “I am, but I think the excitement outweighs the nervousness. If I’d said no, and then I watched it that night, I would be gutted I wasn’t there.” He has watched it for years. “It means a lot to everyone,” he says. “It can be such a mix of emotions – watching the appeals can be quite emotional, and then you’ve got funny, uplifting sketches. It’s just a great night in general.”
