LENNY Henry has risen from cult status on children's television to become one of Britain's best-loved comedians.Last night at the Regent he proved just why his career has spanned two decades and earned him numerous awards and accolades.

By Victoria Knowles

LENNY Henry has risen from cult status on children's television to become one of Britain's best-loved comedians.

Last night at the Regent he proved just why his career has spanned two decades and earned him numerous awards and accolades.

Have You Seen This Man? Live Tour 2002 blasts him back on to the stand-up circuit after a while away.

It takes a big personality to fill a stage and Lenny fitted the bill perfectly.

Arriving on stage in a long red coat and top hat, he set the scene for a show based on life, love and plenty of funerals.

From the moment he walked on, the audience was enthralled by this man of many talents.

From television drama, to being the original front man of red nose days, Lenny has the capacity to make people listen to him. And indeed laugh at him.

Lenny's late mum took centre stage on more than one occasion with comic tributes to her unending capacity to know exactly where her son was at any given moment.

Funerals in the black community were also high on the list. In fact the black community was a favourite theme of Lenny's with the eternal question: Why when Lenny was at home as a child did everyone speak with a Jamaican accent? No matter how they spoke outside the home.

Sometimes his jokes were a little long-winded and at times there was a feeling that everything was slightly over-rehearsed.

But this was long forgiven when he launched in to the white vicar trying to bring his church into the 21st century. Before your eyes he turned into a white man telling a group of children that "Heaven is my hood".

The back-drop helped tell the story, with church windows and pictures of Lenny being projected. The audience was taken on a journey through Lenny's life and, judging by the raucous applause at the end, were willing passengers.

He is a master of impressions and has a great understanding that the ordinary things in life are the funniest.