Lenny Henry
Rudy's Rare Records

Rudy's Rare Records

  • Radio sitcom
  • BBC Radio 4
  • 2008 - 2012
  • 20 episodes (4 series)

Radio sitcom starring Lenny Henry and Larrington Walker. Three generations of music-loving men collide in a Birmingham record shop. Also features Joe Jacobs, Natasha Godfrey, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Jeffery Kissoon, Claire Benedict and Andrew Brooke

Press clippings

BBC Sounds launch opens up Radio 4 comedy archive

BBC Radio Player has been replaced with BBC Sounds. The website and app will offer over 80,000 hours of content, including the chance to re-listen to many comedy shows made by Radio 4.

British Comedy Guide, 30th October 2018

Lenny Henry on performing in Rudy's Rare Records

After two acclaimed dramatic roles, Lenny Henry returns to the stage in a comedy about three generations of one family running a record shop together. Along with the funny lines, Rudy's Rare Records is giving him reason to think hard about his own father.

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard, 20th August 2014

Lenny Henry to appear on stage in Rudy's Rare Records

Actor and comedian to make his first appearance at Birmingham Rep theatre in adaptation of BBC Radio 4 comedy.

Maev Kennedy, The Guardian, 2nd May 2014

Lenny Henry to film TV sitcom pilot

Lenny Henry is set to star in his first TV sitcom since the 1990s hit Chef!. The BBC are working on transferring his radio comedy Rudy's Rare Records to television.

British Comedy Guide, 14th March 2014

Lenny Henry's radio sitcom set for TV move

Rudy's Rare Records, the Radio 4 sitcom starring Lenny Henry, is being primed for a transfer to BBC1.

British Comedy Guide, 8th April 2010

Meanwhile, another new comedy on Radio 4: Rudy's Rare Records. This is a patchy comedy starring Lenny Henry, about a son who goes to Birmingham to take over his hated father's record shop while the latter recovers from a supposed heart attack. (The father, it turns out, is dissembling about this.) In it, we are asked to believe that Henry's character is a geeky weed who likes nothing better than filing records in alphabetical order.

The problem is that everyone in this country knows that Henry is actually built like a brick shithouse, and has little of the geek about him. Not that this is the show's greatest problem. That would be the overall lack of really good jokes. It's not bad - but that's because it's the situation that's interesting, not the comedy.

Nicholas Lezard, The Independent, 2nd March 2008

Radio Review: Rudy's Rare Records

Rudy is like Bernard Black of Black Books; so in love with his world that he doesn't want anyone to share it.

Chris Campling, The Times, 29th February 2008

Lenny: Why I used white writers

Henry discusses his new sitcom.

Chortle, 27th February 2008

Lenny Henry is back on radio and on familiar territory - comedy, music and Birmingham. Unusually, though, this time he's the straight man as the classical music-loving son, Adam Sharpe, of the eponymous Rudy, the owner of a specialist record shop. This doesn't mean, though, that Henry doesn't get a few laughs along the way, which is only fair since the script by Danny Robins and Dan Tetsell is absolutely stuffed with them. The set-up can be briefly explained - father and son are estranged, father suffers slight heart murmur which becomes a full-blown heart attack so son will return to Brum to run record shop for nothing. But you'll go a long way to find better and more consistent one-liners and, as a bonus, some fine vintage ska and reggae music used to link the scenes. A joy - and there are three more episodes to follow.

Chris Campling, The Times, 26th February 2008

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