Comedian and TV presenter Lenny Henry has accused the TV Industry of being racist in a speech today.

“When I started, I was surrounded by a predominantly white workforce. Thirty-two years later, not a lot has changed,” he said in a speech to the Royal Television Society.

“How many black British comedians are working on mainstream TV today? One? Two? Ethnic minorities are pitifully under-served.

“Is there anybody going out to the comedy clubs with their diversity goggles on? Are the researchers casting their net far and wide? This is an area that needs a massive kick up the bum.”

He also spoke out against classic comedies Till Death Us Do Part and Love Thy Neighbour, saying: “TV producers of the 1960s and 1970s missed a great opportunity. Rather than reflect the reality of multi-ethnic Britain they chose a more xenophobic route - emphasising points of difference instead of similarities.

“If they had been more truthful in their observations, who’s to say we couldn’t have encouraged more young black kids at school or prevented the Brixton riots even?”

Lenny, who is married to white comedienne dawn French also called for more black and Asian people in period dramas.

He said: “By the time Queen Victoria was on the throne, this country had a sizeable black population, so where are they? You can’t move for bonnets and crinolines and the people wearing them are all white.

“There is still so much work to do. When you can cast a Somalian girl in your piece simply because she’s the best actress or when you can cast an Asian girl, and she is not playing the victim of an arranged marriage, or cast a bloke with dreadlocks not playing a drug dealer, then we will have something to work on.”