Filming starts on Lenny Henry drama at Black Country foundry
Film crews have arrived in the Black Country as cameras are turned on the region for a drama penned by comic Lenny Henry.
The Dudley-born star has written a semi-biographical script for a new BBC show about his hometown.
And now cameras have started rolling to shoot scenes for the show, named Danny And The Human Zoo.
It tells the fictionalised account of Lenny Henry's life as a working-class teenager in 1970s Dudley.
The main character is Danny Fearon, a talented impressionist, and his working-class Jamaican family, as he rises to fame as a stand-up comedian.
Cameras crews arrived at well known manufacturer and iron castings company Thomas Dudley this week to shoot scenes.
Many shots were filmed inside the company's recently acquired foundry on the Vaughan Trading Estate, in Dudley Port, Tipton.
Producers had been looking for an authentic-looking factory floor where Danny starts work as a youngster.
And bosses at the company readily agreed to allow crews inside for filming to be part of the drama.
Sparks were flying as behind the scenes pictures show filmmakers capturing welding inside the foundry setting for the show.
Although the popular comic was not on set when filming took place on Wednesday, bosses said they were delighted to be part of the show.
The 56-year-old who grew up in the Buffery area of Dudley has been a guest of the company over the years helping to open a new £4.5 million production line in 2012.
Thomas Dudley's marketing manager Andy Burton said: "Lenny had worked in a factory for a while growing up and they wanted an older-looking factory setting for filming. Obviously we were only too happy to be part of it."
Speaking at the launch of the show last year, Lenny said: "I've crammed the first two years of a very long career into 90 minutes – it's gonna rock.
"I think, although it's not exactly what happened, that we'll get a strong sense of what it might have been like for a black kid from Dudley to be suddenly hurled into the maelstrom of this business we call show."
Among the actors lined up for the drama is One Foot in the Grave star Richard Wilson.
