What makes us laugh? How do we use humour? Does humour unite or divide us? Is British humour distinctive?

The BBC has teamed up with the Open University to create a new form of television - the docu-com. It features Lenny Henry as you’ve never seen him before: feeling the pulse of the nation through its sense of humour.

Over four programmes, Lenny gets up close and personal with people all over Britain - exploring humour in the family, at work, at leisure and in our communities.

He then builds those experiences into a series of gigs with many of the people he met on his tour sat in the audience joining in the fun.

And then there’s The Joke Booth, which tours the country with Lenny collecting everyone’s favourite funny stories.

In Lenny’s own words:
“Laughter helps with the everyday grind of living – getting over disappointments, illness, conflicts – a shared sense of adversity and coping. Where there’s humour, there’s hope and by the end of the series I hope we’ll have discovered a bit more about ourselves…our identities and our differences".

Content last updated: 29/05/2007