Sir Lenny Henry joked about setting Charlotte Rampling's home on fire after the Broadchurch actress said the Oscars diversity row was 'racist' against white people.

The 57-year-old comedian made the remarks as he hosted Sunday's BBC Audio Drama Awards.

He said: 'I’ve bought a house next to Charlotte Rampling. We get on like a house on fire. Her house is going to be...'

Sir Lenny Henry joked about setting Charlotte Rampling's home on fire after the Broadchurch actress said the Oscars diversity row was 'racist' against white people

The outburst came after Miss Rampling, who is up for the Best Actress award, she did not understand the anger surrounding the ceremony and that nominations should be based on the performance.

Responding to stars who have threatened to boycott the awards next month, she told a radio station: ‘One can never really know but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list.’

Hitting back at her comments Sir Lenny said: 'How do you know things are funny? Normally I get it on a note written by Charlotte Rampling attached to a brick.'

Miss Rampling’s remarks followed a week of debate about nominations for the Academy Awards, after it was revealed that no black actors were shortlisted for the second year running.

There have been calls for a boycott against the ceremony, with Jada Pinkett Smith (right) – wife of Hollywood actor Will Smith – writing on Facebook that: ‘We must stand in our power

There have been calls for a boycott, with Jada Pinkett Smith – wife of Hollywood actor Will Smith – writing on Facebook that: ‘We must stand in our power.

‘Begging for acknowledgement or even asking [to be nominated] diminishes dignity. It diminishes power and we are a dignified people.’

Others have demanded that the Academy bring in quotas – however this was met with criticism from Miss Rampling.

Speaking to French radio station Europe 1, the British star said: ‘Why classify people? We live in countries where everyone is more or less accepted.

'There are always issues like “he is less good looking” or “he is too black”.

‘There is always someone who says “you are too...”. So are we going to say that we will categorise all that to make lots of minorities everywhere?’

She said that she did not think racism played into the nomination process and that the lack of black stars up for awards could be because they have not earned them.

Fellow acting veteran Sir Michael Caine also weighed into the debate. He told the Today programme: ‘You can’t vote for an actor because he’s black – and you can’t just say “I’m going to vote for him, he’s not very good, but he’s black, I’ll vote for him”.



