They took to the social media site in droves to praise him. One wrote: “You look younger now than what you looked in 1981!” Another said: “Lenny Henry looking slim.”

He told The Mirror at the time: “I’m a bit diabetic, so I was put on a very strict diet.

“I’ve lost between two and a half and three stone. I was big.”

He went on: “It’s lots of greens, lots of juice and lots of walking. Swimming is good,” he added.

“You’ve got to eat no sugar and drink hardly any alcohol… all the stuff you like. You can’t Hobnob your way through the day.”

In 2014, Dawn needed to drop the pounds ahead of a hysterectomy.

On her 30 Million Minutes tour, Dawn said: “When I was due to have my hysterectomy the doctor told me that if I could lose some weight before the op, they would be able to do it via keyhole, and I would recover in three weeks or so.

“Otherwise it would be big open surgery, and three months to recover.”

She went on: “I set about dropping a few stone. No magic wand, just tiny, joyless low-cal eating and lots more walking for weeks and weeks.

“It was grim. I lost seven-and-a-half stone. I could have the keyhole surgery. Great. That’s all it was, practical.”