Desmond's
Desmond's Titles
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Trix Worrell
Starring	Norman Beaton Carmen Munroe Ram John Holder Gyearbuor Asante
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	71 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Al Mitchell Humphrey Barclay
Producer(s)	Humphrey Barclay Charlie Hanson
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	70x30 min 1x60 min
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Picture format	4:3
Original run	5 January 1989 – 19 December 1994
Chronology
Followed by	Porkpie

Desmond's is a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. The first series was filmed in 1988, with the first episode broadcast in January 1989. The show was made in and set in Peckham, London, England and featured a predominantly West Indian cast.

Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay,^[1] this series starred Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose. Desmond's shop was a gathering place for an assortment of local characters.

Contents 1 Notability 2 Characters 2.1 The Ambrose family 2.2 Other characters 3 Prejudice 4 Legacy 5 DVD 6 Follow-up 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Notability

While the show was not the first black (or predominantly black) British television situation comedy, it was the first to be set mainly in the workplace,^[1] which provided an insight on black family life different from those seen before on British television.^[2] The characters had aspirations (Desmond to return to Guyana, Michael to run his own branch of the bank, Gloria to get a job in fashion, Sean to get to university) and socially mobile.^[1] The vast majority of the crew were also black.^[3]

[edit] Characters

Much of the success of the show came from the dynamics and relationships both within the Ambrose family and the other characters in the show who spent time in the shop.^[2]

[edit] The Ambrose family

The Ambroses were the central family that the show was built around.

• Desmond Ambrose (Norman Beaton) was the main character and the owner of the barbershop named after him.

• Shirley Ambrose (Carmen Munroe) was Desmond's wife and mother of their three children, She was always sorting out the problems.

• Michael Ambrose (Geff Francis) was Desmond and Shirley's eldest son, he was a bank manager.

• Gloria Ambrose (Kim Walker) was the only daughter to Desmond and Shirley with dreams of being a fashion writer.

• Sean Ambrose (Justin Pickett) was the youngest child, who frequently rapped and was experienced in computer use, he later went to College.

[edit] Other characters

• Augustus Neapolitan Cleveland 'Porkpie' Grant (Ram John Holder, who later had his own spin-off series, Porkpie) was an old childhood friend of Desmond's who also came from Guyana.

• Matthew (Gyearbuor Asante) was an eternal student from Gambia.

• Tony (Dominic Keating) was Desmond's first assistant barber.

• Ricky (Dean Gatiss) was Tony's replacement in the final series.

• Lee 'The Peckham Prince' Stanley (Robbie Gee) was the local wide-boy wheeler-dealer, often trying to sell his wares to the regulars in the shop. He was like a son to Desmond and Shirley as they looked after him while he was in care and they knew his mother.

• Louise (Lisa Geoghan) was Gloria's best friend and one of the few white characters in the series.

• Mandy (Mathilda Thorpe) was Michael's PA whom he was due to marry towards the end of the series.

• Beverley (Joan Ann Maynard) was the local gossip, and often provided a prudish, old-fashioned viewpoint.

• Aunt "Susu" Doreen (Mona Hammond), Shirley's ignorant sister, Porkpie's dream girl and later fiancé

• Vince (Count Prince Miller) was another assistant in the shop in the final series. He was also the drummer in the Georgetown Dreamers.

• Burt (Sol Raye) were members of The Georgetown Dreamers, a band that Desmond and Porkpie played in.

• Spider (Robert McKewley) was Sean's best friend and had an open crush on Gloria.

• Ronni (Teohna Williams) was Gloria's best friend in series 5 and 6.

• Alex (Chris Tummings) was Gloria's Boyfriend.

• Neville (Treva Etienne) Was a friend of the family who later became a detective.

[edit] Prejudice

Worrell was keen to show that prejudice existed not just between broad ethnic groups, but also within them.^[1] While Matthew was the frequent butt of jokes from the West Indian characters, particularly Porkpie and Desmond, he was always keen to point out the strength of African history with his regular interjection "There's an old African saying".^[2]

[edit] Legacy

The show had a unique method of team writing^[1] that raised the profile of some writers, notably playwright Michael J Ellis, who went on to work on other shows, including the BBC's all-black sketch show The Real McCoy, and Worrell himself went on to work in films.

Desmond's came 70th in the 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. Reruns aired in the USA on BET in the early-1990s. The show continued to be popular, running on NYCTV as part of their Caribbean programming on Sunday nights in the late-1990s. As of January 2007, the network still airs reruns of Desmond's from time to time. From 1997 until late 2000, Paramount Comedy reran the show. Trouble TV, in the U.K., began showing re-runs of Desmond's in September 2007.

[edit] DVD

The 1st series of Desmond's was released on Region 2 DVD On 1 October 2007^[4] and Series 1 and 2 were released in Canada as a 3-disc Region 1 DVD set by VEI Entertainment in March 2007.^[5]

Desmond's Series 2 was released on 14 April 2008.^[6]

The first five series are available to watch on Virgin Media's On Demand service, provided by Channel 4 On demand.

[edit] Follow-up

Following the death of Norman Beaton in 1994, a spin-off series was made with Porkpie in the title role. This ran for two series in 1995 and 1996.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Desmond's entry at BFI Screenonline
• Desmond's at the Internet Movie Database