Desmond's is a British television sitcom broadcast by Channel 4 from 5 January 1989 to 19 December 1994. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, Desmond's stars Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose, whose shop is a gathering place for an assortment of local characters. The show is set in Peckham, London, and features a predominantly black British Guyanese cast. With 71 episodes, Desmond's became Channel 4's longest running sitcom in terms of episodes.
Notability
While the show was not the first black (or predominantly black) British television situation comedy (The Fosters, produced by London Weekend Television, aired 1976–77), Desmond's was the first to be set mainly in the workplace,
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 go to university) and were socially mobile. The show reveals antagonism between recent African immigrants and established Caribbeans based on their differences in aspirations. While Matthew was the frequent butt of jokes from the West Indian characters, particularly Porkpie and Desmond, he also regularly pointed out the strength of African history with his repeated interjection, "There's an old African saying..." Desmond's continued to perform well in subsequent years, scoring consistently in the channel's Top 20 programmes. By 1993, Desmond's was still considered Channel 4's most popular home-grown sitcom. Speaking about his experiences while visiting Jamaica, Norman Beaton said he was "known in virtually every parish" because of his role in Desmond's.
Creation
While Trix Worrell was at the National Film and Television School, he won a writers' competition organised by Channel 4, which led to producer Humphrey Barclay contacting him about writing a comedy. Although apprehensive about the idea of writing a comedy, Worrell agreed to a meeting with Barclay. While on the bus to the meeting, his bus stopped by the barber shop he went to during his childhood. Worrell got the idea to create a comedy set in a barber's shop that servers more as a community centre, which was the idea he pitched to Barclay. in front of a live studio audience of three hundred people, with the audience's laughter and reactions recorded into the episode audio. To dispel the misconception that the laughter was a dubbed track added in post-production, an audience-participation moment was left in Series 4, Episode 5, "Calypso." In a scene with Desmond writing a song for Shirley with very simple lyrics, the audience shouts out the last word of the verse.
Episodes were filmed at the LWT Tower in Lambeth, Central London.
Characters
Much of the success of the show came from the dynamics and relationships both within the Ambrose family and with the other characters in the show who spent time in the shop. 70 episodes had a runtime of 30 minutes, while the final episode had a runtime of 60 minutes.
|-
|2
|12
|29 January 1990
|16 April 1990
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|3
|13
|28 October 1991
|3 February 1992
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|4
|13
|5 October 1992
|28 December 1992
|-
|5
|13
|27 September 1993
|20 December 1993
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|6
|13
|26 September 1994
|19 December 1994
|}
The last episode, the Desmond's Christmas Special was already announced as the last ever Desmond's episodes when Norman Beaton died a few days before the transmission of said episode.
Theme song
The series theme song "Don't Scratch My Soca," performed by Beaton, was used in the opening credits throughout the entire run. A version without the vocals was used in the closing credits. At the beginning of Series 5, the theme received an update which added more percussion. The instrumental was used as the basis for a song by The Georgetown Dreamers, Desmond's old band.
The full theme was released on Apple Music on 21 June 2021, and as a limited edition 7" vinyl on 1 October 2021.
Accolades
Desmond's won the British Comedy Award for Best C4 Sitcom in 1992.
In 1994, Desmond's was nominated for a BAFTA Award under the category of Comedy Programme or Series.
Desmond's (Humphrey Barclay Productions) won the Team Award at the 1994 Royal Television Society Programme Awards.
Norman Beaton was awarded the Royal Television Society Best Comedy Performer Award for his role as Desmond Ambrose in 1994.
A clip from Series 1, Episode 6, "Sad News" was used in the segment celebrating British film and television in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.
Legacy
The show had a unique method of team writing
In 2019, Channel 4 and Gal-dem collaborated for Black History Month by curating a Black British History collection highlighting the impact of black British content creators on television. Desmond's was one of the six titles covered in this collection.
Streaming
The full series was published for viewing on All 4 through YouTube. With 71 episodes, it remains Channel 4's longest running sitcom in terms of the number of episodes produced. In the UK, Desmond's is available for streaming via the Channel 4 website.
Re-runs
- Re-runs aired in the USA on BET in the early 1990s.
- The show was shown on NYC Media as part of their Caribbean programming on Sunday nights in the late 1990s up until 2007.
- In November 2015, London Live started airing repeats of the series.
- On 21 February 2022, the UK channel Gold started showing the series. Repeats continued into 2023 and 2024.
- The UK channel U&Drama started airing repeats on 31 July 2024. Series One was released on 1 October 2007. Series Two was released on 13 April 2008.
Region 1 DVD
Visual Entertainment has begun releasing Desmond's on DVD in Canada. To date they have released the first four series of the show on DVD. Series 1 and 2 were released on 27 March 2007. Series 3 was released on 3 November 2009. On 2 March 2010, VEI released Desmond's- The Collection: Series One to Four, a seven-disc set featuring all episodes from the first four seasons.
On demand
All six seasons are available to stream in the UK on the Channel 4 service All 4 and through the streaming services Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Follow-up
Following the end of Desmond's in 1994, a spin-off series was made with Porkpie in the title role.