Desmond’s was also distinguished by its West Indian writer, Trix Worrell, previously an actor and graduate from the National Film and Television School in Britain. Although Worrell went on to direct Desmond’s, the series was initially coproduced and directed by Charlie Hanson. Hanson had previously been an originator and producer for No Problem!, Channel 4’s first “Black comedy” (1982-85). Many have argued that the Desmond’s comic formula was more successful than previous “ethnic sitcoms.” Although the series has often been compared to The Cosby Show, it can be seen as the first light entertainment program to embrace fully the Black community within a British context.

The series was based in Desmond’s, a barbershop in Peckham. A core group of characters used the shop as a social meeting place. Norman Beaton played Desmond, a West Indian traditionalist, and Carmen Munroe played his loving and supportive wife, Shirley. Together they ran the southeast London barbershop, where their children and friends would often congregate. The couple’s children were Gloria (Kim Walker), Sean (Justin Pickett), and Michael (Geff Francis). The dynamics and relationship among these various characters formed the basis of the comedy.

The setting of the program was unique— a Black sitcom based in the workplace. The series’ antecedents, such as No Problem! and The Fosters, tended to focus on Black family relationships within the family home. The cast of Desmond’s were not passive characters in a stagnant setting but socially mobile people in multiracial Britain. In this context, the comedy introduced new types of protagonists, such as Desmond, the Black entrepreneur, and his two sons, one an aspiring bank employee and the other a bright student. The characters in Desmond’s were quite distinct types, neither caricatures nor stereotypes. Worrell was very keen to emphasize differences within the African-Caribbean diaspora, and so the audience was witness to racism and prejudice between, for example, the African eternal student Matthew (Gyearbuor Asante) and the West Indian characters. The series depicted a myriad of types, spanning across generations, lifestyles, and politics, thus dispelling any notion of there being an essential Black British subject. Indeed, generational and other differences among characters often triggered the hilarity.

Desmond’s had its own unique method of team writing. To some extent, it became a training ground for young, multicultural, creative talent. Many aspiring writers, producers, directors, and production staff members gained experience on the program by learning how to create a long-running fresh situation comedy. Although the series lasted for five years on British television, those involved in the production often mentioned the pressures of producing what was generally perceived as a Black comedy. Both Worrell and Hanson have spoken of the expectations placed on them, simply because there were so few other Black comedies on television. In the 1992 television documentary Black and White in Colour, Hanson commented that “Black situation comedy comes under the microscope far more than any other situation comedy on television.” At the same time, the program marked a progression in that most black British sitcoms have tended to focus on dysfunctional families and social problems. Carmen Munroe sees Desmond’s as a landmark program; in Black and White in Colour, she notes that “we have successfully created a space for ourselves, where we can just be a real, honest, loving family, with problems like lots of people, and we can present that with some degree of truth and still not lose the comedy.