Line #38 Series/Desmonds


1	[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/images23.jpg]]
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3	''Desmond's'' (1989–94) was a British sitcom by Creator/ChannelFour; it was one of their longest sitcoms of all time and managed to have a brief spin-off series in 1995.
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5	''Desmond's'' was set in a hair salon in Peckham, South-London and had a large black ensemble cast, which was one of the first in British television[[note]]The ''absolute'' earliest was ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fosters The Fosters]]'', which ran from 1976-77, and ''also'' starred Norman Beaton as the head of the family[[/note]]. It centered around the Ambrose family, but mostly the owner of salon Desmond Ambrose, who is constantly called out as a terrible barber by his family. The rest of his family provided the rest of the comedy, which came from the generation and culture gap between the very West Indian parents Desmond and Shirley, and their very English children, Michael, Gloria and Sean.
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8	!!This show provides examples of:
9	* BritishBrevity: A considerable aversion, by BritCom standards. All seasons except the first ran for 13 episodes, ending up with a total of 71 over six years - and it would have run for longer if star Norman Beaton hadn't suddenly died.
10	* CatchPhrase: Matthew had "There's an old African saying..."
11	** There was also the routine where the others ask him what his university lecture of the day is, and he replies with something pretentious, to which the others respond "aww".
12	** Desmond will often respond to praise and compliments with a smug "Me know."
13	* ChristmasEpisode: Was also the final episode of the final series.
14	* ClarkKentOutfit: Sean, Michael and Lee are rather more muscular than their clothes usually suggest.
15	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Sean's friend Spider, when renouncing his own career in Slackness music, says "I don't wanna be Britain's answer to Shabba Ranks. I am not ugly".
16	* CompositeCharacter: In Series 6, there was a pompous slut called Hyacinth Green, whose name and character traits are a hybrid of Hyacinth Bucket of ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' and Dorien Green of ''Series/BirdsOfAFeather''.
17	* DoubleStandard: Matthew, who is himself married and with children back in the Gambia, gets angry when he learns his Nigerian girlfriend Shola is also married back in Lagos.
18	* EightiesHair: Plenty of biiiiiiig hair, particularly since it's a show set in a salon.
19	* TheEighties: Michael is the archetypal 80s {{Yuppie}}, with double-breasted suit and enormous and presumably madly expensive mobile phone.
20	* EveryoneHasStandards: Porkpie, who has an history of infidelity, is nevertheless disgusted by Matthew and his support for polygamy.
21	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Susu and Shirley respectively.
22	* FrivolousLawsuit: An American pastor whose wife left him over suspicions of adultery, and who was subsequently defrocked, decides that the trim he got from Desmond is the root cause of all his problems and proceeds to sue.
23	* MaintainTheLie: In the episode "Porkpies", the gang rally round to convince perpetual student Matthew's sister and brother-in-law that he's graduated and is a successful businessman.
24	* OnlyKnownByHisNickname: Porkpie's real name is [[OverlyLongName Augustus Neapolitan Cleveland Grant]]. This is almost never used.
25	* OutOfFocus: Gloria and Sean featured noticeably less often than before in the last three series.
26	* OutWithABang: Sweetsticks, the former bandmate turned rival of Desmond and Porkpie, reportedly dies while having sex with a younger woman.
27	* PersonWithTheClothing: Porkpie, so named because of his porkpie hat.
28	* ReallyGetsAround: Michael and allegedly Lee. Also guest star Melissa, who dates those two men and another one at the same time.
29	* RichLanguagePoorLanguage: Michael and to a lesser extent Matthew versus most other characters.
30	* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Michael first appeared in the second episode while Tony is introduced in the third.
31	* ShoutOut: There are references to ''Series/TheCosbyShow'', ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' and ''You've Been Framed.''
32	** Joseph Marcell from the second of those programmes guest stars in one episode as a pompous African businessman.
33	* {{Spinoff}}: ''Porkpie'', in which the titular character [[RagsToRiches wins the lottery]] shortly after Desmond's death. It ran for two series (12 episodes in total).
34	* ThematicThemeTune:
35	-->From the long warm nights with the ocean breeze,\
36	To the damp and to the rain of London city.\
37	We come from the sun to live in the cold,\
38	I miss my rum, I want my coconut tree.
39	* TheWhitestBlackGuy: Desmond's son fails a school assignment for writing an essay on being young, black and British because his teacher feels it has too much of a middle-class perspective. Or as his sister puts it "They're saying he's not black enough!"
40	* ThoseTwoGuys: Matthew and Porkpie.
41	* TokenWhite: Tony, whose addition to the cast was due to executive meddling. (At least, according to Website/TheOtherWiki). Also, Gloria's friend Louise.
42	* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: At least half of Michael's lovers, including his eventual wife Mandy, are White.

Context Series / Desmonds