Desmond's is a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. With 71 episodes, Desmond's became Channel 4's longest-running sitcom. The first series was shot in 1988, with the first episode broadcast in January 1989. The show was made in and set in Peckham, south-east London, England and featured a predominantly Black British Guyanese cast.
Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, this series starred Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose. Desmond's shop was a gathering place for an assortment of local characters.
While the show was not the first black (or predominantly black) British television situation comedy (The Fosters, 1976-77), it was the first to be set mainly in the workplace, which provided an insight on black family life different from those seen before on British television. 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 were socially mobile. The vast majority of the crew were also black.