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51-450: 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

102-540: A 30-minute time slot. Throughout their history, American sitcoms have often drawn inspiration from British counterparts. Popular shows like All in the Family , Three's Company , and Sanford and Son were adapted from successful British series. More recently, The Office achieved significant popularity in the United States , following the success of its British counterpart. Numerous television networks in

153-419: 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. Desmond's was filmed with a multi-camera setup in front of

204-544: A core group of characters who interact in a recurring setting, such as a family, workplace, or institution. However, British sitcoms typically consist of shorter series, often six episodes, and are frequently developed by a smaller writing team. The majority of British sitcoms are half-hour comedies recorded in studio settings using a multiple-camera setup. While many adhere to traditional sitcom conventions, some have ventured into more unconventional territory. For example, Blackadder and Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister shifted

255-461: 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

306-449: A new medium. The word was not commonly used until the 1950s. Early television sitcoms were often filmed in front of a live studio audience using a multiple-camera setup , the latter of which continues in some modern productions such as The Big Bang Theory and Fuller House . Other formats make use of a laugh track or "canned laughter". Since the 1990s, sitcoms have since expanded to animated sitcoms , with successful shows of

357-584: A predominantly black British Guyanese cast. With 71 episodes, Desmond's became Channel 4's longest running sitcom in terms of episodes. 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, providing an insight into black family life different from what had been seen before on British television. The characters had aspirations (Desmond to return to Guyana , Michael to run his own branch of

408-527: A record £ 5.675 million for its misuse of premium-rate telephone lines. After Michael Parkinson presented the inaugural ceremony at the London Palladium in December 1990, the majority of subsequent shows were presented by Jonathan Ross , staged at London Studios , and produced by Michael Hurll Television (MHTV), whose parent company is Unique Communications Group. Ross did not present

459-566: A regular gay character (Terry Bader as journalist Leslie). In 1987, Mother and Son won the Television Drama Award for portraying a woman suffering from senile dementia and her interaction with her family, presented by the Australian Human Rights Commission . In 2007, Kath & Kim ' s first episode of series 4 attracted an Australian audience of 2.521 million nationally. This

510-468: A runtime of 30 minutes, while the final episode had a runtime of 60 minutes. 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. 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

561-557: A staple of the government broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In the 1970s and 1980s many British sitcoms also screened on the Seven Network . By 1986, UK comedies Bless This House and Are You Being Served? had been re-screened several times by ABC Television ; they were then acquired and screened by the Seven Network. In 1981, Daily at Dawn was the first Australian comedy series to feature

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612-456: Is an award show for our times. Fans will be able to vote on the people, some established and others less so, who really make them laugh. We will be celebrating some incredible comedy talent while supporting the incredible Stand Up to Cancer. It promises to be a very special night of TV." Aiming to celebrate "the UK's most brilliant comedy content and creators", the first ceremony was due to be held in

663-564: Is one of the leading channels in India, dedicated entirely to Sitcoms. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah is the longest-running sitcom of Indian television and is also known as the flagship show of SAB TV . On Tiptoes and Shabhaye Barareh were among the first and most important sitcoms that led to the growth of this type of comedy in Iran, both receiving wide critical and audience acclaim. El Chavo del Ocho , which ran from 1971 to 1980,

714-521: The 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony . The show had a unique method of team writing that raised the profile of some writers, such as playwright Michael J. Ellis , who later worked on other shows, including the BBC's all-black sketch show The Real McCoy , and Worrell himself, who became a film writer. Desmond's was featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Britain in a Box on 11 May 2013. In 2018,

765-621: The British Comedy Awards 2007 will be postponed. ... ITV will not make any further comment regarding this matter until the conclusion of the investigation." It was announced on 21 September 2007 that the British Comedy Awards 2007 would not be screened by ITV1; however, it was not confirmed then that the Awards would still take place in December, and it was not ruled out that they could be screened by another channel. The 2007 awards did take place on 5 December 2007, but that show

816-623: The British Film Institute (BFI) partnered with We Are Parable for that year's Comedy Genius season. We Are Parable were commissioned by the BFI to create a barbershop experience to celebrate Desmond's for a project titled The Comedy Cuts Barbershop. A pop-up barbershop inspired by Desmond's was created and toured around various locations in the United Kingdom in 2018 and 2019, including a pre-existing barbershop. The series

867-725: The Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series . In 2020, the sixth and final season of Schitt's Creek was nominated for 15 Primetime Emmy Awards . This broke the record for the most Emmy nominations given to a comedy series in its final season. During the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards , the show became the first ever comedy or drama series to sweep the four acting categories ( Outstanding Lead Actor , Outstanding Lead Actress , Outstanding Supporting Actor , Outstanding Supporting Actress for Eugene Levy , Catherine O'Hara , Dan Levy , and Annie Murphy respectively) and one of only four live action shows, along with All in

918-753: The RTR channel. The "boom" of Russian sitcoms began only in the 2000s, when in 2004, the STS started the highly successful sitcom " My Fair Nanny " (an adaptation of the American sitcom " The Nanny "). Since that time, sitcoms in Russia have been produced by the two largest entertainment channels in the country — STS and TNT . In 2007, the STS released the first original domestic sitcom — " Daddy's Daughters " (there were only adaptations before), and in 2010, TNT released " Interns " —

969-465: The United States feature sitcoms in their programming. CBS , TBS, Nickelodeon , and Disney Channel are just a few examples of networks that air sitcoms. National Comedy Awards The National Comedy Awards (known as the British Comedy Awards from 1990 to 2014) is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom , celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of

1020-431: The 1990s these included: Dekh Bhai Dekh (1993), Zabaan Sambhalke (1993), Shrimaan Shrimati (1995), Office Office (2001), Ramani Vs Ramani (Tamil 2001), Amrutham (Telugu 2001–2007), Khichdi (2002), Sarabhai vs Sarabhai (2005) F.I.R. (2006–2015), Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (2008–present), Uppum Mulakum (Malayalam 2015–present), and Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain (2015–present). SAB TV

1071-462: The 2005 ceremony, the wrong show received the People's Choice Award. The award was "mistakenly given" to Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway even though The Catherine Tate Show received the most tabulated votes and should have been declared the winner, and Ant & Dec were asked to return their 2005 award. Charged by the awards show with investigating the allegations of irregularities,

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1122-596: The 2008 awards, in light of The Russell Brand Show prank calls and was replaced for that year by Angus Deayton . The 2007 show occurred on 6 December 2007, but was not televised due to the 2005 controversy and subsequent investigations. The following years ceremony was shown live on 6 December 2008. Compliance for the show was the responsibility of the ITV Compliance Unit of ITV Network Limited (consisting of members from ITV plc , STV Group , UTV Media , and Channel Television Ltd ). In June 2010, it

1173-482: The 2010s, resulting in a decline in sitcom popularity. Nevertheless, there have been recent efforts to revive the sitcom genre. For instance, Netflix released So Not Worth It in 2021, featuring many creators from popular South Korean sitcoms. Popular South Korean sitcoms include the High Kick series, which has spawned several spin-offs. British sitcoms , like their American counterparts, often revolve around

1224-417: The Family , The Golden Girls , and Will & Grace where all the principal actors have won at least one Emmy Award. Sitcoms started appearing on Indian television in the 1980s, with serials like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (1984), Nukkad (1986), and Wagle Ki Duniya (1988) on the state-run Doordarshan channel. Gradually, as private channels were permitted to operate, many more sitcoms followed. In

1275-498: The People's Choice Award at the British Comedy Awards 2006 . Beginning on 26 July 2007, British tabloid newspapers reported the alleged involvement of the British Comedy Awards in the 2007 British television phone-in scandal . ITV announced that they postponed the British Comedy Awards 2007 due to the voting irregularities. In a statement, the company said: "Pending conclusion of the investigation, broadcast of

1326-588: The United States in 1926 with the radio show Sam 'n' Henry . The subsequent success of Amos 'n' Andy , also created by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll , solidified the sitcom's place in American radio programming. The transition to television brought about significant changes in the sitcom format. Mary Kay and Johnny , which premiered in 1947, became the first American television sitcom. Today, American sitcoms typically run for 22 minutes, allowing for approximately eight minutes of advertising within

1377-658: 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..." In 1989, Channel 4 described Desmond's as "the most instantly popular home-grown situation comedy in the channel's history," with the series appealing to a broad spectrum of the British public. The series had an average viewership per episode of 3.5 million people. Desmond's continued to perform well in subsequent years, scoring consistently in

1428-430: The bank, Gloria to get a job in fashion, Sean to go to university) and were socially mobile. The vast majority of the crew were also black. Worrell wanted to show that prejudice existed not just between broad ethnic groups, but also within them. 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

1479-524: 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 . 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

1530-432: The end of Desmond's in 1994, a spin-off series was made with Porkpie in the title role. It ran for twelve episodes over two series in 1995 and 1996. Sitcom The structure and concept of a sitcom have roots in earlier forms of comedic theater, such as farces and comedy of manners . These forms relied on running gags to generate humor, but the term "sitcom" emerged as radio and TV adapted these principles into

1581-491: 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. 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. Following

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1632-647: The first sitcom, filmed as a comedy (unlike dominated "conveyor" sitcoms). Sitcoms, or "시트콤" in Korean, gained significant popularity in South Korea during the 1990s. This popularity was fueled by the success of shows like Dr. Oh's People , LA Arirang , and Men and Women . The use of computer graphics (CG) in sitcoms began to increase in the late 1990s as more broadcasters adopted CG technology. This led to more visually dynamic and creative sitcoms. However, viewer preferences shifted towards dramas and thrillers in

1683-441: The focus from domestic or workplace settings to the world of politics. A more recent development in British comedy is the mockumentary , a style that blends documentary and comedic elements. Shows like The Office , Come Fly with Me , W1A , People Just Do Nothing , and This Country have successfully employed this format to explore a variety of topics and characters. Sitcoms, or situation comedies, made their debut in

1734-664: The genre including The Simpsons , King of the Hill , and Family Guy . Critics have debated the exact definition of a sitcom, mostly regarding productions created at the turn of the 21st century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use a single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, instead more resembling documentaries or the comedy-dramas of the 1980s and 1990s. Although there have been few long-running Australian-made sitcoms, many American and British sitcoms have been successful in Australia, since sitcoms are considered

1785-479: The independent law firm Olswang summarized its findings as follows: "Robbie Williams was invited to present an award. It was understood that he would be happy [to do so] if the recipients were Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly . In order to ensure his attendance, this assurance was given. But it could not be definitively established that Williams' involvement led to the wrong winner being announced" [italics added]. Saturday Night Takeaway did, however, receive

1836-496: The launch of the National Comedy Awards, a new annual awards ceremony event with multiple categories all decided by a public vote. Produced in collaboration with Hungry Bear Media , the awards ceremony is linked to Channel 4's Stand Up to Cancer charity drive, with comedy fans being encouraged to donate in order to help accelerate life-saving research. Phil Harris, Channel 4's head of entertainment, said: "This

1887-501: The number of episodes produced. The complete series was added to Netflix UK between 8 October 2021 to 2 October 2023. In the UK, Desmond's is available for streaming via the Channel 4 website. Channel 4 DVD has released the first two series on DVD in the UK. Series One was released on 1 October 2007. Series Two was released on 13 April 2008. Visual Entertainment has begun releasing Desmond's on DVD in Canada. To date they have released

1938-464: The previous year. The awards were shown live on ITV in December from 1990 to 2006, after which the broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 was suspended by ITV due to allegations of irregularities and deception in the awarding of the 2005 People's Choice Award and then ongoing related investigations about the 2007 British television phone-in scandal resulting in Ofcom 's subsequently fining ITV

1989-532: The show has earned an estimated $ 1 billion in syndication fees alone for Televisa . Gliding On , a popular sitcom in New Zealand in the early 1980s, won multiple awards during its run including Best Comedy, Best Drama and Best Direction at the Feltex Awards . The first Russian sitcom series was "Strawberry", which resembled "Duty Pharmacy" in a Spanish format. It was aired from 1996 to 1997 on

2040-626: The spring of 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic , with the new date of on 15 December 2021 being set by Hungry Bear Media and Channel 4. The first ceremony was due to be held at the Roundhouse in London, with Channel 4 due to broadcast the event two days later as part of their Friday night comedy line-up. Due to the ongoing pandemic and concerns over the Omicron variant , the show

2091-633: The verse. Episodes were filmed at the LWT Tower in Lambeth , Central London . 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. The Ambroses are the central family around which the show was built. During the course of the series, 71 episodes of Desmond's aired between 1989 and 1994 . Desmond's ran for 6 series. 70 episodes had

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2142-513: 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 June 21, 2021, and as a limited edition 7" vinyl on October 1, 2021. Desmond's won the British Comedy Award for Best C4 Sitcom in 1992. In 1994, Desmond's

2193-510: Was announced that awards were to be broadcast on Channel 4 for three years, which was later extended for one more year. Shortly afterwards, the 2010 ceremony was postponed until it finally aired in January 2011. In June 2015 Channel 4 announced they would be dropping the ceremony. The 2013 awards were presented at a two-hour ceremony hosted by Jonathan Ross on 12 December and shown live on Channel 4 . In August 2020, Channel 4 announced

2244-414: Was cancelled by the organisers a week before it was due to be staged and Channel 4 said that it would be rescheduled for another time. The ceremony was finally held on 2 March 2022 and broadcast on Channel 4 three days later. The ceremony was hosted by comedian Tom Allen , with presenters including Matt Lucas , Jessica Hynes , Al Murray and Meera Syal . It included a tribute to Sean Lock . At

2295-874: Was criticized by several social commentators as inappropriately disrespectful to the office of the Prime Minister. The show nevertheless proved very popular with both television audiences and critics, becoming the most-watched Australian scripted comedy series of 2011. It was nominated at the 2012 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for Best Television Comedy Series. Although there have been several notable exceptions, relatively few Canadian sitcoms attained notable success in Canada or internationally. Canadian television has had much greater success with sketch comedy and dramedy series. The popular show King of Kensington aired from 1975 to 1980, at its peak garnering an average of 1.5 to 1.8 million viewers weekly. The 1999 movie Trailer Park Boys

2346-530: Was followed up by a television series of the same name that ran from 2001 to 2018, airing in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Corner Gas , which ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009, became an instant hit, averaging one million viewers per episode. It has been the recipient of six Gemini Awards and has been nominated almost 70 times for various awards. Other noteworthy recent sitcoms have included: Call Me Fitz , Schitt's Creek , Letterkenny , and Kim's Convenience , all of which have been winners of

2397-618: 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

2448-470: Was not televised. In early May 2008 Ofcom announced its fining and sanctioning ITV plc in a press release. On 15 August 2008, it was announced that a similar scandal could have been committed in the award ceremony at the 2004 Awards . Following the Russell Brand Show prank calls row and his 12-week unpaid suspension from all of his BBC shows, Jonathan Ross resigned from presenting

2499-439: Was screened during these events. 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. 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

2550-559: Was the highest rating for a first episode in the history of Australian television, until the series premiere of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities in 2009, which garnered 2.58 million viewers. In 2013, Please Like Me received an invitation to screen at the Series Mania Television Festival in Paris, was praised by critics, and earned numerous awards and nominations. Also in 2013, At Home with Julia

2601-546: Was the most-watched show on Mexican television and had a Latin-American audience of 350 million viewers per episode at its popularity peak during the mid-1970s. The show continues to be popular in Central America as well as in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, the United States, and other countries. Syndicated episodes average 91 million daily viewers in all its American markets. Since it ceased production in 1992,

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