Humphrey Barclay

So, you know, so it was that.

Trix was later invited to have a meeting with Humphrey Barclay, one of the producers of the black-led Channel 4 comedy No Problem.

It was actually Trix's journey to that meeting where he got the inspiration for the show Desmond's.

I was at the film school and I got a phone call to say that Channel 4 were looking for a new comedy.

And it was about 9 o'clock in the morning.

And around the corner is a girls' school called Collingwood Girls' School, right? And the sixth form girls were going to school about 9 o'clock then.

and the sixth form girls used to roll their waist up so the hemline was just above their knickers and so the barbers now were just chirpsing these girls as they were going past and in the background I was on the bus and I could see in the background were people just waiting looking vexed to get their hair cut or finished off because the barbers had now gone up to the front and outside on the street to chat up these girls basically and I thought yeah that's that's it so I went to see Humphrey Barclay and he said, have you got an idea? And I said, yeah.

He said, what is it? I said, it's called, it's set in a barbershop.

Right.

And he came to see me with Humphrey Barclay on my, in, in the Pembroke Smoker, and afterwards they were very encouraging.

"So you must join the Footlights." And I said, "What's that?" And they said, "Oh, it's this comedy club." And when I went there, that was a complete wonderful world because they had their own bar.

They had ladies who give you lunch.

But when you get there-

Yes

... um, Humphrey Barclay did 'cause he was in the show too-

Of course

When that happened, somebody from London Weekend Television turned up and said, will the Black Theatre Co-op do a workshop to evolve, to formulate a sitcom? You know, we said, yeah.

So he hired Humphrey Barclay, he was called.

He hired an upstairs of a pub in Chalk Farm.

And we used to meet there every day to try and do stories.

One institution built infrastructure from conviction, the other built infrastructure to keep pace.

One of the shows that Fruit backed as a commissioner is a great example of direct speech that would go on to change how black British life was represented on primetime television.

When I first started to write Desmond's, Humphrey Barclay, the producer, and Charlie Hansen, the author, the other producer, said to me at the time, at the beginning, so who do you see playing Desmond's? And they were still smiling and said, yeah, that's a great episode, that's fantastic, so who do you see? I said, well, there's only one man that could play this.

And all three of us went, Norman Beaton.