Shirley talks about how “none of us expected to die here”, explaining that she and Desmond came to the UK for financial reasons, but the plan was always to go home to Guyana to die. In one episode, Desmond is in hospital and Porkpie and Shirley are talking. It was the archetypal immigrant story: come here, make money, go home and live large. We all watched Desmond’s on TV, because the immigrant story of a Guyanese family living above a barbershop in south London reflected my mum and dad’s story – moving from Aden and Kenya to England – more than anyother programme. My parents worked seven days a week on a small business, both too tired to do anything other than feed my sister and me, insist that we did our homework, and remind us of our responsibilities: speak good English, study hard and be polite and grateful. My family did not do things together regularly.
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