Mona Hammond

Desmond's actor Mona Hammond dies aged 91

One of her best-known roles was as Auntie Susu in the Channel 4 sitcom Desmond's from 1990 to 1994. She repeated the role in the shorter-lived spin-off Porkpie from 1995 to 1996.

Mona Hammond obituary

Trailblazer for black actors in Britain best known for her roles in EastEnders and Desmond's.

Part autobiographical, part radio version of The Kumars at No 42, stand-up comic Nathan Caton deftly weaves lines from his routine around a glimpse into life at home with his mum, dad and, on occasions, grandma. The stand-up material covers familar ground - why do women talk so much more than men, yawn. But the mini-drama of life at home with the Catons is much more satisfying.

In this episode, his mum (Adjoa Andoh) has had enough of her ungrateful son and husband (Curtis Walker) and leaves them to fend for themselves. She moves in with Nathan's grandma (Mona Hammond), which would be all right if this foxy older woman was not trying to spend the night with the local pastor (Don Gilet). What could have been a slapstick farce has a refreshingly contemporary edge.

The BBC's hype-machine went into overdrive for their first all-black sitcom about three generations living under the same roof. Pity it was written by the creator of Rab C Nesbitt; that in itself a bigger joke than anything in his woeful scripts. Not even the likes of Robbie Gee (Desmonds), Rudolph Walker and Mona Hammond (EastEnders) could save this disaster from the scrapheap.