"Black Books" (2000) TV series 2000-2004

Creator:

Dylan Moran

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

9 December 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Bernard Black runs his own bookshop even though he doesn't much like people who buy books and hates having customers...

Plot Keywords:

Book | Accountant | Surrealism | Smoking | Wine

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Dylan Moran	...	Bernard Black (18 episodes, 2000-2004)
Bill Bailey	...	Manny (18 episodes, 2000-2004)
Tamsin Greig	...	Fran (18 episodes, 2000-2004)

Runtime:

30 min (18 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo | Stereo (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

UK:15 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

Leigh Street, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK

Company:

Assembly Film and Television

Trivia:

"Katzenjammer" is a German slang word for hangover, literally meaning "cat-wailing".

Quotes:

Customer: Look, there's no other way to say this, but I didn't come in here to be insulted.
Bernard: Well, I didn't ask for the job of insulting you. In another life, we could have been brothers. Running a small, quirky taveria in Sicily. Maybe we would have married the local twins instead of wasting each other's time here in this dump. But it was not to be. So hop it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: (#11.12)" (2006)

"Which one of you bitches wants to dance?"

I see I'm the first American to write a review of this show, so I'll try to do a good job at representing my country. Quite simply, Black Books is the funniest show I've seen in years, if not the funniest I've ever seen. When I heard Bernard spout the line above to a group of skinheads outside his bookshop, I laughed so hard that I missed the rest of the scene. Thanks to Comedy Central for airing the first series of this show (and the second coming up in August), for I would probably have never seen it if they had not. Most British sitcoms (Britcoms?) I've seen have been funny, but I usually forget about them rather quick (probably due to the cultural differences) but Black Books stuck with me so much that I was forced to buy a bootleg VHS of the first series. Luckily, the tapes included the outtakes and running commentary for each episode on a separate tape so I wouldn't have to buy a region-free DVD player to see them (which I probably would have done!). I fear that I'm rambling now, so I'll just conclude by saying that if you have not seen this great series, then see it!