From what I can remember Black Books was very funny, especially compared to most of the rubbish passed off as “comedy” on television at that period. The humour was often surreal with things like mollusc’s and dead badgers depicting how dirty the shop was. It wasn’t a very long run show, as each series only had 6 episodes but the writing which was also done by Dylan Moran was top notch. Black Books was also popular with television critics winning a BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2001 and 2005 as well as the Bronze Rose at the Festival Rode d’Or in 2001.

Black Books cast:

Character		Played by
Bernard Black		Dylan Moran
Manny Bianco		Bill Bailey
Fran Katzenjammer		Tamsin Greig
Black Books Episode Guide:
Black Books – Series One
Episode Number		Title
1		Cooking The Books
2		Manny First Day
3		The Grapes Of Wrath
4		The Blackout
5		The Big Lock-Out
6		He’s Leaving Home
Black Books – Series Two
Episode Number		Title
1		The Entertainer
2		Fever
3		The Fixer
4		Blood
5		Hello Sun
6		Nice Change
Black Books – Series Three
Episode Number		Title
1		Manny Come Home
2		Elephants And Hens
3		Moo-ma And Moo-pa
4		A Little Flutter
5		The Travel Writer
6		Party

Although this isn’t a review by any stretch of the imagination (its just TV show info as you may have already guessed), but if you like dark, surreal and cleverly written British comedy you can’t go wrong with trying out the Black Books complete DVD box set which (looking today) is only around £16 from the likes of play.com and amazon.co.uk.

*Many thanks to Simon for letting me use his picture of the building used for the external shots in Black Books.