Black Books

Synopsis

Bernard Black is the owner of Black Books, a small London bookshop. The series revolves around the lives of Bernard, Manny and Fran. Bernard's persona of a grouchy and misanthropic shopkeeper is a central theme; he has a hatred of the outside world and all the people who inhabit it, except for his best friend, Fran, who initially runs a trendy bric-a-brac shop, Nifty Gifty, next door to the bookshop.

Bernard displays little interest or knowledge in retail (or, indeed, anything outside drinking, smoking and reading) and actively avoids having to interact with anyone, even inside his shop. He would often rather pass up on a sale than have to engage in human interaction to make one.

Manny is introduced in the first episode as an angst-ridden accountant who enters the bookshop seeking The Little Book of Calm. During a drunken night out, Bernard offers him a job as a shop assistant and a room above the shop if he will do Bernard's accounts for him. Sobering up, Bernard realises Manny's optimistic nature is not suited to this "kind of operation". Fran, however, seeing that Manny is good for Bernard, forces Bernard to let him stay.

Cast

Main article: List of Black Books characters

The series revolves around the three main characters of Bernard Ludwig Black (Dylan Moran), Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) and Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig), who all appear in every episode. Other characters appear briefly in single episodes, while the show also featured several guest stars such as Keith Allen, Rob Brydon, Annette Crosbie, Lucy Davis, Olivia Colman and Peter Serafinowicz.

Production

A pilot for the show was featured in the 1998 Channel 4 sitcom festival in Riverside Studios. This early version was decidedly darker, revolving around Bernard's, and later Manny's, decision to commit suicide. It featured Manny (surname Zimmerman in reference to Bob Dylan) and the Fran character as Valerie, a philosophy lecturer.

The pilot was an original creation of Moran's and the series was his first creation as a writer for a television series. Linehan, co-writer of the earlier Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, joined at the outset to co-write the series with Moran at the suggestion of producer William Burdett-Coutts after Linehan saw the pilot and had seen Moran performing in Dublin. The characters were Moran's original creation, created over a month-long process he calls "spitballing", which is talking spontaneously to each other in character.

The concept of Bernard owning a bookshop came about because of Moran's view of bookshops as doomed enterprises. Moran said "Running a second-hand bookshop is a guaranteed commercial failure. It's a whole philosophy. There were bookshops that I frequented and I was always struck by the loneliness and doggedness of these men who piloted this death ship", while Linehan said his belligerent personality reflected a sign he once saw in a bookshop stating "Please put the books anywhere you like because we've got nothing better to do than put them back". Moran said of the series, "We just wanted to cram as much elaborate stupidity into a half-hour that could make it be coherent and that you would believe".

The fictional address for the bookshop is Black Books, 13 Little Bevan Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1. Manny also states the shop is located "just off Russell Square". The exterior scenes of the bookshop were filmed outside a real bookshop, albeit a smaller one, called Collinge & Clark, located at 13 Leigh Street, Bloomsbury.

The audio commentary for Shaun of the Dead states that Black Books is considered by the producers to be a sister show of the 1999 Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, also produced by Nira Park. The show features several actors from Spaced, while in one episode Manny is heard speaking to Twist Morgan, a character from Spaced. Simon Pegg guest-starred as Bill Bailey's boss in another episode, an inversion of their roles in Spaced; Nick Frost appeared at the beginning of the episode "The Big Lockout" to install a new security system for the shop, though lost Manny's attention when he spotted a Subbuteo player in his hair; Kevin Cecil, one of the Black Books writers, appeared in Spaced playing the leader of "Robot Club"; Jessica Stevenson made an appearance as a friend of Fran's, who was trying to help her live a healthier lifestyle with attempts to change her diet and get her to exercise more; Peter Serafinowicz played a radio broadcaster whose dulcet tones reading the shipping forecast drove Fran wild with desire; Omid Djalili appeared in "He's Leaving Home" as an opportunistic photographer; Rob Brydon appeared in Season 2's episode "The Fixer". Both Lucy Davis (The Office, Shaun of the Dead) and Olivia Colman (Peep Show, Hot Fuzz) appeared in Season 3's episode "Elephants and Hens".

Episodes

Original unaired pilot

To date it remains unreleased in mainstream media.

Series 1 (2000)

Guest stars Martin Freeman as Manny's doctor, Dominic Carter as a skinhead and Rupert Vansittart as the tasteful customer.

Guest stars David Cann as the roaring customer, co-writer Graham Linehan as the "I Love Books" customer, and Rhys Thomas as a student.

Guest star: The actor Kevin Eldon as the cleaner.

Guest stars Colin McFarlane as the detective.

Guest stars: Nick Frost as the alarm installer, Peter Serafinowicz as Howell Granger, writer Graham Linehan as a fast-food customer, and Tony Way as the fast-food chain and cinema employee.

Guest stars: Omid Djalili as Trebor the photographer, and David Walliams as a customer.

Series 2 (2002)

Guest star: Nina Conti as Bernard's date.

Guest starring Johnny Vegas as Fran's landlord and Rose Keegan as Alice.

Guest stars: Ricky Grover as Danny, Rob Brydon as B. Nugent, and Big Mick as Gus.

Guest starring Mark Donovan as Cousin Gregor and Vincenzo Nicoli as Frederick.

Series 3 (2004)

Guest star: Simon Pegg as Evan.

Guest stars: Lucy Davis as Becky, Olivia Colman as Tanya, Charlie Hicks as Timmy, and Oliver Golding as Young Customer.

Guest stars: Annette Crosbie as Moo-Ma, Sam Kelly as Moo-Pa, and Nick Frost as an answerphone voice.

Guest stars: Keith Allen as 'Mouse Ears' Smith and Craig Parkinson as Martin the Tout.

Guest starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as Jason, Alice Lowe as Solicitor and Catherine Shepherd as Bridget.

Awards and reception

Black Books won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 2001 and 2005, and won a Bronze Rose at the Festival Rose d'Or of Montreux in 2001. It also received nominations for British Comedy Awards and the Irish Film and Television Awards.

According to Allan Brown, writing for The Times in August 2005, the show was "killed off after three hugely popular series".

In Channel 4's "The World's Greatest Comedy Characters" poll, Bernard was voted 19th. The show ranked 58th out of 100 in the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll in 2004.

Legacy

When asked by Digital Spy in 2015 about the show possibly returning, Moran replied saying "No, no, no, no! No! Does that answer the question, no!" and stated that he would rather focus on new projects. He also said that he would never do another studio sitcom again.

Notes

References

• {{cite web |access-date=13 April 2010
• {{cite web |access-date=13 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618011741/http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/2008/05/unsung-heroes-of-television-bernard-black/ |archive-date=18 June 2009

References

1. Guide, British Comedy. "Black Books Cast and Crew Credits".
2. "Black Books".
3. (12 March 2012). "How Teddington Studios Will Benefit Us as a Video Production Company".
4. "''Black Books'' (TV Series 2000–2004) – Filming Locations".
5. Jeffery, Morgan. (5 November 2011). "'''Black Books''': Tube Talk Gold – British TV Blog – Digital Spy".
6. Ogle, Tina. (17 September 2000). "Here's the Odd Couple of Comedy". [[The Observer]].
7. "Travel Writer".
8. "He's Leaving Home".
9. Brown, Allan. (7 August 2005). "Droll Troll Who Puts the Odd in Couple". [[The Times]].
10. (August 2025). "Channel 4's "World's 50 Greatest Comedy Characters"". listology.com.
11. Eames, Tom. (2015-11-30). "Black Books definitely won't be coming back, but Dylan Moran is working on a brand new TV comedy". [[Digital Spy]].