Black Books

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Black Books
Blacks Books Season One DVD Cover
Genre	British sitcom
Camera setup	30
Running time	25 minutes approx.
Creator(s)	Dylan Moran
Producer(s)	Karen Beever William Burdett-Coutts Nira Park Julian Meers
Starring	Dylan Moran Bill Bailey Tamsin Greig
Country of origin	UK
Language(s)	English
Original channel	Channel 4
Original run	September 29, 2000–April 15, 2004
No. of episodes	18
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Black Books is a British sitcom broadcast on Channel 4 starring Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig, written by Dylan Moran, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley and produced by Nira Park. The show has twice won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy (2001 & 2005) and won a Bronze Rose at the Festival Rose d'Or of Montreux in 2001.

The series is set in the titular "Black Books", a small independent book shop in the Bloomsbury area of central London owned by foul-mouthed, eccentric, misanthropic Irish drunkard Bernard Black (played by Moran). The show is based around the lives and often surreal antics of Black, his employee hairy former accountant Manny (Bailey), and his friend Fran (Greig), who owned a gift shop next door.

1 Overview
2 Characters
3 Episodes
4 Chalkboard
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] Overview

The series generally revolves around Bernard's misanthropic loathing of the outside world in general and the people who live there in particular, represented mainly by his customers. As Bernard displays little enthusiasm for or interest in retail (or, indeed, in anything much outside drinking), he refuses to interact with the outside world on his own, and many of the plots revolve around Manny and Fran's various attempts to force him to do so. However, as they themselves are remarkably ill-equipped to survive in the world outside the shop, their efforts usually come to naught and result in chaos, and they are more often than not sucked into Bernard's nihilistic view of everything and everyone in the world.

The series is notable for its surreal and off-beat sense of humour, particularly when regarding the state of the shop; it is frequently depicted to be in an unhealthy state of dirtiness, with sea-water molluscs living on the water pipes and, when it is in a particularly bad state, dead badgers blocking the way. The series also uses a great deal of surreal wordplay.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bernard Black (Moran)

[edit] Bernard Ludwig Black (Dylan Moran)

Bernard Black is the sour and cynical owner of the bookshop. His hobbies are drinking, smoking, reading and insulting people; mainly customers. He is frequently found in the same black suit (later shown to actually be a very dirty white suit) and his idea of a stylish haircut is to get someone to slice off clumps of his hair with a breadknife. Bernard loathes customers and all of the pressures and responsibilities involved in retail with a passion, which makes his choice of vocation all the more interesting. He does, however, appreciate the medium in which he deals (when asked if the binding on a book is real leather, he counters with "It's real Dickens".). He refuses to leave the shop unless it's to go somewhere less than two minutes' walking distance away - everything else is just not worth the effort. He has a complex relationship with Manny, frequently belittling and bullying him whilst at the same time displaying a curiously possessive and jealous attitude towards him.

Manny Bianco (Bailey)

[edit] Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey)

Manny Bianco is Bernard's shop assistant and flatmate. Unlike Bernard, Manny is cheerful, friendly and helpful. ("Bianco" is Italian for "white" and underlines the contrast with Bernard's character.) He is competent and keen around the shop, and well-liked by customers. This makes him the frequent target of Bernard's bullying. In many episodes, Bernard refuses to acknowledge Manny by name, instead referring to him by such titles as "Lord Of The Rings", "Gandalf", "Hawkwind", "Bigfoot", and "Ming the Merciless" presumably in reference to Manny's long, unkempt hair and bearded face. As he is the only one who demonstrates any sort of desire to or interest in keeping the shop tidy, Bernard treats him as little more than an indentured servant - treatment that Manny is surprisingly mild about accepting (although it is revealed in the first episode that Manny had in fact assimilated the self-help book 'The Little Book of Calm' into his system, which may explain this). Manny has been known to snap, however, and order Bernard to chisel his own socks out of his shoes.

Fran Katzenjammer (Greig)

[edit] Enid Francesca "Fran" Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig)

Fran Katzenjammer is Bernard's best, oldest and some would say only friend (and at one time drunken sexual partner, something Fran remembers and Bernard isn't allowed to). For the first series, she ran a shop, Nifty Gifty, next door to Black Books, and would often mind Bernard's shop whilst he was out. Fran's business went bankrupt, however, and since then she has been unemployed and virtually unemployable. She is man-hungry, and constantly on the look-out for a relationship; the few she does attempt, however, have been little short of disastrous for all concerned. Like Bernard, she possesses a great enthusiasm for drinking and smoking (Katzenjammer is an antiquated German word for "hangover"); however, she genuinely likes Manny and unlike Bernard usually treats him well (although like Bernard this doesn't stop her from routinely exploiting his eager-to-help nature). Despite all available evidence to the contrary, she has somehow deluded herself into thinking that she's more normal than Bernard and Manny.

[edit] Episodes

There have been three series of Black Books, each with six episodes. Moran has hinted that there will be no more series [1], and The Times reports the series has been "killed off" [2].

[edit] Series 1 (2000)

Cooking the Books - After his accountant flees the police, Bernard is faced with the daunting prospect of doing his own taxes, and resorts to pairing his socks, getting drunk with Jehovah's Witnesses and trying to seriously injure himself to avoid them. Manny, an accountant, enters Black Books for the first time in order to buy the Little Book of Calm on his way to work and, against all odds, manages to swallow it. Fran is bedevilled by a weird, unfathomable sphere that isn't actually 'a bald furby'. Chaos, naturally, ensues. (Guest stars Martin Freeman as Manny's doctor and Rupert Vansittart as the tasteful customer.)
Manny's First Day - Bernard wakes up from a night on the booze to discover he's accidentally given Manny a job, and spends the day trying to get rid of him. Manny assists in this by proving to be a charming, sociable and extremely competent employee, apparently unaware that it's 'not that kind of operation'. An offering of wine from Manny and the threat of physical violence from Fran, however, persuade Bernard to keep Manny on board. (Guest stars co-writer Graham Linehan, as the "I Love Books" customer.)
The Grapes of Wrath - When the sheer filth of the bookshop becomes too much to handle, Manny calls a creepy cleaner and Bernard reluctantly agrees to housesit a friend's house. Unfortunately, the two manage to drink a very expensive bottle of wine that was due to be presented to the Pope, and have to figure of a way of either replacing it before he gets home or think of a present better than a box of pencils to compensate for it. Fran, meanwhile, goes on a date with a very nice man which is, unfortunately, nothing short of disastrous. (Guest stars Kevin Eldon as the Cleaner.)
The Blackout - On his birthday, Manny stays up all night watching The Sweeney and drinking espresso. Thinking he's a seventies cop, he manages to go from eyeing old men suspiciously in the bookshop to being trapped at the local police station helping a real detective put the 'good cop, bad cop' routine on a local villain. Bernard explains how going to a party eventually led to a broken arm while Fran describes the steps from seeing her boyfriend having dinner with another woman to being in hospital with a neck injury. (Guest stars Colin McFarlane as the detective.)
The Big Lock-Out - After being burgled, Black Books gets a new alarm and security door fitted but Manny fails to listen to the unlock code, distracted by a little Subbuteo player in the installer's hair. This quickly results in Manny being trapped alone inside with only a quickly-emptied bottle of Absinthe and dead bees for company and Bernard locked outside with just enough money for popcorn and a cinema ticket. Fran, meanwhile, has taken the phone off the hook to listen to silky-voiced Howell Granger read the shipping forecast on the radio, leaving Bernard to wander the streets of London penniless, cold and wet, with only an adult video shop and the allure of fast-food employment between him and freezing. (Guest stars Nick Frost as the alarm installer, Peter Serafinowicz as Howell Granger and writer Graham Linehan as a fast food customer.)
He's Leaving Home - Bernard finally breaks the last straw (well, technically the last yo-yo string) with his constant bullying, and Manny decides to leave home, but doesn't even manage to let Bernard know about this without being attacked by a bee in a telephone box and finding himself on the streets. He is soon picked up by a photographer with a beard fetish and treated to a glamourous life of expensive clothes, silk sheets and crisps in silver bowls, but such high living comes at a high price. (Guest starring Omid Djalili as Trebor the photographer. Also features David Walliams as a customer at the beginning of the episode)

[edit] Series 2 (2002)

The Entertainer - Fran decides to learn the piano and enlists the services of an elderly blind foreign tutor. His harsh methods and her inability to master it after five minutes instantly lead her to wanting to quit. Manny discovers he can play the piano purely on instinct, and against all odds Bernard gets a date with an attractive woman. As a result, Fran and Bernard bribe Manny to hide inside the piano, armed with only spoons, in an attempt to make themselves look good.
Fever - A heat wave sweeps London, causing Bernard to obsess about beautiful girls, Fran to suffer from insomnia and Manny to panic about his 'Dave's Syndrome', a curious condition that purportedly triggers at 88 degrees. Naturally, Bernard refuses to believe a word of Manny's "attention seeking nonsense" and tries to get Manny as hot as possible. Fran discovers the walls of her flat are literally closing in as her unscrupulous landlord creates another flat in the recovered space. To help, Bernard pretends to be her lawyer but quickly falls for the new lodger, Summer Girl Alice. And Manny's condition triggers, with disastrous consequences. (Guest starring Johnny Vegas as Fran's landlord and Rose Keegan as Fran's neighbour.)
The Fixer - Fran is in desperate need of a job, so Manny calls an old friend, Gus - a rather diminutive underworld figure - who agrees to get her a job working for a guy named Nugent in exchange for the bookstore hosting a reading of his nephew Danny's new book. Alas, Fran hasn't a clue what she is supposed to be doing at her new job and Danny is a hulking great illiterate whose ghostwritten autobiography describes the pain he's inflicted on many others in great detail and which he will happily inflict on Bernard and Manny if they can't teach him to read within two days. Fran gets promoted. Bernard worries about his thumbs. (Guest stars Ricky Grover as Danny, Rob Brydon as B. Nugent and Big Mick as Gus)
Blood - Fran delves into genealogy to uncover her Eastern European roots and, in getting to know her newly discovered family, quickly wants to get rid of them. Meanwhile Manny and Bernard try to re-invent the shop, firstly as a trendy upmarket café-bookshop (with sofas that swallow you) and then, apocalypically, as an upscale restaurant. (Guest starring Mark Donovan as Cousin Gregor.)
Hello Sun - Fran takes up Yoga with an old friend (Jessica Stevenson), and whilst very good at piously lecturing everyone at how much better she feels, isn't actually that good at controlling her own urges. Bernard, meanwhile, discovers a copy of the complete works of Freud and begins tormenting Manny by diagnosing his various neuroses - but is unpleasantly surprised when this leads to Manny unexpectedly gaining the confidence to finally stand up to him.
A Nice Change - When around-the-clock building commences next door, Bernard, Manny and Fran decide to go on holiday. Manny wants adventure, Fran wants relaxation, and Bernard just wants somewhere exactly like the bookshop. Packed and ready to go, a lapse in Manny's memory means that they are forced to buy cheap tickets, which means that they're about to see a lot of international airports.

[edit] Series 3 (2004)

Manny Come Home - Fran comes home after a holiday in Cornwall to find that following an introduction between Manny's hand and a sandwich toaster, Bernard is living amongst mouldy books and dead badgers, and Manny is working next door at the extremely glossy Goliath Books, where he is decidedly out of place amongst creepy manager Evan and his army of hyper-efficient pastel-shirted followers. Armed with only a doo-ti-to-doo card and an endless supply of muffins, Manny manages to resist Fran's rather self-serving attempts to drag him back to Bernard so that she has somewhere to hang out. Bernard's physical condition deteriorates rapidly without Manny's care, but Manny is soon questioning his choice of career as Evan demands an unthinkable sacrifice. (Guest starring Simon Pegg as Evan)
Elephants and Hens - Fran leaves for the weekend to go to her friend Becky's hen party while Bernard and Manny, inspired by their latest children's books event, decide to write and illustrate a book for children. Bernard's first effort comes to over 1,000 pages, covers Stalin, a lens grinder, a broken marriage and a journalist in search of the truth and is possibly a little complex for kids. The subsequent masterpiece The Elephant and the Balloon could however lead them to international fame - and all the problems that come with it. Fran's hen party, meanwhile, is as disastrous as can be expected, thanks to a combination of Bananarama, a game of truth and bottles of alcohol possessing "a polar bear... bleeding on the label". (Guest starring Lucy Davis as Becky)
Moo-Ma and Moo-Pa - Manny's extremely irritating parents, 'Moo-Ma' and 'Moo-Pa', unexpectedly drop by to stay after Bernard deletes Manny's answerphone messages. Bernard is immediately infuriated by their mere existence, not to mention their very annoying quirks and songs, but his patience - and Fran's nerves - are about to be tested when it's revealed that Manny's letters home have greatly embellished his actual accomplishments in life. (Guest starring Annette Crosbie as Moo-Ma and Sam Kelly as Moo-Pa)
A Little Flutter - After a small win on the Grand National Bernard quickly gets addicted to gambling, leaving Fran and Manny in a bitter competition to sell as many books as possible. Soon horses aren't enough and Bernard finds himself taking part in an illegal poker game against a group of ruthless, often successful gamblers, including Dave 'Mouse Ear' Smith. Being utterly hopeless at cards, Bernard (now nicknamed The Gold Mine) loses everything, leaving Fran and Manny to hatch a plan to come up with the money before Bernard's debtors take his shop and / or legs. (Guest starring Keith Allen as 'Mouse Ear' Smith.)
Travel Writer - Manny organises a book launch party at the shop with charismatic-but-smug travel writer Jason, and everyone starts falling for him and his stories of far-away adventure. Bernard, however, has other problems - following the death of his landlord, his building is now owned by a small cat to whom he must pay rent. Driven to destroy the cat's burgeoning real estate empire, he attempts to persuade an animal-loving pest exterminator to turn kitty hitman. (Guest starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as Jason.)
Party - On a slow Friday night, Manny suggests that the gang go to a party which will be attended by Rowena, a girl he likes very much. Instantly jealous, Bernard overcomes his natural reluctance with curiosity to see what kind of so-called person could find Manny attractive, Manny arms himself with an array of items to strategically leave about the house to give him an excuse to call her, and Fran checks her perfect new hairstyle. They return much later armed with a bizarre selection of alcohol, messed up hair, and a desire to dance very very badly. An excess of beetroot liqueur gives Manny the courage to confront Bernard regarding his disdain for Manny's affection for Rowena - this brings forth a shocking revelation from Bernard (which is soon tarnished as Fran tells Manny the truth about Bernard).

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Chalkboard

A subtle running gag in the series is that inside the bookshop there is a chalkboard, on which is usually written bizarre, contradictory, unintelligible or incomprehensible rules and instructions that, keeping with Bernard's general misanthropy, are generally rather grumpy in nature (such as in one week the instruction simply reading "DON'T"). The writing on the board is usually a near-unreadable scribble, to the point when even Bernard cannot decipher he has written (as in "Manny's First Day", when Bernard's attempt to explain the 'perfectly simple' rules to Manny leads him to eventually declare 'none of that, or any of the others!' when he comes across his unreadable scribble). A list of what was written on the board in each episode follows.

Episode	Text
S01E01	Rules of the shop
S02E02	"No Smouldering" "88 degrees"
S02E04	Bernard and Manny's kill tallies of creatures in shop
S02E05	"No Prehensilising"
S02E06	"No chatting, No spilling, ABSOLUTE SILENCE"
S03E01	"DON'T"
S03E02	"NO GIGGLING"
S03E03	"DON'T DO THAT"
S03E04	"NO ANECDOTAGE" Fran and Manny's sales in the shop
S03E06	"CAN'T"

[edit] Trivia

Black Books is considered by the makers, as stated in the Shaun of the Dead audio commentary, to be a sister-show of fellow Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, which was also produced by Nira Park. Numerous comic actors have appeared in both series, including Bill Bailey, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jessica Stevenson and Peter Serafinowicz.
The show started as a pilot at a 1998 Channel 4 sitcom festival in Riverside Studios. In this early version, Fran was 'Valerie', a philosophy lecturer, and Manny (whose surname was then Zimmerman - a reference to the original name of musician Bob Dylan) was a professional depression-o-gram. The show was also decidedly darker, the pilot revolving around Bernard and later Manny's decision to commit suicide.
The exterior scenes of Black Books were filmed outside a real bookshop, albeit rather a smaller one, called Collinge & Clark. It is situated on Leigh Street between Bloomsbury and Kings Cross. To find the shop, head out of Russell Square tube station (interestingly, on Bernard St) and cross straight over onto Marchmont St. Head up Marchmont St for about 350 yards and turn right onto Leigh St. The pub that is seen in the earlier episodes is on the left hand side of the road and is now a 'gastropub'/restaurant called the Norfolk Arms.