Black Books – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 0 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
2 0 0 2 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
2 0 0 4 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes

One half of the creative team behind Father Ted, Graham Linehan, joined forces with Irish stand-up comedian Dylan Moran to craft a darkly hilarious comedy about Bernard Black (Moran, in an extension of his own stage persona), a belligerent alcoholic who hated the living soul of every customer who entered his bookshop and was not afraid to tell them so.

Bernard’s bad attitude with his customers was hugely liberating, like a petulant child, only drunk.

Highly stressed accountant Manny (Bill Bailey) came looking for The Little Book of Calm, but after joining Bernard on a drinking binge, he accepted a job at the shop managing Bernard’s account books.

Manny’s optimistic enthusiasm for everything was beautifully at odds with his new surroundings: a bleak, untidy store that might also be home to an ever-increasing pile of dead animals.

Help came from Fran (Tamsin Greig). Bernard’s oldest/only friend, who ran a craft shop next door. Although Fran appeared to be the sensible one of the trio, she had a knack for finding herself in cringe-making situations.

Together, Manny and Fran conspired to get the inebriate shopkeeper to step outside and discover the world.

The guest cast read like a who’s who of British comedy at the turn of the twenty-first century, with the likes of Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Lucy Davis, Olivia Colman and Rob Brydon all making appearances.

Like its stablemate Spaced, there was always something a bit Twilight Zone about the series, where logic seemed to be a bendable force.

Bernard Black
Dylan Moran
Manny
Bill Bailey
Fran
Tamsin Greig

Episodes

Cooking the Books | Manny’s First Day | Grapes of Wrath | The Blackout | The Big Lock-Out | He’s Leaving Home || The Entertainer | Fever | The Fixer | Blood | Hello Sun | A Nice Change || Manny Come Home | Elephants and Hens | Moo-Ma and Moo-Pa | A Little Flutter | Travel Writer | Party