'I'm eating scrambled egg with a comb out of a shoe!' (Black Books (2000))

Member Name: Moominpapa

Product:	Black Books (2000)
Date:	24/02/02 (371 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very cleverly written in parts, Always very funny, Bill Bailey in pigtails

Disadvantages: not out on dvd yet

I just managed to catch Black Books on TV, just before the start of the second series. E4 decided to show the entire first series back to back so I thought id give it a go. So I sat down at 10 o'clock and expected to be mildly amused by another below British sitcom, and ended staying slumped on the chair for a further 3 hours in absolute fits of laughter. I since learnt that Black Books actually won a BAFTA and still managed to slip past without me ever noticing it, mainly due to it being shown on a Friday night, although if I'd known how much I'd love it I would've been setting the video.

The first thing that drew me to this series was its extremely thin plotlines, which is often a good thing in a sitcom, and something that the likes of Friends has sadly abandoned. The basic plot summary for every episode is that a drunk by the name of Bernard Black (Dylan Morgan) owns a book shop and hires Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) to work for him. How can a series with such a dull concept be so surreally funny? One reason, well one main reason, Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame Co-writes and directs the series. It seems the writing team of him and star Dylan Morgan was the perfect combination to hit the mark for one of my favourite British sitcoms since the glorious Spaced.

Black Books consists of six episodes, some with slightly more action packed plots than others, and all of them littered with familiar faces of British Comedy, such as Kevin Eldon from Big Train and more notably a cameo from Nick Frost who plays Mike in Spaced. My personal favourite episode highlights include Manny, after receiving a complete set of The Sweeney videos and an Espresso maker for his Birthday, winding up interrogating a witness in a police station, and Bernard roaming the streets In search of shelter when Manny accidentally locks him out of the shop.

Dylan Moran, who I must admit I don't think I've seen in anything else before is a delight as the
owner of the book shop. His most memorable performances surface when he is explaining to Manny why they shouldn't be trying to sell books or that people should not bring mobiles into the shop. Another favourite is him trying to recollect what he did in his drunken state at a friend's dinner party

Bill Bailey, as always, is fantastic in his role. Throughout the series we see a glimpse of him with his hair in pigtails, see him modelling for a fashion photographer and witness him in an absinth induced survival mission with added bee-eating.

Tamsin Greig who plays Fran, a friend of the pair that works in a shop next door provides some comic moments, though most notably an over the radio orgasm with a 'lovable arsehole' from her old school.

I can not stress this any further, if you're tired of wasting your life watching Big Brother, Pop Idol, or any of the other cheap TV made for lifeless soap opera fans, then I strongly recommend watching the second series of Black Books after, of course, snapping up the first on video or DVD.

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