All about Black Books
Black Books. This sitcom is an original idea by Dylan Moran. It had its first tentative screening at the Channel 4 Sitcom Festival at the Riverside Studios in 1998.
Dylan had never written a sitcom before, so he asked fellow Irishman Graham Linehan to co-write the first series with him.
The first series was aired in September 2000
Its centred around a second-hand bookshop in London run by an Irishman named Bernard Black. He is probably the planet's worst-suited person to run such an establishment: he makes no effort to sell, closes at strange hours on a whim, is in a perpetual alcoholic stupor, abhors his customers and is often comatose at his desk. Help comes in the lumpy shape of Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey), a hairy, bumbling individual who becomes Bernard's assistant. Manny is not exactly great at the job either but he is a million times better than Bernard. Next door is Fran Katzenjammer (Tamsin Greig), an anxious, frustrated woman who runs a sort of new-age shop selling the most unlikely bits of arty junk.Fran is friends with Bernard and, through him, with Manny; together the trio become embroiled in escapades that are sometimes extreme or violent or fantastically ludicrous, and always bizarre.
Episode list
Series One
1. Cooking the Books :
Bernard's dodgy accountant has to go on the run.
2. Manny's First Day Bernard is pursuaded to hire him after help with tax return.
3. The Grapes of Wrath -:
Bernard and Manny accept a house sitting job
4. The Blackout
Bernard and Fran swap injury stories.
5. The Big Lock-Out :
The shop gets a new security system that no-one can work.
6. He's Leaving Home:
Manny runs away from the bookshop.
Series Two
7. The Entertainer :
Fran takes up the piano. Bernard falls in love.
8. Fever :
The temperature is rising and sending everyone mad.
9. The Fixer :
Bernard and Manny must teach a psychopath to read.
10. Blood:
Fran discovers that she has Mid European relatives.
11. Hello Sun:
Fran tries to discover her inner karma.
12. Nice Change :
Fran suggests a holiday.
Series Three
13. Manny Come Home :
Fran returns from holiday to find that Manny has resigned and Bernard is living amid a pile of rubbish.
14. Elephants and Hens :
It is International Children's Book Week, and Bernard and Manny decide to write their own kids' classic.
15. Moo-ma and Moo-pa:
Manny's parents come to stay
16. A Little Flutter :
Manny places a bet on the Grand Nationall
17. The Travel Writer :
Manny organises a travel-writing festival
18. Party :
In this episode the door sign has "open" on both sides. In episode 1.2 "Manny's First Day" it had "closed" on both sides.