Bernard Black (Dylan Moran) hates his job, his life, and his friends. In fact, there's not much Bernard doesn't hate, except for a glass of red wine and the chance to torment his coworker Mani (Bill Bailey). Bernard runs Black Books, a dusty secondhand bookstore whose customers he loathes; Mani is employed in the first episode to help Bernard relinquish himself of the interminable duties that clutter up his day. Fran (Tamsyn Grieg) works in a new age shop next door and frequently pops in for a glass of wine and a chat. This first series of the show provides six half-hour episodes that deserve to rub shoulders with the very best U.K. sitcoms to have emerged over the years. Moran and Bailey make a great double act, delivering the tightly written script (by Moran and FATHER TED co-writer Graham Linehan) with consummate ease, while Grieg does an admirable job of diffusing the tensions that rise between Bernard and Mani. Three series' of the show were shot, but this is the best of the lot, and a great place to witness some of the U.K.'s finest comic talents.

DVD Features:

Region [unknown]
Keep Case
Additional Release Material:
Outtakes
Cast Commentary
Text/Photo Galleries:
Photo Galleries
DVD-ROM Features:
DVD Rom

Distributor Notes: Black Books: The Complete Series 1

Black Books is 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 (sometimes physically abusing them) and is often comatose at his desk. Help comes in the lumpy shape of Manny Bianco, a hairy, bumbling individual who (almost by osmosis) 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, 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.

Source: Warner Home Video

Dylan Moran: Actor, SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)
Bill Bailey: 
Tamsyn Greig: British comic actress

Graham Linehan: 
Dylan Moran: Actor, SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)