BLACK BOOKS
Bernard
Black: Dylan
Moran
Fran Katzenjamer: Tamsin Greig
Manny Bianco: Bill Bailey
Producers: Nira Park, Julian Meers
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.
Black Books is based around the main charcter Bernard Ludwig Black (played
by Dylan). He is the owner of a run down bookshop in Bloomsbury called Black
Books. Bernard is a grubby, miserable,chain-smoking drunkard who hates people
except for his best mate Fran Katzenjammer ,who owns the shop next door-
Nifty Gifty.
The first episode introduces Bernard and the other main characters Fran
and Manny Bianco.
Manny is an accountant who hates his very stressful job, he initially comes
into Bernards shop to buy 'The Little Book Of Calm', which Bernard, cruelly
seeing Mannys stress, offers him other books about 'Tanks' and 'Screaming'!
The
story continues and by the end of the episode a drunk Bernard has offered
Manny a job in his bookshop and thus the start of their wonderful sado-masochistic
friendship!
Series 2 was aired in March, 2002.
Black Books won the 2001 BAFTA sitcom award, and the Bronze Rose of Montreux,
also for best sitcom.
Series 3 was 'aired' in March this year (2004), and is now out on DVD release.
Fun
Facts
*Tamsin Grieg was pregnant during the filming of series
1.
* Graham Linehan turns up in 2 episodes:
>>as a customer sporting a beard, glasses and a t-shirt proclaiming
'I Love Books' in Mannys First Day.
>>in The Big Lock Out as a customer in the Mamba Burger bar ( sporting
this time Dylans coat!)
*Bill Bailey's character Manny was originally Jewish.
*The sign on the shops door says 'closed' on both sides.
* Bernards character is inspired by a real bookshop owner in Dublin whom
Dylan described as " he looks like he's swallowed a cup of sour milk and
peed himself at the same time. He has this green bilious expression, years
of displeasure have shaped his face."
* Filming of series 1 was plaqued with ill health. Bill Bailey had flu in
'Cooking The Books' and Dylan hurt his neck during 'Mannys First Day'!
