Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11782 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-19
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 144 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the few genuinely outstanding British comedy shows of the past decade, Black Books unites excellent comedic performances, very funny scripts, and plenty of rewatch value.

The concept is simple enough. Bernard (expertly played by Dylan Moran) runs a bookshop. The only problems are he can't stand people, hates customers, and would far prefer to be barking out cutting remarks and drinking wine. Still, it's after drinking much of the aforementioned wine that he offers Manny (Bill Bailey, again in terrific form) a job. Manny accepts, and finds his daily life involves taking abuse from Bernard, while remaining strangely and resolutely upbeat. Fran (Tamsin Greig) meanwhile also likes her wine, and finds herself stuck between the two of them, with a few odd encounters of her own thrown in too.

So far nothing particularly out of the ordinary, right? Well, mix in some of the creative force behind Father Ted, combine those aforementioned performances, and simmer to the point where episode after episode garners a cocktail of sniggers and belly laughs, and you have something really rather special. Like many of the best shows, the curtain has come down on Black Books after only three series. But the long-lasting legacy are episodes that are set to be enjoyed for a long, long time to come. --Simon Brew

Synopsis

Black Books: Series 2 continues to follow the lives of bookshop owner Bernard (Dylan Moran), his assistant Manny (Bill Bailey) and Fran (Tamsin Greig), who works in a new age shop next door. In this entertaining and surreal comedy, Moran and Bailey make a great double act--they deliver the tightly written script (by Moran and "Father Ted" co-writer Graham Linehan) with consummate ease, while Tamsin Greig (as Fran) does an admirable job of diffusing the tensions that arise between Bernard and Manny. The Black Books: Series 2 DVD contains all the episodes from the second series: "“The Entertainer"”, "“Fever"”, "“The Fixer"”, "“Blood” “Hello Sun"” and “"A Nice Change”".

Customer Reviews

A thought
Anyone remember when this was really hard to find? It was a genuine Channel 4 release, but you just couldn't get it anywhere for love nroe money- anyone who did have it wanted over £30 for it! About two years after it's initial release it was released again and has been available even since. I remember that Black Books drought, it was terrible.

Anyway, this series is the worst of the three, but still better than most other TV shows of its time, or even now. I don't like quite how spiteful Bernard becomes in the last few episodes here, but there's still greatness to be had in the early shows, such as Ricky Grover's illiterate hitman, and the fear he instills in Bernard in Manny. And of course, Tamsin Greig is as fantastic as ever.

Superb comedy
Black Books is one of the best comedies of the new millenium and the second series keeps up the high standards set by the first series and continued in the third series. The regular characters of Bernard, Manny and Fran are back in place for more mayhem.

This series starts with 'The Entertainer' which revolves around Fran's attempt to learn to play the Piano. There is a great scene where Manny discovers that he can play the Piano. Of course Bill Bailey is a good Pianist and infact apart from the duet actually played all the Piano music used in this episode. The episodes keep up the high standard set by this opening episode. There are a few memorable guest appearances, best of which is Rob Brydon's in 'The Fixer', in which he plays Fran's boss at her new job.

The extras are good, with the audio commentary by Dylan Moran, Tasmin Greg and Bill Bailey being almost as entertaining as the show itself. There are also some very funny out-takes and a trailer for series 3.