Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15490 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 426 minutes

DVD Description
From the co-writer of Father Ted comes the cult Channel 4 comedy show set in a secondhand bookshop. The show stars Dylan Moran as the customer hating, booze loving, owner, Bill Bailey as his more mild mannered assistant and Tamsin Greig as Fran the owner of the shop next door. This boxed set includes all three series of the show, for a total of 18 episodes including classics such as "The Big Lock-Out" and "Moo-ma And Moo-pa". This is cutting edge alternative sitcom comedy at its best and this limited edition boxed set is the easiest, and cheapest, way to experience it.

Customer Reviews

It Could Be Worse - You Could Work Here...
The next time you're having a bad day, sit down and watch Black Books. Within minutes you'll not only feel better from laughing, you will feel comforted by the fact that nobody you are ever going to meet is as cruelly sadistic and utterly bitter as Bernard Black, proprietor of the world's worst bookshop.
Of late, "quirky" has become a buzzword of comedy, almost a fashionable word to insert into a rave review, and one of which I am intensely wary, as it ordinarily implies it is of the same brand of "fun" as, for example, a businessman who thinks mouth-shaped cufflinks are "fun". However, there are few other words to adequately describe the occasional surrealness of these half-hour jaunts into the grime of Bernard, Manny and Fran's dusty world. Refreshingly avoiding the cheap laugh bought by so many comedies simply by adding in the occasional profanity, Bernard expresses his utter disdain for everyone and everything in ways which can only be described as pure creativity. If you haven't been introduced to actor and writer Dylan Moran's unique brand of anger, you're in for a treat. Meanwhile, Bill Bailey as Manny provides a delightfully childlike and endearingly terrified pincushion for Bernard's razor-sharp remarks and Tamsin Greig puts forth a superb performance as Fran, their oldest friend and faithful bringer of wine.
Full of conversations you'll be re-enacting with your friends and with a whole pile of extras such as the bizarre "Black Dolls" puppet show, this intelligent and yet simultaneously brainless comedy is exactly what you need to remind you that however bad life gets, at least you don't work at Black Books.

Timing is all
This is brilliant.
Dylan Moran is so funny. Bill Bailey is a comic genius and Tamsin Greg (Debbie from "The Archers"!!!!!) is brilliant as a comic actress. See her later work in "Green Wing" and more recently in Dr Who.
Set in a book shop where books are hardly ever sold, but still seems to attract lots of customers! The shop is run as a hobby by Bernard (Moran) to provide him with something to do other than drinking, and abusing his staff, Manny (Bailey). Fran (Greg) acts a a foil between these two characters.
Darkly funny, and brilliantly understated. Can't wait for the next series!

Have it all in a single bun.
I thought the odd episodes I caught on TV were good but when joined-up like this they are magic. This is left-field sit com at its best - Father-Ted meets Bottom. Extras include extensive out-takes on each disk and cast commentary for series 1 and 2 which are suitably bizarre, but make a good excuse to watch episodes again (in the same week).