Product Details

• Actors: Bill Bailey (IV), Tamsin Greig, Dylan Moran
• Directors: Martin Dennis, Graham Linehan
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: January 10, 2006
• Run Time: 142 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000BVM1SW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,125 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Black Books - The Complete First Series" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

How can the concept of a drunk owning a bookshop be surreally funny? Well, Black Books may be owned by Bernard Black on screen, but off screen it belongs to writer-director Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame, that’s how. His writing partnership with Dylan Moran (Black) produced the strangest situation comedy of 2001, fully deserving its British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award. The almost blissfully vague plotline begins when stressed-out office worker Manny Bianco (Bill Bailey) accidentally swallows The Little Book of Calm. Somehow his beard and Bernard's booze get on well enough for them to work together in the shop. They're ably assisted/distracted/confused by the hormonal interruptions of neighboring storeowner Fran (Tamsin Greig). And that’s about it. But across six episodes, this first year crammed in an enormous amount of insanity and sight gags. Definite highlights include Fran's over-the-radio seduction by Shipping News broadcaster Howell Granger, a good cop/bad cop Sweeney spoof and a cameo by Nick Frost (Mike in Spaced) as a more than slightly over-the-top security system installer. The standout episode is "The Grapes of Wrath," in which Bernard and Manny agree to babysit a valuable wine cellar. No prizes for guessing what happens! Kevin Eldon guest stars as The Cleaner, declaring the shop to be "dirty." Manny already knew that. When he made the appointment he had to confess, "Right now I'm eating scrambled egg with a comb out of a shoe." --Paul Tonks

Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/13/2007 Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bernard Black is a misanthropic, drunken git; and you'll love him for it., August 28, 2006

By 

Todd Hagley "groucho75" (Decatur, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Books - The Complete First Series (DVD)

Black Books is a charming, absurdist situation comedy series set in a bookshop. "Charming," you ask? "The main character is a nasty, morose, chain-smoking drunk with a neurotic for a best friend and a bearded simpleton for an employee." Ah, but what's what makes it such a gem of writing and acting.

Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey met during the Edinburgh Fringe and were the top two contenders for the Perrier Prize. Moran came out on top, but remembered Bailey a few years later when he was offered his own show. Moran's character of an ill-tempered grouch is matched perfectly by Bailey's good-hearted goof, and their chemistry as Bernard and Manny is what makes Black Books such enjoyable viewing. Tamsin Grieg is a good comic actress, but I found Fran Katzenjammer to be a little grating at times. Her character does develop more in subsequent seasons, so don't discount her performance.

Fans of Father Ted, Spaced, BlackAdder, and Little Britain should adore this show, and if I have to explain that any further then you should go back to watching "According To Jim".

It's rare to find comedies that are as intelligent as funny, and Black Books is a prime example of such shows. Of course it'd never take off in America, but I thought the same thing about The Office. Please, please, please do not remake this as an American sit-com.

For reasons unknown, Comedy Central used to run this early Sunday mornings back in 2001 before dropping it from the roster. I had only caught two episodes before and was distraught at its departure. Cue to last year and its Region 1 release and my frabjous rapture.

Bring on season Two (and Three...)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anti-stacked!, March 12, 2006

By 

Robert E. Kelly "I think the Kindle in a wast... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Books - The Complete First Series (DVD)

American "comedy" involving an independent bookstore = that trite, vapid Fox series 'Stacked'. 'Black Books', however, is what excellent comedy should be: witty, biting, satirical, whimsical, and mentally satisfying. God, what a treat. Laugh-out-loud funny. This is not just another BBC/Channel 4 comedy that has taken hold in a slim US market a la Keeping Up Appearances; The Office; Last of The Summer Wine, etc. This is a classic that hopefully will rank up there with Fawlty Towers (perhaps the best comedy ever made).

If you have ever worked for a major chain-bookstore such as B&N, Borders, Indigo, Chapters etc. and are of a cynical and biting state of mind, Bernard Black's little world will a breath of fresh air!

I highly recommend it: 5 stars plus 5 more.

Excellent!

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Slightly Used Formula Made Fresh, February 8, 2006

By 

Edward Lee "Trekscribbler (NCC1205)" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Books - The Complete First Series (DVD)

I hate sitcoms. Let me tell you why I hate sitcoms: the viewer is expected to suspect -- for the most part -- all disbelief at otherwise reasonably intelligent characters performing utterly insane activities all for the sake of a laugh. In the end, people of modest know-how are knocked a few pegs down the evolutionary ladder, landing somewhere near the chimpanzee, and I'm supposed to find that laughable.

Enter BLACK BOOKS. Here, a curmudgeon of an intelligent man wears the shell of a drunk with pride as he spits one-liners and trades barbs with the customers and his few friends ... and it works almost perfectly throughout. A knucklehead of an accountant loses his job but finds himself by cosmically happening across this one bookshop desperately in need of a finance specialist ... and it works almost perfectly. The way-too-attractive British lady of the town runs a 'Nifty Gifty' shop, splitting her times between selling trinkets she can't quite figure out and tossing back a bottle of wine with her two friends in the Black Books shop next store ... and it works almost perfectly.

BLACK BOOKS begins its series very strong (don't they all, the really good ones?) with a fall-down laughable performance across the board about how these three lovable souls meet and become friends, and the six-episode run tracks them through their assorted adventures ... whether its sharing a bottle of wine, ruining a bottle of wine, or anything else you can do with a bottle of wine in between ... whether its destroying the Pope's only chance at sipping a centuries old Merlot or spoofing the high-handed television adventure of cop shows ... and it works almost perfectly.

Yes, I said "almost" perfectly, and it's really a minor nitpick for a five-star review: the last episode satirized ... erm ... let's just say it satirized a very specific area of sex trafficking and, while the episode brought a smile to my lips, it really didn't produce that many laughs. Perhaps it was the fact that pornography, in one sense, is such a volatile topic that I don't see the sense in lampooning an evil, corrosive crime ... but, when you're talking about comedy, there really are as many flavors as there are bottles of wine, and I'd like to think that's what they were going for.

Great laughs, great zingers, and great characters make BLACK BOOKS more than should be judged by its cover.