Black Books

Rating: 10/10

Before you ask, no, I am not going to give every comedy I like a 10/10. I just thought I'd start off on a high note, with one of my favourite comedies of all time!

Black Books, is created and written by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan, and lets be honest, with Dylan Moran being, well Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan being the writer of other brilliant sitcoms such as Father Ted and The IT Crowd, it's hard for Black Books to not be absolutely hilarious!

Black Books, is about the alcoholic, ridiculous and introverted Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), and his comical hatred for society. He runs a book shop (Black Books) but instead of encouraging customers in and helping them out, he shouts at the with a megaphone and pushes them out the door with a broom. The only person he can seem to stand is his oldest and only friend Fran (Tamsin Greig), who also shares Bernard's love of excessive smoking and drinking. Mixed in with them two, is Manny (Bill Bailey) who Bernard hired while he was drunk to be his assistant. Manny is the only one who has any enthusiasm to actually sell books, and Bernard often bullies Manny with phrases like "Gandalf" and "Bigfoot". The three characters working together make for some great scenes, and their relationships with each other add to the comedy.

One thing that I think is great about Black Books, is the celebrity cameos, the great thing about the cameos, is that they weren't well known at the time and now many of them are known around the world. Some of the cameos are: Graham Linehan, Omid Djalili, David Walliams, Kevin Eldon, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rob Brydon, Olivia Coleman, Martin Freeman, Jessica Hynes, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Johnny Vegas... the list goes on and on.

Unlike many sitcoms, there is no story to follow. Usually there is some storyline between each episode however small it is, however, with Black Books you can watch them in any order and it wouldn't matter, each episode is individually brilliant, which makes it very easy to introduce to people to the show. The 'quoteability' of Black Books is amazing. In many situations, you can always come up with a witty comeback by using a quote from Bernard one of my favourites being "up with this I will not put".  But what is great, it sticks to the classic sitcom style of writing and how the layers of madness build on top of each other to make one classic episode.

Finally, I strongly advise you, wherever you are, to go and watch it, if you have not already seen the comedy gold that is Black Books, you will not be disappointed. Also, I think that even if you are Mother Teresa, there is a little bit of Bernard Black deep or not so deep within all of our thoughts, minds and personalities, however hard you might try and hide it. And always remember laughter is the best medicine.