Black Books: The Complete Collection

If you are looking for comedy too laugh your ass off this is the one for you. (Dylan moran) Bernard Black is a chainsmoking and drunken book shop owner that hates people and specialy hates customers his assistant (Bill Bailey) Manny has too do all the work around the shop and constaly take abuses from Bernard. Next door shop owner (Tamsin Greig) Fran ends up unemployed as the show continues and fails at evrything she does.
In other words the best british comedy show ever made.

Black Books centres on a small book shop in London run by a drunk and surly Irish man named Bernard Black (Dylan Moran), he fills his days with chain smoking, drinking and abusing customers. His only friend, Fran (Tamsin Grieg), owns the shop next door (in season 1) and is an equally heavy chain smoker and drinker although her nature is more light hearted and neurotic. When Bernard hires Manny (Bill Bailey), a sweet natured if not slightly dim hippy accountant the 3 form an odd and taciturn friendship and a classic alternative sitcom is born.
What this show did brilliantly was take normal run of the mill sitcom story structures like a visit from the parents or house sitting, throwing a party or going on holiday and give them a unique and almost insane twist. Whether it's creating a Frankenstien wine or trying to find the perfect holiday spot to compliment 3 seperate tastes the show's manic and obsurd humour is so brilliant that you cant help but laugh. Considered a "sister show" of the equally brilliant Spaced Black Books shows that sitcoms dont all have to be My Family, Two Pints Of Lager and so on and that comedy is still as broad in Britian as it was 30 years ago. The sightgags in this show are unbelievably zany and wonderful and the treatment of Manny by Bernard is so degrading it borders on abuse but you still love it.
This complete collection contains all 3 seasons with all 18 wonderfully brilliant episodes. Extras may be a little think, there's outtakes, trailers and such but no documentary as there was with Spaced or interviews with the cast and crew. But the episodes alone make this worth buying as Alternative British Comedy roars ahead (also check out Spaced, The IT Crowd, Mighty Boosh)

This is one of those special comedies that come along evry now and again. Dylan moran is on top form as a pessimistic, misanthropic book shop owner and the legend bill bailey is even better as his assistant manny. This features all 18 episodes like the he's leaving home episode and the hilarious little flutter episode. Really a great comedy

Being a huge admirer of Bill Baileys intellect and all of his work, it's odd to see him playing such a weird role, but everythings works, and by god it works incredibly.

For only 8 pounds you can have the complete collection, and I think that's an amazing deal considering how hilarious and well written this show is. By the end of the seasons you will be missing these characters, as you truely get involved and immersed into their world for the 7 hour duration of the entire series.

You'd pay 8 pounds to watch a movie in the Cinema, whilst being harrassed and irritated by hundreds of others chewing away, talking, and making people like me a grumpy person :P. So if you like Bill Bailey, or the series in general - why not fork out 8 pounds to watch it in the comfort of your sofa, whenever you want, and how many times you want.

Fantastic, great value for money

Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, and Tamsin Greig have created something extraordinary among British comedy.

When I first saw this on TV I knew it would be something I was really going to love. The humour involved is among some of the best around! I only wish I waited for this box set to come out, as I got them when each series came out. Now I see it's only £10!

It's unfortunate that there weren't any more episodes done, but I like how that can sometimes be for the best. Another example is the classic Fawlty Towers series. My point here is that when the episodes are kept to the highest quality, you end up with a flawless, but short series. With that in mind, you know that each episode is going to have you laughing the whole way through with its unusual sense of style and humour.

One thing that truly amazes me in this series, is that the characters aren't always just the same joke again and again (like most ordinary comedies), but these ones actually develop more and more in each episode. You grow so attached to these characters, it's almost impossible not to get involved and essentially laugh your head off.

5 star, British comedy gold!