Trivia / Black Books

• Creator's Oddball: Enforced by Dylan Moran, who is adamant that Black Books' three series will be the only time he stars in a traditional sitcom and refuses to do a revival as a result.
• DVD Commentary: A particularly brilliant one on the DVD [For series 1+2 anyway as sadly there are no commentaries for Series 3.], almost as quotable as the show itself:
  Bill Bailey: If you got a sea urchin spine in your foot, you had to have someone wee on your foot, and the chemicals in your urine would extract the sea urchin spine.
  Dylan Moran: That's right, and if you get bitten by an elk in the face, you have to have somebody shit on your head.
  • "We will settle this... the Gypsy way!"
  • "It's like The Merry Wives of Windsor; it's ambiguous."
  • "Don't you see, it's like 'Sleuth' — it's like 'Sleuth' and 'The Mousetrap...'" "But with the 'shit being forced through wicker' element?"
  • On Manny's turn as a Mad Scientist's Igor:
  Bill Bailey: Look at this shameless mugging. Ham it up, mug boy!
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Tamsin Greig was pregnant during the filming of season one. This was obscured with solid-coloured clothing and scarves.
• Inspiration for the Work: The concept of Bernard owning a bookshop came about because of Dylan Moran's view of bookshops as doomed enterprises. Moran said "Running a second-hand bookshop is a guaranteed commercial failure. It's a whole philosophy. There were bookshops that I frequented and I was always struck by the loneliness and doggedness of these men who piloted this death ship", while Graham Linehan said his belligerent personality reflected a sign he once saw in a bookshop stating "Please put the books anywhere you like because we've got nothing better to do than put them back". Moran said of the series, "We just wanted to cram as much elaborate stupidity into a half-hour that could make it be coherent and that you would believe".
• Write Who You Know: Bernard was inspired by a real bookshop owner in Dublin, who Dylan Moran described as "He looks like he's swallowed a cup of sour milk and peed himself at the same time. He has this green bilious expression, years of displeasure have shaped his face."

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