It’s about time here at TV Today that we started to give some kudos and nods to the unsung heroes of television, and I’m going to get the ball rolling with a request that we all put our hands together for Bernard Black, late of the much missed Black Books.
This week, as part of my quest to fill the grim hours of the summer TV schedules, I have watched all six episodes of the first series of Black Books. It remains as brilliant as ever. I love Fran (Tamsin Greig), I adore Manny Bianco (a sublime Bill Bailey), but both are put in the shade by Bernard, as played by the sitcom’s creator Dylan Moran.
Bernard is vile. He’s a rude, arrogant, elitist, filthy, chain smoking alcoholic. But, and this is the inspired brilliance of the character, he’s no idiot, and Moran’s cheeky, almost boyish charm renders him utterly likeable throughout all three seasons of the best sitcom of the last decade. And that’s no mean feat, as any students of quality comedy will know.
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