Walking through Bloomsbury in central London last week, I realised I was just round the corner from Black Books. Me and Kevin wrote eight episodes of the sitcom over 2002 and 2003. Although the interior of the Bernard’s shop was a purpose built set in a studio in Teddington, with a studio audience sat on one side (a detail often missing from real bookshops), the exterior was that of a real bookshop: Collinge and Clark, 13 Leigh Street, London, WC 1. I hadn’t walked down that street in years. Time to pay a visit.

I recently read a terrifying fact in the Daily Telegraph: the number of bookshops in the UK has halved since 2006. Halved. As someone who has written sitcom set in a bookshop, and who makes a lot of his living from things sold in bookshops, I’m very attached to the places. Not just little musty ones, but great big ones too. In 2003 we wrote an episode guest starring Simon Pegg as the manager of a super–efficient book retailer, clearly modelled on Borders, which opened right next door to Black Books. Back then, that’s what the future looked like. In 2011 Borders is no more. Was it realistic to hope that Collinge and Clark would survive?

There it was. Still, an’ antiquarian’ bookseller. One glance at the window display reassured me that yes, that just meant second hand. Behind a desk, underneath wood covered walls remarkably similar to the ones we had on the set, a man sat doing nothing in particular except wearing glasses. I tried to enter the shop: the door was locked. Oh well, I thought, and carried on down the road.

Seconds later the man peeped out of the door.
– Oh, you are open then? I said.
– Well, yes…
It was like I had just asked him an open-ended philosophical question.
– You sound unsure, I said.
He pondered for a couple of seconds, then decided.
– Okay, yeah. We are open.
Suspecting by this time that he really didn’t want me there, I went round the corner to Judd Books where the door was definitively 100% open. However, I left Leigh Street greatly heartened. Not only had Collinge and Clark made it into 2011, but they were still carrying on in a highly Black Books way, locking customers out in the middle of a working Monday. Maybe that’s the way bookshops will survive. How can you close down what does not open?

– – – – –

If you want to visit this great little bookshop, hopefully when it’s open, here’s a link for more information:

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1277/3340.php

Big night tonight…mine and Kevin’s sitcom The Great Outdoors is repeated on BBC2 at 10 PM. It’s only been on BBC four so far, so this is its first outing on one of the terrestrial channels.

It’s about a group of ramblers, centring around a battle of wills for the control of the group between Christine (played by Ruth Jones) and Bob (played by Mark Heap). It’s full of jokes, punch-ups, hate and love.

Also in the cast are Katherine Parkinson, best known as Jen in the IT crowd, Steve Edge who was in Phoenix Nights, Stephen Wight, Gwyneth Keyworth and Joe Tracini. Mark Heap was in Spaced and Green Wing of course, and I probably don’t need to remind you that Ruth Jones was Ness in Gavin and Stacey. It’s quite a cast.

Because it started off as a BBC for thing,there’s just three episodes so far, so it will be on for another two weeks after this. Hopefully, the BBC will letters make some more.

A rabbit does appear in episode one… Not committing suicide, but doing something else… You’ll have to watch and see. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done; I love it dearly.

Surprised and delighted when the Bunny Suicides got a mention in Peep Show on Friday night. For those outside the UK, it’s a sitcom which has more or less set the standard for the rest of we sitcom writers for last few years. Jeremy (played by Robert Webb) goes to a book group, but it turns out the only two things he’s ever read are Mr. Nice and Bunny Suicides.

I know Sam, Jesse and Simon who write the show – British sitcom writing is not a large world – and apparently they were a bit worried I’d take offence but quite the opposite, I’m honoured.

You can see the episode here if you’re in the UK… not sure if it works abroad. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od