Black Books (C4)

THE all-singing, all-dancing cash till in Goliath Books does everything except go to the toilet for you. But, having said that, it does monitor the toilet visits of employees - "and scans your retina every 80 seconds".

Shop manager Evan, who doesn't see staff as workers but team members, points out that the till also operates shutters, lights and even serves up muffins.

"Some might call it invasive, we like to think it shows we care," he told new worker Manny.

Manny, who looks like the unmade bed out of which he has just climbed, is not impressed. He's missing his former colleague Bernard in the way you miss a raging toothache or Linda Barker's furniture advertisements.

The pair had fallen out and Manny had left Black Books - that's a book shop for the uninitiated - for greener pastures. The only question being asked as the new series began was: how long before he returns to his old job?

I confess that Black Books had passed me by. Call it dereliction of duty or the wish to have an early night for a change, but I'd never seen it. After watching the first of the third and, it's hinted, final series, I'll be making a regular date.

New comedies that work are few and far between - although the BBC does persist, even if that means bringing back Wild West by unpopular demand - so Black Books is the exception to the rule.

Bernard, who runs Black Books, and Manny parted company after an incident with a toaster and a hand (Bernard's). The third side of the triangle, Fran, returned to find the two parted by a wall with only a peephole (achieved by removing a brick in the partition) between Black Books and Goliath Books.

Navigating her way through piles and piles of books, not to mention a dead badger, Fran tried to persuade Bernard to patch things up. He was too busy cleaning his teeth with a floor brush washed out in a pot of cold tea to notice.

He's not a chap who cares much about the niceties of life. Or Manny, at this point in time. "He's half Iago, half Fu Manchu, all bastard," he said, washing down mouthfuls of slug pellets with oven cleaner (don't try that at home, children).

Fran told him that "you can't survive on the mushrooms in your hair" but Bernard had a nibble of one and wasn't convinced.

Manny had his own food problems. One of Goliath Books' "valued younger customers" had blocked the toilet with Monster Munch, and Evan gave his team member a bucket and told him to clean it up.

There's only so much he can take. When Evan demanded that he cut his hair, it was the final straw. We left the threesome back together, ensuring more bookish humour next week performed by the appealing trio of Dylan Moran (who also co-writes), Bill Bailey and Tamsin Greig