Mr. Benson (or simply Benson) is a cat and the landlord of the bookshop Black Books and the entire building in which it is situated. He lives in the flat above the shop and was left it by Ms. Hanley, presumably his owner. He now lives in the flat, which greatly annoys Bernard Black, his tenant and the bookshop owner who lives beneath him.
Biography
Mr. Benson was presumably the cat of Ms. Hanley. After her death, Mr. Benson inherited the flat and thus became the landlord of the shop below, which greatly annoyed its owner, Bernard Black.
Bernard was greatly annoyed that a cat is charging him rent, and the fact that he stole a biscuit which he was planning on giving Jason, a charming travel writer. He plots to assassinate Mr. Benson with the help of Roland, an exterminator. However, Roland turns out to love animals, and only kills vermin and would never harm a cat.
Bernard soon sees a way around this problem and offers him £1000 to get the job done. Roland accepts and they both stake out Mr. Benson's flat, waiting for him to appear, armed with a shotgun. However, when Mr. Benson does appear, Roland cannot bring himself to pull the trigger and instead jumps out of the window.
Bernard then takes the matter into his own hands and tries to shoot Mr. Benson himself, however, misses. The noise attracts the attention of Fran Katzenjammer and Manny Bianco, friends of Bernard, who rush to investigate. They force him to stop shooting blindly for the cat and convince him to go back downstairs to the shop. When they do so, Bernard spots the cat again and fires, however, Manny steps in front of the bullet, severely injuring himself.
It is unknown what happened to Mr. Benson after this, however, it is likely he remained in the flat above Bernard, despite Bernard's protests.
Behind the scenes
Mr. Benson's favourite sleeping place is in the bread bin in his flat.
