The Brittas Empire
The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie plays Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. The show ran for seven series and 53 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show. The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained itself large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom poll, and all series have been released on DVD. The creators Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen often combine farce with either surreal or dramatic elements in episodes. For example in the first series, the leisure centre prepares for a royal visit, only for the doors to seal, the boiler room to flood and a visitor to become electrocuted. Unlike the traditional sitcom, deaths were quite common in The Brittas Empire.
Seasons
1. Laying the Foundations
Air Date: 1991-01-03
Gordon Brittas is the manager at Whitbury Leisure Centre. Builders are working in the car-park but Gordon is very rude to one of them and they go on strike. He causes more trouble when he upsets one of the staff and he's in for it when he is having a meeting with the staff.
2. Opening Day
Air Date: 1991-01-10
It's Opening Day at Whitbury Leisure Centre and Gordon is getting ready to meet the Duchess of Kent. But things are going wrong when the electric doors aren't working properly and the water from the swimming pool is disappearing and the temperature rises. Will Gordon sort it all out before the Duchess of Kent arrives?
3. Bye Bye Baby
Air Date: 1991-01-24
Carole has heard that her husband Derek is coming back, after abandoning her. After all these years she will not have to work, Ben will have a father and she will feel much better. Meanwhile her baby goes missing and reception is getting crowded. Gordon tells Colin to find the baby and return it. Unfortunately Colin ends up returning the wrong baby. Then Gordon thinks he's helping a man who has suffered from stress. Will everything go right?
4. Underwater Wedding
Air Date: 1991-01-31
While doing an interview with Beverly, Gordon realises that the best man at the underwater wedding taking place in the pool is in trouble. Gavin is asked to help and then a drunk disabled man in an electric wheelchair is on the loose causing havoc. Gordon is ready to stop the drunkard but ends up sending Gavin to hospital.
5. Stop Thief!
Air Date: 1991-02-07
Things have gone missing and Gordon has closed the centre for the day. He explains that there could be a thief about and sets a trap to catch him. The plan is to hide in a locker and see who takes the bait (his wallet). Meanwhile Helen is suffering more stress then ever and takes Gordon to see the doctor, leaving Colin to hide in the locker. As long as Gordon remembers he's left Colin in there!
6. Assassin
Air Date: 1991-02-14
Someone is out to kill Gordon, injuring Helen by accident after sabotaging Gordon's brakes, and wants Gavin to help him with the foul deed. Gordon and a few others are taken to the hospital's intensive care unit, badly injured by a lorry hitting Gordon as he walked across a zebra crossing.
1. Back from the Dead
Air Date: 1992-01-02
Gordon is away at a conference in Bulgaria. Meanwhile the Leisure Centre is low on visitors, then news spreads that Gordon is dead. Everyone is happy and the centre is pouring with visitors. All goes well until Gordon returns which shocks everyone, especially Carole who thinks Gordon is back from the dead.
2. Temple of the Body
Air Date: 1992-01-09
Gordon explains to the staff about worshipping other people's temples - his euphemism for the human body. He then finds a cupboard is being slept in when finding a duvet cover sticking out, then Gavin's hat turns up. Gordon tells Tim, who gets cross when he thinks Gavin is sleeping in the centre with someone. Gordon decides to find out what Gavin is up to and lays a bug in Linda's top so he can listen in. But Gordon is shocked at who is actually using the cupboard.
3. An Inspector Calls
Air Date: 1992-01-16
An inspector is coming over and Gordon wants everything to be as good as gold for when he gets to the Leisure Centre. However, Gordon then has to deal with a pigeon in the gymnasium. Ideas to remove it go from bad to worse. It's also Helen's birthday and Gordon has bought her a moped, about which she is far from thrilled. What will happen when the inspector makes his inspection?
4. Set in Concrete
Air Date: 1992-01-23
An argument with the Rotary Club results in them setting Gordon's feet in concrete. After frequent arguments break out, Gordon thinks the centre has sick building syndrome. A specialist arrives, and Laura is tasked with explaining to Gordon that he is the cause of the centre's problems. Laura proceeds to explain subtext and tone of voice to Gordon, after which he decides to return the moped bought for Helen and buy her a car instead, to her delight.
5. Mums and Dads
Air Date: 1992-01-30
A concert is to be held at Whitbury Leisure Centre. Also, Gordon's dad Jim has come to the centre with a piano. But Gordon is expecting a grand piano, which is going to be havoc getting through to the gymnasium. Petrov, who is going to be performing, then encounters a problem when Jim drops his piano from the stairs. Who will perform now?
6. Safety First
Air Date: 1992-02-13
Gordon is running a practice fire drill and makes it more complicated than ever. Meanwhile, Helen is planning a picnic in Gordon's office and wants him there. Gordon tries to convince Councillor Dapping of the need for a new fire escape by describing an extreme scenario. Dapping isn't convinved, but could Gordon's example prove prophetic?
7. New Generations
Air Date: 1992-02-20
A pregnant cow loose in the centre eats some of Colin's leaves, which speed up labour. It gives birth on the squash courts, assisted by a gynaecologist. Carole has also eaten some of the leaves, and her twins are delivered by the vet who had come to assist the bovine mother-to-be. Helen tells Laura that she is pregnant with twins and although Carole was too worse for wear to know the father of her twins, Helen does!
1. The Trial
Air Date: 1993-01-07
One of Gordon's enemies is coating random items with glue, and shady characters repeatedly appear in the centre. This leads to a massacre of several Bolivian drug dealers in the squash courts, the felling of several OAPs, and Gordon facing trial for drug running and multiple murders. Could Gordon's influence upon one of the criminals be enough to save his own skin?
2. That Creeping Feeling
Air Date: 1993-01-14
Offended by Gordon's "individual figure and fitness targets", the staff refuse to speak to him; his diplomatic response is to bring in a psychiatrist to check staff anxiety levels. The psychiatrist tells Gordon that he is the cause of his staff's stress. A deadly tropical spider bites Colin and Gordon sucks out the poison. Considering where the bite was, the staff can't fail having a new-found respect.
3. Laura's Leaving
Air Date: 1993-01-21
Laura has an interview for manager of a leisure centre in London. Helen is worried that without Laura, she'll be unable to cope. A man is trying to get a cup of coffee with ever-increasing angst. A concussed Colin is sent to adjust the heating in the pool, leading to the electrocution of church members performing baptisms. Havoc escalates, including Carole getting fired. Will serenity prevail when Laura decides to return?
4. Two Little Boys
Air Date: 1993-01-28
Gordon's brother, Reverend Horatio Brittas, visits for the centre's anniversary celebrations, and 36 staff from a Guildford leisure centre visit for their annual staff outing, intent upon making Gordon the focus of their amusement. The oil tank is leaking so Colin decides to store the oil in the weights room. What could go wrong?
5. Sex, Lies and Red Tape
Air Date: 1993-02-04
Laura's estranged husband, Michael T. Farrell, arrives at the centre two and a half years after the couple split up. He wants her to have his child, because being a father is a condition of his inheriting his family's fortune. Gordon is unhappy and endeavours to get rid of him, despite being on a sponsored silence. He is horrified to learn that Helen is about to be charged with shoplifting and that she had been convicted of the same crime several times before she met him. The staff are interested in the draft of a novel that Carole has written.
6. The Stuff of Dreams
Air Date: 1993-02-11
Troubled by dreams about his own mortality and his legacy, Gordon is pushing age awareness and disguises himself as an elderly man as an experiment, resulting in a fight with a pensioner in reception. Helen goes into labour early and wants Laura to drive her to hospital, but Gordon is behind the wheel. After the pensioner from reception accidentally drives into Gordon's car at low speed, medical students come to Helen's aid in Whitbury High Street.
1. Not a Good Day...
Air Date: 1994-01-10
It's Life Cycle Week at Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre and Sebastian Coe MP has come to broadcast the news. Then trouble ensues when a cyclist dies, naturally upsetting his wife; and young Ben makes his way into the vents, with Carole and Helen trying to get him out. Then a centurion has a fight with Gordon because his son has been arrested, which escalates to the Classical War Society starting war against the entire centre.
2. The Christening
Air Date: 1994-01-17
Gordon and Helen are having their twins baptised. The rehearsal goes wrong and Carole ruins the christening cake - but can she disguise it? Meanwhile Horatio tells Gordon he's in love with a girl he has met, then the babies go missing. Will the christening go as planned?
3. Biggles Tells a Lie
Air Date: 1994-01-24
It's Gordon's day off and Colin has dressed like Brittas, pretending to be manager. Colin's daughter Stephanie is coming to see her father. Everyone agrees to play along and soon everything is running well - until Gordon turns up!
4. Mr Brittas Changes Trains
Air Date: 1994-01-31
Things are getting rather strange at Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre. Carole seems to be croaking a lot while talking, Linda does nothing but bark about a lot and keeps talking in dog language and Colin keeps telling everyone that he loves them and keeps taking his trousers off. All of this is making Gordon very cross so he decides to call the hypnotist and put everyone back to normal. This then gets Laura thinking.
5. Playing With Fire
Air Date: 1994-02-07
Gordon is doing a survey on how much electricity is being used and writes out a lot of forms for the staff. Colin meanwhile does an experiment which involves using the lavatories. Then Gavin gets a big shock when his old girlfriend Jenny comes to the centre to see him, but it comes as a surprise to Gordon which really upsets Tim a lot. Then Gavin tells the secret to Laura and to everyone and then realises that she came from a clinic. It also comes to a shock when he finds out she isn't cured. Then Gordon gets things out of control when he makes Jenny very angry.
6. Shall We Dance?
Air Date: 1994-02-14
Gordon seems to be spending a lot of time with Laura while Helen and the children are on holiday. Everyone thinks that there is something going on between Gordon and Laura. Gordon is planning to take Laura to the dance which is being held at the centre. Then Laura's ex-husband Michael unexpectedly turns up and it looks like he wants to see Laura. Gordon gets very cross and thinks that things might go wrong with his plans. What will happen?
7. The Chop
Air Date: 1994-02-28
Gordon is teaching the staff how to play the 'Game of Life' which actually is a real game. Then Councillor Drugget arrives to the centre and tells Gordon that he is going to be given the sack. Gordon is cross and ignores him, then Councillor Drugget finds out that Helen borrowed £300 pounds for a dog that then causes trouble around the centre. Now Gordon has to choose: either he quits his job or Helen goes to jail.
8. High Noon
Air Date: 1994-03-07
One day Laura arrives at a gas station and discovers that Gordon is now working there. He is causing more trouble then ever and is holding up lots of people. Meanwhile the new manager Alan Digby is having trouble when Gordon gets on his nerves. Gordon has brought a present for the staff, a clock which came all the way from Italy. Then a gas leak is found and then there's a large explosion which brings the entire centre down. Everyone is clear but Gordon is no where to be seen, Could this be the last of Gordon Brittas?
1. Back with a Bang
Air Date: 1996-02-27
After being crushed to death Gordon Brittas has been returned to earth by St. Peter and rebuilt at a Swiss clinic. He returns a day early and misses the red carpet welcome prepared by his staff.
2. Body Language
Air Date: 1996-03-12
Gordon tries to explain benefits of matching and mirroring body language. Colin suspects alien invasion when a green block of ice crashes through the roof, and Helen mistakenly sells the house to a member of the U.S. military
3. At the Double
Air Date: 1996-03-26
Gordon invites members of the Ruthenian State Circus to perform at the center. A group of US evangelists want to baptize Gordon in the pool after reading of his coming back from the dead. (
4. A Walk on the Wild Side
Air Date: 1996-04-02
Brittas proves he's not always a walking disaster when his new campaign becomes a European Directive
5. We All Fall Down
Air Date: 1996-04-09
Whitbury is celebrating World Peace and Hunger Day, Helen plans revenge on a nappy co that didn't use her children in a TV commercial and Tim discovers the rest of the staff earn more than him...
6. Mr. Brittas Falls in Love
Air Date: 1996-04-16
Tonight Mr. Brittas falls in love. He believes that swimming with a dolphin at the leisure center will bring peace, relaxation and happiness to all the inhabitants
7. Snap Happy
Air Date: 1996-04-23
When Brittas tries to organize a simple staff photograph, what can possibly go wrong? Last in present series.
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Rating
6.6/10
Release Date
1991-01-03
Episodes
50 (7 seasons)
Status
Ended
