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.
The peaks and the valleys. Find the essential episodes — and the ones to skip.
Gordon's obsession with cleanliness and dealing properly with lost property interferes with an elaborate drug deal in the Leisure Centre, making him the target of suspicion and eventually a trial.
Gordon managed to annoy the Rotarians at a dinner to the extent that they set his feet in concrete. He enlists private consultant Graham Hanson's help to investigate if the constant aggravation in the Leisure Centre--no doubt his work--is the result of a syndrome attributed to the building, but he falls victim to Gordon's inverse Midas touch. Carole is horrified to discover a mouse--and worse, that her baby Ben prefers its company to hers. Laura manages to teach Gordon how to read between the lines of female 'considerate' responses; he sorts out the anniversary-gift fiasco, but he also assumes that Laura's advice also applies to men.
Gordon is most eager to depart to press his candidacy for a European Committee on the Leisure Industry at a dinner, but Helen, who tells Laura he always makes waiters so furious they throw food at them, has psychosomatically-blocked muscles and various staff members are programmed to make wacky responses to certain signals by a hypnotist. Gordon asks him to cure Helen, but when he also goes into a trance, Laura convinces the therapist to temporarily remove his need to change the world.
After a weird curse from a gypsy about fatal food, the staff is afraid to eat Gordon's self-baked cake to celebrate the Leisure Centre's seventh anniversary, especially after Gordon's friend Harold eats some kedgeree and dies; Helen and Carole figure out that Carole's twins were fathered by Gordon (believing he was with his wife when everyone was in costume at Julie's party); Councillor Jack Druggett happily reports that the municipal council voted that Gordon must go on early retirement, but dies himself after enjoying a biscuit in Gordon's office.
Each point is an episode, plotted in order. Colored bands mark season boundaries. Look for the rise, the plateau, or the decline.
High votes + high rating = beloved classic. High votes + low rating = notorious stinker. Low votes + high rating = hidden gem.
One point per season. Smooths out the episode-to-episode noise to reveal the bigger arc.
Did each season build or fizzle? Green means the finale outscored the premiere. Red means the opposite. Longer arrows, bigger swings.
How steady is each season? Tightly clustered dots mean reliable quality. Scattered dots mean a wild ride.
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