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Gordon Brittas is the manager of Whibury New Town Leisure
Centre. He means well and wants to be a good manager, unfortunately
his only real talent is the ability to cause total mayhem...
It's
amazing to think that the first series of The Brittas Empire
was originally broadcast way back at the start of 1991.
Actually, no. It's more amazing to think that the series managed
to run for eight years. It's not that The Brittas Empire
is really bad - well, that's part of the problem - but it
also doesn't help that the show hasn't aged very well. There
are enough homophobic, sexist and racist jokes (well one of
each exactly) to make people tut in these enlightened times.
You
can see how this was originally pitched - "Fawlty
Towers in a leisure centre". The six episodes are
a little like a cross between Fawlty Towers and Hi-De-Hi
(if you can imagine how truly horrendous that would be).
The visual gags are too in your face, and you can see them
coming a mile off. I still love to sit and watch repeats of
Fawlty Towers, but The Brittas Empire is a lot
harder to swallow and I doubt I'll be rewatching this collection.
It's
a shame that Chris Barrie is constantly typecast as an annoying
twonk! We already know, after his appearance as Ace Rimmer
in Red Dwarf, that he can play cool and dashing hero
types but his career seems to be littered with stereotypical
no hopers (Red Dwarf, Prince Among Men and even
his role as Lara's Butler in the Tomb Raider movie
has him playing a watered down Rimmer.) The acting from the
majority of the other actors is also quite poor - with only
Barrie, Philippa Haywood, Michael Burns and Julia St John
turning in credible performances.
Sadly,
Eureka Video has not done this release any favours by omitting
to include any real extras of merit. There isn't even the
obligatory commentary track. All we get is a very weak fitness
quiz, a text biography of Chris Barrie and a very poor Royal
Variety Performance appearance by the Brittas Empire
cast. Ok, you get all six episodes for £20, but fans
will have been expecting more. Five
out of the six episodes included here have never been released
before - which I suppose is a bonus!
I
very much doubt that Gordon Brittas would describe this release
as: "Semper Omnibus Facultas".
Darren
Rea
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