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Gordon Brittas is being hailed as national celebrity. He
has founded a charity, written a book and is being backed
by a national newspaper. He is looking forward to a recording
of Songs of Praise at the newly rebuilt Whitbury Leisure
Centre. Despite a series of accidents which lead him to believe
that a serial killer may be on the loose, Gordon is determined
that the show must go on...
The Brittas Empire becomes increasingly plot-driven
as it enters what should really have been its final series.
Gordon (Chris Barrie) is persuaded to put himself forward
for the role of EU Commissioner for Sport, which means - much
to the delight of most of the staff, apart from the devoted
Colin (Michael Burns) - that Brittas will be leaving. This
development is what propels the whole series forward.
In
Brussels Calling, Gordon goes for an interview in Belgium,
leaving Laura (Julia St John) in charge, yet somehow disasters
still seem to happen, even when Brittas isn't around. In Blind
Devotion, The Lies Have It and throughout the second
half of the series, Gavin (Tim Marriott) climbs the greasy
pole of the management structure, much to the disgust of his
boyfriend Tim (Russell Porter). The final two episodes, UXB
and The Last Day, the latter of which I found genuinely
moving, deal with the respective departures of Carole (Harriet
Thorpe) and Gordon - but will Brittas really leave?
Interestingly,
Chris Barrie has appeared in two television episodes called
The Last Day, because this was also the title of the
final instalment of Red
Dwarf's
third series.
Another
interesting (maybe) sci-fi parallel involves the Christmas
special, In the Beginning..., which is included among
the special features. Involving a flash-forward to the year
2019, by which point the characters we know and love are all
decades older, this show reminds me of the final episode of
Babylon 5, Sleeping in Light, which flashed
forward to the year 2281, by which point the characters we
know and love were all decades older. Like Sleeping in
Light, In the Beginning... features a "future"
appearance of a main female character (Laura) who would actually
be absent from the show during subsequently produced episodes.
The
only other extra features are the usual web link and a photo
gallery. On the presentation front, the end credits to Blind
Devotion are interrupted by stray frames from The Lies
Have It, which makes for rather confusing and distracting
viewing.
However, that technical glitch aside, there's little to fault
this nine-episode cluster of classics.
Richard
McGinlay
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