Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

RaspberryLucozade Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris' 'The Brittas Empire' ran on the BBC for nearly ten years, yet is barely remembered now. Reasons as to why are unclear. Whatever the reason, it is a shame as 'The Brittas Empire' was one of the finest sitcoms the '90's ever produced. Chris Barrie had became a household name as the grotesque hologram technician Arnold Rimmer in Rob Grant & Doug Naylor's 'Red Dwarf' in the '80's. It was in 1991 that he landed the role as Gordan Brittas, the smarmy manager of Whitbury Newtown Lesuire Centre.Brittas, though deep down a well-meaning and optimistic person, is a snob and generally tends to put his actions forward before thinking them through properly. He has a receptionist in the shape of Carole, a homeless manic depressive who keeps her son Ben in a drawer behind the desk. Other characters include Gordan's neurotic wife Helen, deputy Laura Lancing, unhygienic handyman Colin and Brittas' snidey secretary Julie.Barrie is outstanding as Brittas. Many have unfavourably likened him to David Brent from 'The Office'. Nonsense, the characters are poles apart. For one, Brittas' was deep down a good person who just didn't think. Brent, on the other hand, was a bully and a braggart. Barrie played Brittas in such a way that it made him likable. Harriet Thorpe, Julia St. John and Pippa Haywood, three of the most beautiful women ever to grace a television screen also impressed, as did Mike Burns who as Colin made you want to clamp a clothes peg over your nose whenever you watched him.One of my favourite moments had Brittas being unable to move after having his feet stuck in cement, prompting one of his staff to remark: ''If we put you in a pair of shorts, we'll all be set for a game of Subbuteo!''. Fegen and Norris' clever scripts combined traditional sitcom with black comedy and slapstick - swimmers got electrocuted, old people had the supports of their walking frames sawn off and an old man went crashing through a window in a mobility scooter.It outstayed its welcome, unfortunately ( it should have ended after series five when Brittas was allegedly killed by a falling water tank ) but all the same it was an excellent show and a re-run is long overdue.

jon-1086 If you have never seen the Brittas Empire I wish I was you because I'd love to laugh at it again for the first time. Chris Barrie brilliantly represents the kind of officious but well-meaning twerp that the world is now infested with, believing in the words of his wife that he is the oil that greases the machine, when really he is a big bag of grit. I think you can see his influence elsewhere with Alan Partridge and David Brent just a couple of characters with a bit of Brittas in them.The other characters are well represented with the permanently afflicted Colin and his pill-popping wife standing out in particular. The episode in which Brittas closes the Leisure Centre in order to find a stolen £5 note and imprisons the near-incontinent Colin in a locker to catch the culprit unawares is a particular favourite.Some of the later episodes are a bit weaker but the writers on the whole do a good job of thinking up ways for Brittas to inflict misery on the staff and patrons of Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre.It is a shame we don't see a lot of Chris Barrie these days as he has obvious talent as a comic actor as well as an impressionist.

Emberweave The Brittas Empire is one of my favorite Britcoms. I've never understood why it hasn't been given more attention in the US. It's much, much funnier than Are You Being Served? yet is still unknown here. I had to buy a region-free DVD player & order from amazon.uk so I could watch the show. It's worth the effort and price. Chris Barrie is hysterical as Gordon Brittas,the man you'd like to punch five minutes after meeting him. All the actors play their parts so well. Harriet Thorpe is consistently a riot as the flustered receptionist Carole. So is Julie the cranky secretary who joins the cast in Series 2. Pippa Haywood hopefully won lots of British Emmys for her excellent portrayal of Gordon's addled wife. Even the supporting players had clearly defined characters. Linda was eager to please and a theological student with a weaponry fetish. Tim & Gavin were the gay couple dealing with Tim's hysteria and dislike of management and Gavin's desire to advance in his career by becoming management. Yet they managed to stay together. And as others have said, the character Laura was the calm center of this hurricane. No matter how bizarre a turn events took during an episode, there was still one foot grounded in reality. The character of Laura had a lot to do with that as well as the skill of the writers. For the first five series this show is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, while managing at times to be very tender and explore the characters a little more deeply. When series six began, Laura was gone as were the original writers. And from the very start the show sucks. The new writers just didn't seem to get it. The show lost its heart. I think the series could have survived the departure of Laura if the original writers had remained. The new writers focused only on chaos and not the warmth underneath. Suddenly there is a LOT of angry yelling going on for almost the entire time. The new character of Mrs. Bidmeade adds nothing to the show, through no fault of the actress. I read once that the original writers said that one main rule was that the chaos must always emanate from Gordon Brittas. No wacky characters coming into the center to create chaos. The new writers ignored that. In one episode some weird cult from Chattanooga comes in to welcome Gordon into their fold and baptize him. They refer to him as "Mr. Bright Ass", which was funny the first time, but not the subsequent seventeen. Colin also becomes more bizarre and everyone just runs around yelling all the time. I was surprised it made a seventh series, but that just went on to prove the writers didn't care about the audience. Brief spoiler: The final episode has Gordon sitting on a bus headed for his new job at a leisure center. It turns out it was all a dream and he was simply imagining passengers on the bus as his staff.WHAT AN INSULT!! Never mind the technical issue of 'well where did Laura come from, she's not on the bus?' but this device is tired and clichéd and smacks of lazy writing. It is an insult to the fans who fell in love with these characters to have hack writers completely negate everything that happened before. It's also an insult to the original writers and all their hard work. Get series one-five and laugh your head off with wonderful characters and funny writing and don't waste your money on series six & seven.

Syl Brittas Empire is one of the funniest British comedies. My biggest regret is the relationship between Gordon and Laura, their unresolved feelings and mutual attraction. I would love for them to bring the show to America after Whitbury Leisure Center burns down. Gordon, Helen, Carol, and the children arrive in Los Angeles to run a run down hotel in Los Angeles, Brittas Hotel. In L.A., they run into newly divorced Laura and her son. Imagine Brittas running an American Los Angeles hotel which is one step away from condemnation. Now, imagine Brittas Hotel as a potential sitcom, the laughs would be endless and it would be a hit. Most people don't get the brilliance of such humor. I loved the cast members like Gavin, Tim, Colin, his disrespectful secretary that I understand more and more. The show always made you laugh enough till you cried. I can't wait for the DVD to be shown in America.