The Brittas Empire-Series 1 (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Menu Audio Biographies-Cast-Chris Barrie Quiz-Brittas Fitness Quiz Notes-Management Notice Board Gallery-Photo Featurette-Royal Variety Performance Sketch Trailer-Series Two
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	171:14 (Case: 175)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (3:28)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mike Stephens
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Chris Barrie Phillippa Haywood Julie St John Michael Burns Russell Porter Tim Marriott Jill Greenacre Harriet Thorpe
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Frank Renton Chrissy Monk Martin Kempton

    I loved this series when it was shown on the ABC some years ago, and watched it religiously. I am a great fan of English comedy in general, and this is one of my favourites.

    The Brittas Empire was originally aired by the BBC in early 1991, and the first season consisted of the six episodes to be found on this disc. I was slightly surprised that the first series only included such a small number of episodes but there were definitely only six made in the first run. Since then a total of 8 series have been made and one special. The last series aired on the BBC in 1997.

    The Brittas Empire is set in a newly built leisure centre in the English town of Whitbury-Newtown. A leisure centre, by the way, is a sporting complex run by the local council which provides facilities such as swimming pools, squash courts, tennis courts and the like. The first episode begins when the centre has not yet been opened and is still being finished. A new manager has been appointed to run the centre. His name is Gordon Brittas (Chris Barrie, best known as Rimmer in Red Dwarf) and he is the worst person who could possibly have been chosen to run anything. Gordon is annoying, condescending and completely lacking in tact, diplomacy or empathy. Despite this he approaches everything with an enthusiasm and drive which is impossible to fault. He wants desperately to do this right thing, he is just completely incapable of it.

    Other permanent characters include

• Brittas' long-suffering wife, Helen (Philippa Haywood),
• Assistant Manager-Dry, the professional and capable Laura (Julia St John),
• Assistant Manager-Wet, the always injured and sick Colin (Michael Burns)
• Staff Member Tim (Russell Porter) who is gay but in the closet
• Staff Member Gavin (Tim Marriott) who is Tim's lover
• Staff Member Linda (Jill Greenacre)
• Receptionist Carole (Harriett Thorpe) whose husband has left her and who brings her baby to work.

    This show is extremely funny and well written and the cast play their roles brilliantly, especially Chris Barrie. It could possibly be described as a cross between Fawlty Towers and The Office, both of which feature managers who should not be allowed to run a chook raffle. Gordon's point of difference is his absolute belief that he does everything for the benefit of the centre, its staff and patrons.

    The episodes included in the first series are as follows (incidentally, these episodes were not originally given names, so none are included here)

• Episode 1 - Gordon's first day in a new town and as manager of the new leisure centre. In the space of the day he manages to annoy his new neighbour, his own children, his wife, the staff, the local councillor and the builders finishing the centre. One of these people attempts to kill him.
• Episode 2 - Gordon is expecting the visit of a Duchess to officially open the centre but everything goes wrong including the swimming pool, the electric entry doors and the boiler which heats the centre. Gordon's efforts to fix things only make them worse.
• Episode 3 - Gordon is concerned about the high absentee rate amongst the staff and decides to give them a pep talk. Meanwhile his wife is having an affair and he is completely oblivious. Also, Carole's baby goes missing and she goes berserk with an axe.
• Episode 4 - Gordon is interviewing potential staff to replace those who have left. The local scuba club decide to have a wedding in the pool which does not go according to plan. It is also Gordon & Helen's wedding anniversary.
• Episode 5 - Gordon closes the centre because he believes the staff have been stealing. He makes Colin hide in a locker to uncover the thief. Helen gets very depressed because the man she has been having an affair with doesn't want to see her any more and she sees a doctor to refill her Prozac prescription.
• Episode 6 - Gordon is concerned about the dipping attendance figures and decides to have a campaign to attract people to the centre. Also, someone is stalking him, trying to kill him.

    All of these episodes are hysterically funny and even though I had seen them before, I found myself laughing a great deal.

    If you enjoy British comedy such as Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf or The Office and have not seen this series it is definitely worth a look. If you are a big fan of the series, I am sure you will consider purchasing this disc unless you have already bought it from overseas.

Video

    The video quality is poor mostly due to the age of the footage.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout however it contained some light grain and was a little soft. There was no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was poor with many colour issues. Generally the colours were a bit dull, however, the issue here is the colour artefacts. Some areas of the picture have a strange red tint and others were over bright. This did not apply to the whole screen but rather parts of it. This was worse in the earlier episodes. One example of the red is at 2:20 in Episode 2. There was also chroma noise in brighter colours such as the green used on the walls of the leisure centre interior. There was also some colour bleeding especially of lighter colours. There is also a green line around Brittas' head at 2:30 in Episode 5.

    In addition to the abovementioned colour artefacts there was also some quite noticeable edge enhancement such as around the hat at 20:14 in Episode 1 and some tape tracking errors here and there.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 3:28 in Episode 4 and was not too bad. It's a shame that with so many separate titles on the disc that they could find a way to put the layer change between episodes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine but mono.

    This DVD contains one audio option, a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand, which is obviously the most important factor in the audio for a dialogue based comedy series.

    The theme song of this series fits well with Gordon Brittas. It is annoying.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is well designed including motifs and photos from the series and the theme music. It is simple to use.

Biography - Chris Barrie

    A text biography of star Chris Barrie which focuses on his television work in the UK. About 5 pages.

Brittas Fitness Quiz

    Moderately difficult trivia quiz about the show, which gives you a fitness rating depending upon how many questions you get right.

Management Notice Board

    3 text pages of fairly uninteresting trivia and a weblink.

Picture Gallery

    15 stills from the show and behind the scenes.

Royal Variety Performance Sketch (3:07)

    A live sketch by the entire cast of the show at the Royal Variety Performance. You can tell it is written by different people than the show, as it is not very funny. It is interesting to watch but I can't see you rushing back.

Series 2 Trailer (0:54)

    Scenes from the second series, with music.

    This series is available in Region 2 with the same episodes and extras, however it is spread over two single layered discs rather than on a double layer disc. The Region 2 reviews that I have read do not note the colour issues I have mentioned above. (22/8/04 I have been notified by someone that owns the disc that the Region 2 edition has the same colour issues) It does not seem to be available in Region 1 at this stage.

    The video quality is poor but considering that this is television footage from 1991, I would consider it acceptable.

    The audio quality is fine for the purpose.

    The disc has a selection of extras which seem to rely on quantity instead of quality.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall