The Brittas Empire-Series 2 (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Quiz-Brittas Mental Fitness Featurette-'Good Morning' Interview DVD-ROM Extras-Barrie's Bulletin Board Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast-Pippa Haywood
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	203:47 (Case: 220)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (21:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Mike Stephens
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Chris Barrie Julia St John Phillipa Haywood 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

    ...And so the saga of Gordon Brittas continues.

    The Brittas Empire was originally aired by the BBC in early 1991, and this second season was first shown in early 1992. This series includes seven episodes, one more than the first series. The last and eighth series aired on the BBC in 1997.

    The Brittas Empire is set in a 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 manager's 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 the right thing, but he is just completely incapable of it. He is completely convinced that everything he does is for the benefit of his staff, family and leisure centre.

    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.

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

• Episode 1 - Gordon is away and people are actually attending the centre. Helen comes in to tell the staff of a terrible accident which has killed Gordon in Bulgaria. But is he really dead? Good episode.
• Episode 2 - Carol is pregnant but does not want Brittas to find out. Brittas implements new rules to avoid having male & female staff alone together at night as he is worried that hanky panky is occurring. Helen makes Gordon attend marriage counselling. The best of this series.
• Episode 3 - The Southern Areas Inspector is visiting and Gordon is even more officious than usual. He buys Helen a birthday present which does not go down very well. They have serious bird problems in the gym. Another good episode.
• Episode 4 - Due to his annoying personality, Gordon has been set in concrete by a group of Rotarians. He thinks that the problems are due to Sick Building Syndrome and gets an expert in. Carol's baby makes friends with a mouse. The Sick Building plot is pretty lame, however the last 8 minutes or so are great.
• Episode 5 - A concert is to be held in the gymnasium played by a famous Russian Pianist, however he soon works out that the leisure centre might be a dangerous place for him. Gordon's father visits unannounced and Laura begins to understand what may have caused Gordon's personality. An OK but not great episode.
• Episode 6 - Gordon gets very concerned about the 86% casualty rate during a fire drill and decides to close the centre for three days for more drills. He also wants the council to improve fire exits. Helen is trying to get off the drugs by getting closer to Gordon. Good episode.
• Episode 7 - A farmer breaks down in the carpark with his pregnant prize-winning cow. Carol is also getting very near term. Colin unknowingly gives Carol a labour inducing herb and the cow also manages to get some. Gordon arranges medical support but it all gets a little mixed up. The parentage of Carol's new baby becomes clear.

    It should be noted that episodes 5 & 6 have their descriptions reversed on the case. They are shown in the right order on the disc - the case is wrong.

    To my mind the quality of the writing dipped in this second series with some of the episodes lacking the great laughs of the first series. There are still some excellent episodes but it is not quite up to the standard of Series 1.

    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, but start with Series 1. If you are a big fan of the series, I am sure you will consider purchasing this disc.

Video

    The video quality is significantly better than Series 1 and I would rate it as good.

    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 better than Series 1 but still not spectacular. Generally the colours were a bit dull, however, there are also some colour artefacts. There was some chroma noise in brighter colours such as reds. There was also some cross colourisation to be seen especially on striped shirts and jackets. Faces were also somewhat pale.

    In addition to the abovementioned colour artefacts there was also some edge enhancement and some minor aliasing such as on the skirt in Episode 5 at 5:00.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 21:00 in Episode 4 and caused a significant pause. It was also badly placed during a line of dialogue.
    

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 this time mimicking the layout of the leisure centre. It is quite simple to use.

Brittas Mental Fitness Quiz

    A moderately difficult trivia quiz about the show which gives you a rating depending upon how many questions you get right. The questions are different each time.

Good Morning - Interview (4:23)

    A segment from a UK morning television show where they go behind the scenes on the set of the show. Obviously from a more recent series than this one and including short interviews with cast members.

Barrie's Bulletin Board

    A weblink to a bulletin board which would not work on my PC.

Picture Gallery

    10 stills from the show.

Pippa Haywood Biography

    A text bio of the actress who plays Helen Brittas.

    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 one double layered disc. It does not seem to be available in Region 1 at this stage.

    The video quality is better than Series 1 but is still nothing special.

    The audio quality is fine for the purpose.

    The disc has a selection of extras which are nothing special but better than nothing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall