Whenever I think of the actor Chris Barrie I always think of him in Red Dwarf, but since I saw him that I've loved him alot of things he's been in and he is equally good in The Brittas Empire that ran from 1991 through to 1997. I used to watch it regularly in the 1990's and in many ways he plays Mr. Brittas in much the same was as played the character of Rimmer in the sense that he was very much a sort of person who wanted to be in control at all times and when he wasn't then he would lose his cool and get flustered. For me, I loved this comedy series and it certainly wasn't your run of the mill, normal leisure centre. Chris Barrie is the star of the show and ...  Read the complete review

If you hark back to a typical Brit comedy of the mid 90s, this is it. Utterly dated by the early 2000s, this popular sitcom still gets regularly shown on UKTV Gold. The show is simply comedy genious and each character draws togather enough distinctive traits to be wonderfully humourous in their own rights. Gordan Brittas (Chris Barrie) steals the show with some fantastic, cringeworthy scenes as the dysfunctional leisure centre manager who the viewer can't help but feel utterly helpless and sympathetic towards. He's never rude or crass; he's simply delusional and misguided. Episodes were a hearty mix of surreal and not. A shark being released in the ...  Read the complete review

"The Brittas Empire" has to be my all-time favourite sitcom. If you are unfamiliar with the show, then it's basically a 90's sitcom about a badly run leisure centre (Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre) managed by catastrophe king Gordon Brittas, who while always trying to do the right thing; frequently brings chaos into the lives of his staff, and pill-driven wife Helen! Along with annoying people and upsetting them, but never meaning to of course. The show was successful enough, pulling in decent audience ratings, and running for seven years (through seven series). The cast even preformed in a royal variety performance and the show got voted into ...  Read the complete review

"MISS-TAH BRIH-HASS, MISS-TAH BRIH-HASS," used to go Colin, the pus ridden assistant to the Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre Manager, in one of the most memorable parts of The Brittas Empire. The programme was among the new television sit coms which were produced by the BBC during the 90's (or was it at the very tail end of the 80's?), and after a reasonably average opening and prior to a quite tepid last series, it managed to rise above the general morass and become a very ...  Read the complete review

This is one series that people have very mixed opinions on, some like it, some hate it, some don't mind it and some love it. I'm one of the people who really enjoyed watching it and though I felt it started better than it ended the show ranks among my favourite for this type of TV programme. --Story-- The program mainly centres on Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre and in particular the managed of the centre Gordon Brittas (Chris Barrie) and to a lesser extent the rest of the staff. In trying to improve things for everyone he almost always ends up making things much worse and the result of most episodes is some kind of disaster, the series relies on ...  Read the complete review