Chris Barrie in his finest role? (Brittas Empire, The)

Member Name: luke1081

Product:	Brittas Empire, The
Date:	06/01/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Colin

Disadvantages: Dated badly

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 pool, as well as the electrocution of swimmers verged on the utterly banal but maintained enough humour to see my through.

Michael Burns, who played Colin, was hilarious and often under-used in the early episodes. Helen Brittas (Pippa Haywood) provides some sense amongst all the chaos of Whitbury Newtown Leisure Centre and Carole (Harriet Thorpe) was wonderfully engaging as the angst-ridden receptionist.

My only gripe is how badly the show has aged when compared to modern comedies. It looks cheaply made and the leisure centre looks positively antiquated in some scenes. That being said, it does not detract from the light-hearted entertainment; and it's always been a wonder why more of the cast did not go onto bigger and greater things in the acting world.

Summary: The Brittas Empire Strikes Back