Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Series 7 a great improvement, 23 Feb 2007
A lot of people seem to dismiss the last 2 series of The Brittas Empire as being rubbish, after the original writers and Laura had left and that awful sauna woman was brought in. But I think people forget that Series 7 was a great improvement on the previous Series 6. Gone is the sauna woman and the rubbish stories and most of these episodes stand out as Brittas classics. Apart from Reviewing the Situation, which probably belongs in Series 6, it really did return to form and the writing is almost back to the high standards of Fegen and Norriss, even though the plots and characters like Carol and Helen are even more bizarre and unreal than the earlier series. The cast really work well together. Laura is still missed however. This series is miles better than any comedy in the schedules nowadays. Episodes I particularly liked were.....
Wake Up The Lion Within
Brittas has been on a course abroad and comes back teaching his staff to assert themselves using their inner power, the lion within, by roaring like a lion. Carol seems to have the loudest roar and, with the help of an imaginery vindictive Carol, uses her assertiveness to become deputy manager. She tricks Brittas and his principals force him to resign, leaving Carol as manager of the centre. Brittas even comes back asking for work! Quite a bizarre story as Carol becoming manager is one of the last things you'd expect to happen, but that's what makes it funny.
HTTP://ETC
Brittas has computerised everything in the centre. Not everyone takes to it, especially Carol, as she now has to input loads of data into a computer causing long queues. Everything works automatically but the staff worry that their jobs are no longer safe because of it. Tim gets a computer wizkid to sabotage the system causing everything in the centre to malfunction and go madly wrong.Very funny.
Gavin Featherly RIP
The staff go on a weekend outing to Burbage-on-sea, but due to Brittas, a record company is suing Gavin [...]. He is depressed and sneeks out early in the morning riding off in Colin's potato fuelled boat. When the boat is brought back with no one in it and his clothes are found on the beach, everyone assumes he's dead. A funeral is arranged. Carol plays the organ and Colin digs the grave. However no one believes Tim when he gets a phone call from Gavin.
Exposed
An undercover reporter is planning to secretly film in the leisure centre. Brittas is led to believe a camera crew are coming to film a documentary and arranges scripts for everyone and a replacement for Colin. Unfortunately, after Colin lets his rat swim in the pool, there is an outbreak of Bobular fever. The victims are quarantined in the squash courts. The undercover reporter arrives posing as a doctor armed with a secret camera. Helen is an ex-lover of the reporter who is seeking revenge. After Helen makes sure he's put in an ambulance, his tape is left for the staff to view, which is very funny.
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better Than I Remember, 9 May 2006
I have always thought that the series went downhill after the excellence of series 5, but rewatching episodes of series 7 I have to say that it's far better than I remember. Series 6 did feel a bit awkward in some parts, and I felt that the character of Penny Bidmead simply didn't work. Series 7 works a lot better, partly because she's gone, and mostly the quality of writing has far improved.
A note on the ENDING that a lot of Brittas fans seem detest. I always thought of Brittas Empire as a rather over the top show with quite a bit of fantastic elements in it that stretched believability and credibility. These are things like keeping babies in drawers, people coming alive after being flattened, stuff like that. But you enjoy yourself too much that you accept such quirks and accept it as part of the reality of the Brittas Universe.
In the end of the series, we see Brittas waking up from 2 "dreams". He wakes up and he sees himself as NOAH, and then he wakes up for a second time to see himself on a train before he becomes manager of Whitbury Newtown. Well, consider this: What if that is a dream as well? Would it be too unbelievable within the context of the Brittas Universe for him to wake up again in Series 8, back at the center, after being knocked out by a flying goose?
In fact, the ending is FULL of potential. Since the end established the notion of Brittas waking up to a realities populated by the staff of Whitbury Newtown in different roles, it opens up the series to some tantalizing possibilities if they decide to do another series.
What if Brittas wakes up in the first episode of Series 8 as Captain of a starhip called the Centerprise? Where Colin is an Engineer of dodgy engines, Helen is the pill popping Doctor, Laura is the emotionless Vulcan... and at the end of the episode Brittas is knocked out again and in the 2nd episode he wakes up as the captain of the Titanic, and so it goes for the rest of the series until at the very last episode, he wakes up back at the center, after being knocked out by the flying goose. He looks up to Helen and says, "My Darling, you'll never believe the dream I had!"
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's getting better...., 11 Jul 2005
Well, it's time for another visit to Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre, the sports facility with more than its share of problems. Most caused by the manager, Gordon Brittas.I have to admit, I started buying these DVDs because I'm a fan of Chris Barrie. I kept buying them, because they are watchable, if not great. But the sixth series finally seems to have gotten the formula bang on. I know others disagree with me, but I personally found Helen Brittas' constant whining and gurning a pain in the butt that often had me reaching for the mute button. In this series she has calmed down a bit, and only cries in small doses, which I find a relief. The actors still seem to be enjoying themselves in their roles and this shows and the series flows a bit better. There's the usual mishaps like tropical diseases never seen in Britain and minor plans turning into a disaster. The most notable being when Brittas decides to computerise the leisure centre and, as always, takes things a little bit too far. Another highlight is Brittas being interviewed for what he thinks is a local feature on TV about the leisure centre, but is actually one of these fly on the walls exposition films. Brittas, determined to make a good impression, gives everyone scripts to remember, and hires a replacement for Colin who is a little kinder on the eyes. For me, the best episode was Gavin Featherly, RIP, where Gavin appears to have killed himself on a group trip to the beach. Everyone believes he has drowned himself because Brittas made him write to a record company to admit to copying a tape, and he gets a letter demanding money to cover his copy. This episode is far more open about Tim and Gavin's relationship, and it features in this episode when, having decided to hold Gavin's funeral without his body, Gavin's parents meet everyone, and Tim finds out Gavin's parents don't know who he is. Brittas also finally finds out he is the father of Carol's twins, which I thought he already knew anyway. The DVD includes a Christmas special which is just as good as the series. In it, Brittas makes the gang go on a team bonding excercise, but Colin has given everyone cards, and Helen finds one she thinks is addresssed to Gordon from Carol, so she spends the trip trying to kill Carol for having an affair. Gordon also finds himself the victim of many assassination attempts after sacking the regular Santa Claus!! Only on Brittas. On the whole, the episodes by themselves are really just more of the anarchy everyone expects from the Brittas Empire, and there's nothing really original in it. But because the cast seem to work well together, and Helen has quit making me want to clean my ears with a cheese wire, the series as a whole is far better to the previous ones.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![The Brittas Empire - The Complete Series 7 [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515NQP4FBVL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Brittas Empire: Complete BBC Series 1-7 Box Set [1991] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ENKFX1G4L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Brittas Empire - Series 1 [Single Disc] [DVD] [1991]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514utFH8HBL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Brittas Empire - Series 3 - Complete [DVD] [1993]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515GAGN1RPL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Brittas Empire - The Complete Series 6 [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KDTQDF2TL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Chris Barrie
![The Brittas Empire - Series 3 - Complete [DVD] [1993]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515GAGN1RPL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Chris Barrie
![The Brittas Empire Complete Series 5 - Two Disc Digipak with Bonus Christmas Special Stills Gallery [DVD] [1995]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TZN0RSNML._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Chris Barrie; Pippa Haywood
![The Brittas Empire - Series 4 - Complete [DVD] [1994]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GYA6ZC71L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Chris Barrie
![The Brittas Empire - Series 2 - Complete [DVD] [1991]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516XB8JQNZL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Chris Barrie
