Gordon Brittas

Infobox character
colour = #FFFF00
name = Gordon Brittas


caption = Gordon Brittas in "The Brittas Empire."
first = "Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991)"
last = "Series seven, episode seven: Curse of the Tiger Women (1992)"
cause = Show ended.
gender = Male
occupation = Manager
portrayer = Chris Barrie
creator = Richard Fergan & Andrew Norris

Gordon Welsely Brittas is the disastrous manager of the ill-fated Whitbury New Town leisure centre, in the popular British sitcom The Brittas Empire. The show's original run was from 1991-1997 on the BBC. Brittas is dedicated to his job and cares dearly for his staff and unstable wife Helen Brittas. He also has great ambitions of making the world a better place, and wants to fulfil his dream of bringing people together through sport. Unfortunately, Brittas only ever achieves the opposite. Unknown to him, he's a dreadful manager, always lacking in tact that results in him upsetting the public and staff. He’s forever dreaming up petty schemes that makes life for those around him even more difficult.

An example of Brittas's tactlessness is in series two, where he suspects someone is having sex in the centre, telling Carole she has nothing to worry about, because whatever is happening is with "the younger and more attractive women". Brittas is also extremely petty, insisting on over-complicated forms at reception, and ridiculous rules on what not to wear in the centre, only serving to frustrate those around him. In series seven, Brittas rigs up a computer system to control every aspect of the centre, which over complicates even the simplest of tasks of distributing floats by the swimming pools, and results in someone drowning.

Brittas is also an accident-prone, and will make careless mistakes with fatal consequences. For example, in the third series, Brittas tugs at a wire pulling an electric heater into a swimming pool. This electrocutes Church goers performing a religious ritual in the water. Alternatively, if a small problem does develop without his doing, Brittas will only try and solve it thus creating a bigger problem. Helen points out in series three, the disasters in the centre always start with something trivial going wrong.

It's such behaviour that provides much of the show's humour, adding to the comedy is the fact Brittas is totally oblivious to the fact he is at fault.

Writers of the show Fergan and Norris decided to make series five the final series, thus Brittas is killed by a falling water tank. However Chris Barrie returned to play Brittas for a further two series, as the BBC wanted the show to continue. New writers were brought on to replace the show's creators. The show's actual ending was in 1997, when Brittas, at the end of series seven, wakes up on train heading for Whitbury. According to this ending, the entire series was a dream. [Information gathered from The Brittas Empire DVDs published by Eureka Video. Evidence in episodes can support all information stated above.]

References