The Brittas Empire

- Season 1

(1991)

Well-meaning perfectionist and incurable bumbling busybody Gordon Brittas moves into Whitbury as manager of the brand new municipal leisure center. After annoying his new neighbors almost immediately, he enters the center, not without infuriating the builders so they stop finishing work on it. Inside his totally scientific, alas reality-unrelated roster is just the first on an endless list of ill-considered decisions with even more disastrous consequences then a pessimist could expect, all the series long.

Mr. Brittas takes charge of preparations for the official opening of Whitbury Leisure Center with a royal visit: the Duchess of Kent. Alas, the builders hate Gordon so much that they don't bother to tell him that the brand-new pool is leaking. The heating is operated by Boilerman Barnes (retired from the Navy), who takes Brittas' instructions to heat the pool 'at warp speed' literally. The electrician who should have taken care of a malfunctioning automatic door gets sent away and a well-meaning Boy Scout is commandeered in his place. The Duchess is walking straight ...

Gordon takes charge at reception, but once he sends Carole away, who is desperately worried about her baby and hoping for a reconciliation with her husband Derrick--everything goes wrong. Schoolboy Peter Philips inquires whether his tie was found, but Gordon's 'methodical' approach causes a huge, noisy queue to build up behind the boy. The desperate boy pretends to have found it, only to be reported to the police as a budding thief. Ken Owen comes to give a lecture on stress management, but with Gordon as the slide-show operator, Ken fights the urge to go for his ...

Gordon explains to job applicant Beverly Pierson how noble and important the leisure center is, but her motivation melts away as she witnesses what it's like. A pair of diving-club members booked the swimming pool for a wet wedding, but the best man dropped the ring and got stuck. An old guy in a wheelchair is drunk and running wild, even crashing the cardboard-box barrier mounted on Brittas' orders, using a chemical which reacts to water.

Gordon closes the leisure center for a whole day to make the staff fight the 'crime wave' of petty thefts. Treating everyone as suspects stirs commotion, and Danny and Mandy, feeling targeted, expose themselves as ex-cons. Gordon sets a trap, which only makes it worse. Helen needs a prescription for more depression pills, but Dr. Grey insists he knows more about the cause of her problems, so he brings over Gordon, and a short visit is enough for stronger pills.

Gordon realizes the center is running below a quarter of its capacity, but keeps offering ludicrously complicated formulas and incentive schemes, which the staff are determined not to win--poor Gavin's good behavior may land him in a restaurant with Gordon. Meanwhile, St. Mary's parish choirmaster Larry Whittaker is determined to get rid of the man whose membership wrecked the award-winning ensemble, but it goes wrong for both of them and for innocent bystanders.