Colin Weatherby
| Gordon Wellesley Brittas | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Created by | Andrew Norriss & Richard Fegen |
| Portrayed by | Chris Barrie |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Manager |
| Family | Jim Brittas (father) Horatio Brittas (brother) Helen Brittas (wife) Johnathan (stepson) two unnamed (stepchildren) Matthew Brittas (son) Mark Gordon Brittas (son) Emily Parkinson (twin daughter with Carole Parkinson) Jessica Parkinson (twin daughter with Carole Parkinson) |
| Helen Brittas | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Created by | Richard Fegen & Andrew Norris |
| Portrayed by | Pippa Haywood |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Counsellor (as of series seven) |
| Family | Gordon Brittas (husband) Jonathan (son from previous marriage) two unnamed (children from previous marriage) Matthew Brittas (son) Mark Gordon Brittas (son) Horatio Brittas (brother-in-law) Jim Brittas (father-in-law) |
| Laura Lancing/Farrell | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one, Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Christmas special (1994) |
| Portrayed by | Julia St. John |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Deputy Manager Dry |
| Family | Michael T. Farrell (husband) Barney Farrell (son) |
| Colin Weatherby | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Created by | Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris |
| Portrayed by | Michael Burns |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Deputy Manager Wet, later Manager of Building Fabric |
| Family | Stephanie (daughter) |
| Carol Parkinson | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series Seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Portrayed by | Harriet Thorpe |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Receptionist, later Manageress of the Creche |
| Family | Derek Parkinson (husband) Ben (son) Emily Parkinson (daughter with Gordon Brittas) Jessica Parkinson (daughter with Gordon Brittas) |
| Gavin Featherly | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Created by | Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris |
| Portrayed by | Tim Marriott |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Pool attendant, later Acting Deputy Manager |
| Family | Tim Whistler (boyfriend) Peter Featherly (brother) Col. Featherley (father) Enid Featherley (mother) Sally (sister) Alice(sister) |
| Linda Perkins | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one episode one: Laying The Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven episode eight: The Curse of the Tiger Woman (1997) |
| Created by | Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris |
| Portrayed by | Jill Greenacre |
| Information | |
| Gender | female |
| Occupation | pool attendant |
| Tim Whistler | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Series one, episode one: Laying the Foundations (1991) |
| Last appearance | Series seven, episode eight: Curse of the Tiger Women (1997) |
| Created by | Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris |
| Portrayed by | Russell Porter |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Pool attendant |
| Family | Gavin Featherly (boyfriend) |
| List of The Brittas Empire characters | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | series two episode one Back From The Dead (1992) |
| Last appearance | series seven episode eight Curse of the Tiger Woman (1997) |
| Portrayed by | Judy Flynn |
| Information | |
| Gender | female |
| Occupation | secretary |
| Family | Gordon Porter (son) |
This is a list of characters for the 1990s BBC British Television sitcom The Brittas Empire, a British television sitcom that aired on BBC 1 in the 1990s.
Gordon Wellesley Brittas GM (born 1958) is the Manager of the ill-fated Whitbury Leisure Centre.
Brittas is extremely dedicated to his job and cares dearly for everyone around him, including his unstable wife Helen. He has grand ambitions of making the world a better place, and aims to fulfill his dream of bringing people together through sport. Despite his noble and well-meant intentions, however, Brittas' management only ever causes disaster and chaos, resulting in pathetically low attendance rates, catastrophic fires, floods and even customer deaths on several occasions. In typical bureaucratic style, he is obsessed with paperwork and forces his staff and customers to fill in thousands of different forms for the most banal of things, such as lost property claims. Throughout the entire show, he remains blissfully unaware of his total incompetence as a manager and the negative effect he has on everybody around him.
An example of Brittas's tactlessness is in "Temple Of The Body", where he suspects someone is having sex in the centre, telling Carol that she has nothing to worry about, because whatever is happening is only with "the younger and more attractive women, such as Linda, Julie and Laura".
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 potential customers and centre staff. In series seven, Brittas rigs up a computer system to control every aspect of the centre, which over-complicates even the simple task of distributing floats by the swimming pools, and results in someone drowning.
Brittas is also accident-prone, and will make careless mistakes with fatal consequences. For example, in "Laura's Leaving", Brittas tugs at a wire which drops a live electric heater into the main swimming pool. This electrocutes a group of Pentecostal Christians performing a baptism ceremony in the water. Alternatively, if a small problem does develop without his doing, Brittas will try to solve it, thus creating a much larger problem. Helen points out in the second episode that "once [Gordon] starts dealing with little problems, they don't go away; you just get bigger ones" and then in series three, that the disasters in the centre always start with something trivial going wrong. Also once, Laura points out that he is very good at solving big problems, but is hopeless at solving all the other ones.
Gordon has a fraternal twin brother, Horatio Brittas, a priest who shares his dream of bringing communities together. He has five children with Helen, three he adopted from her earlier marriage and two twin boys from theirs. Twins being a trait which apparently runs throughout his side of the family. Unknown to him until the very last episode of the series, Carol's twins are also his - the result of a boozy mix-up at Julie's New Year's Eve party, where Carol and Helen both happened to dress in identical tiger costumes, leading to Gordon's mistake.
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