The Brittas Empire is one of my favorite Britcoms. I've never understood why it hasn't been given more attention in the US. It's much, much funnier than Are You Being Served? yet is still unknown here. I had to buy a region-free DVD player & order from amazon.uk so I could watch the show. It's worth the effort and price. Chris Barrie is hysterical as Gordon Brittas,the man you'd like to punch five minutes after meeting him. All the actors play their parts so well. Harriet Thorpe is consistently a riot as the flustered receptionist Carole. So is Julie the cranky secretary who joins the cast in Series 2. Pippa Haywood hopefully won lots of British Emmys for her excellent portrayal of Gordon's addled wife. Even the supporting players had clearly defined characters. Linda was eager to please and a theological student with a weaponry fetish. Tim & Gavin were the gay couple dealing with Tim's hysteria and dislike of management and Gavin's desire to advance in his career by becoming management. Yet they managed to stay together. And as others have said, the character Laura was the calm center of this hurricane. No matter how bizarre a turn events took during an episode, there was still one foot grounded in reality. The character of Laura had a lot to do with that as well as the skill of the writers. For the first five series this show is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, while managing at times to be very tender and explore the characters a little more deeply.
When series six began, Laura was gone as were the original writers. And from the very start the show sucks. The new writers just didn't seem to get it. The show lost its heart. I think the series could have survived the departure of Laura if the original writers had remained. The new writers focused only on chaos and not the warmth underneath. Suddenly there is a LOT of angry yelling going on for almost the entire time. The new character of Mrs. Bidmeade adds nothing to the show, through no fault of the actress. I read once that the original writers said that one main rule was that the chaos must always emanate from Gordon Brittas. No wacky characters coming into the center to create chaos. The new writers ignored that. In one episode some weird cult from Chattanooga comes in to welcome Gordon into their fold and baptize him. They refer to him as "Mr. Bright Ass", which was funny the first time, but not the subsequent seventeen. Colin also becomes more bizarre and everyone just runs around yelling all the time. I was surprised it made a seventh series, but that just went on to prove the writers didn't care about the audience. Brief spoiler: The final episode has Gordon sitting on a bus headed for his new job at a leisure center. It turns out it was all a dream and he was simply imagining passengers on the bus as his staff.WHAT AN INSULT!! Never mind the technical issue of 'well where did Laura come from, she's not on the bus?' but this device is tired and clichéd and smacks of lazy writing. It is an insult to the fans who fell in love with these characters to have hack writers completely negate everything that happened before. It's also an insult to the original writers and all their hard work. Get series one-five and laugh your head off with wonderful characters and funny writing and don't waste your money on series six & seven.
When series six began, Laura was gone as were the original writers. And from the very start the show sucks. The new writers just didn't seem to get it. The show lost its heart. I think the series could have survived the departure of Laura if the original writers had remained. The new writers focused only on chaos and not the warmth underneath. Suddenly there is a LOT of angry yelling going on for almost the entire time. The new character of Mrs. Bidmeade adds nothing to the show, through no fault of the actress. I read once that the original writers said that one main rule was that the chaos must always emanate from Gordon Brittas. No wacky characters coming into the center to create chaos. The new writers ignored that. In one episode some weird cult from Chattanooga comes in to welcome Gordon into their fold and baptize him. They refer to him as "Mr. Bright Ass", which was funny the first time, but not the subsequent seventeen. Colin also becomes more bizarre and everyone just runs around yelling all the time. I was surprised it made a seventh series, but that just went on to prove the writers didn't care about the audience. Brief spoiler: The final episode has Gordon sitting on a bus headed for his new job at a leisure center. It turns out it was all a dream and he was simply imagining passengers on the bus as his staff.WHAT AN INSULT!! Never mind the technical issue of 'well where did Laura come from, she's not on the bus?' but this device is tired and clichéd and smacks of lazy writing. It is an insult to the fans who fell in love with these characters to have hack writers completely negate everything that happened before. It's also an insult to the original writers and all their hard work. Get series one-five and laugh your head off with wonderful characters and funny writing and don't waste your money on series six & seven.