Depending on your point of view, upbringing and general capacity to laugh at idiots, Chris Barrie is either a comic genius or an annoying git. Moving on from playing a self-important, harmless but arrogant hologram trying to command a spaceship in Red Dwarf, Barrie plays a self-important, harmless but arrogant human being trying to command a leisure centre.

Do we dare call Chris Barrie the Matthew Perry of British comedy, since he always seems to play the same character, not that there's anything wrong with that as the character is a source of endless amusement. That may be a cruel and incorrect generalisation (shotgun wielding butler in the Tomb Raider as an exception) but it serves the purpose so let’s just forget all his other work for now, shall we?

Gordon Brittas is best described as Rimmer without anger (as seen in Red Dwarf episode ‘Polymorph’ as the founder of the C.L.I.T.O.R.I.S.). The man is a fool, ignorant of his own numerous shortcomings, who is promoted out of one job into the manager of a soon to be opened facility known as the Whitbury Leisure Centre. Upon his arrival he encounters a centre full of happy and efficient staff but as soon as he begins spreading his ‘words of encouragement’, that soon changes.

First shown in the early 90's, The Brittas Empire ran for 7 years and this set gives us the six episodes from the very first season. The episodes presented are a blast; classic British humour, in the same vein as Fawlty Towers and to a lesser degree Black Adder or Red Dwarf. The comedy is like watching a trainwreck of stupidity, you want to turn it off and walk away, but it holds a fascination that stops you from doing so. Fans of the sub-genre (trainwreck slapstick?) will certainly get a good deal of entertainment from Brittas and his crew and the rest of you, back to Bottom?

The video transfer has a number of problems, shadows lack detail and in places have a grainy green tinge to them, and the whole picture in general appears a little soft and lacking in sharpness. Grain is also minor problem in some places. While these could be dismissed as a result of the age or source (or budget) of the series I have recently seen much better transfers from similarly old and sourced TV shows (E.R. is a fine example), then again I have seen worse from more recent shows (Stargate SG:1 for example).

All 6 episodes are presented on a single dual layer disc in the original 4:3 full frame aspect ratio as are the mildly animated menu’s.

Audio is the original Stereo 2.0 mix, but since the humour is primarily dialog and visual it doesn’t suffer for not having the surrounds, subwoofer or even center performing any duty within the limitations of the format the dialog remains clear and sharp.

The extras are about as good as you would expect for a 13 year old series, although a commentary of some kind would have been a nice touch.

Chris Barrie Biography : As it sounds this 3-4 on screen pages describing Chris Barrie’s career in comedy.

Brittas Fitness Quiz: 10 random questions that present not so much a fitness quiz but a trivia quiz about events in season 1, at the end you get a rating on your fitness level

Picture Gallery: Featuring various stills taking on set during the filming of series 1

Royal Variety Performance Sketch: A 3 minute comedy sketch filmed during a royal variety performance, featuring all the main cast members and of course Gordon Brittas.

Series 2 Trailer: It’s a trailer.

Management Notice Board: A few pages of explainatory text on the location for the filming of the series and the ‘unofficial’ names for each episode in Season 1.

Being a huge Red Dwarf fan it would have taken serious natural disasters to prevent me from watching this series when it was first aired on Australian TV, I certainly don't remember watching it for a full 7 years though either it wasn't shown in its entirety or I lost interest. After watching Season 1 I am keen to see Season 2 and beyond so I suspect the former is correct.

Overall, fans of Fawlty Towers or Red Dwarf will most likely enjoy having a laugh at Gordon Brittas' expense and despite the minor video flaws the availability of this series on DVD is the perfect opportunity.