Talk:The Brittas Empire

Gavin
The episode title "Gavin Featherly RIP (10 Feb 97)" contrasts with the specified name of "Gavin Featherleigh". Is there a mistake in one of the two? violet/riga 00:23, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Episode summaries
Am I alone in thinking that the current page is a bit silly. I dont think there should be a synopsis of each episode - there are plenty of other sites better suited for that sort of thing. There should be a discussion of the show itself: its themes, characters, and comic significance - if any. --N^O^el 06:51, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
 * No, you're not: I agree with you. Actually, the wording of a lot of it is very suspicious> I wouldn' be surprised if it has been borrowed from the blurb of a video or DVD. The JPS 10:10, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
 * IT was not copied from a blurb. I have the dvds, and whoever wrote it didn't copy it. Bit of a pity that someone has deleted practically everything on this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.122.197.105 (talk) 12:44, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Whatever, the style was inappropriate. I haven't had time to correct the latest half-assed 'contributions' to the article. The JPS 12:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I tried to restore everything that was deleted as it looked like inexeperience on the part of the editor Tim! (talk) 18:04, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I have the first two dvds, the wording is not the same. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.7.183.131 (talk) 09:35, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Themes
Why is the gay theme odd? And why are no other themes discussed? --John24601 18:28, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
 * "Odd" was probably the wrong word, but I see what the contributor was getting at. I think it's about the positive, matter-of-fact representation of gays, which was perhaps not that common at that time. However, to expand that might be steering in the direction of original research or POV, so I've removed it. The JPS 20:00, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Whitbury-newtown v. Whitbury New Town
I had always presumed that the leisure centre was in the New Town of Whitbury as a further joke on the naffness of the place. As such, wouldn't the place be Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre rather than the hyphenated version used at present? —Preceding unsigned comment added by MichaelT1979 (talk • contribs) 16:56, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Please sign your comments with ~ please, thanks! To answer your question, I've found a BBC Website that shows the town name as Whitbury New Town. So you're correct and this should be reflected in the article. Peteb16 17:33, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks and apologies - completely forgot! Tafkam 23:01, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

Mr. Brittas' accent
Hi! Can anyone tell me what sort of accent Mr. Brittas has? Best regards I Tarzan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.141.207.101 (talk) 16:34, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Uh, British —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.66.153 (talk) 03:45, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * To me, it sounds like fairly generic south-east English, perhaps with a touch of London. What's distinctive about it to me is not the regional accent but the silly voice he's putting on, which is a kind of combination of 'general ineffectual male' and the voice plenty of people in England seem to do when impersonating a 'sad' person like a stereotypcial trainspotter, or stereotypical health and safety inspector or someone clueless who constantly gives out unsolicited advice (for a perfect example from 90s comedy, see Harry Enfield's Mr You Don't Want To Do That). Interestingly, I was looking for a YouTube clip of Chris Barrie who plays Brittas to see how different his normal voice is, and came across this 1992 interview where Terry Wogan asks him what inspired the Brittas voice. Sure enough, rather than any mention of where Brittas might be from Barrie cites someone he knew who used to maintain he was right when he didn't have a clue. Barrie continues the interview with a whole load of impersonations. His real voice is quite different to Brittas and sounds like an even more non-geographically-specific upper middle class southern English accent than does Brittas's more lower middle class accent. 18:43, 18 December 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.184.4 (talk)

Shortened and made less gushing
I have shortened the text and tried to make it more encyclopedic and less like a gushing fan article. APW (talk) 08:33, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Grammar
Just because something "doesn't make sense" (his being, in this case), doesn't mean it isn't correct. Please take a trip to the library before claiming other people are wrong. - Dudesleeper / Talk  21:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Location of Whitbury New Town
There is a mention in series dialgoue of the Lat/Long of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre as being 51°35'00"N 2°00'00" W (which places it at Pink Lane, Charlton, Wiltshire, SN16 9, UK). Wonder if this should included ? Somersetlevels (talk) 10:39, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Added to Settings section as there's been no dissent Somersetlevels (talk) 21:06, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Brittas mentions the docks. No-one in Wiltshire would say that, because it's a landlocked county. Jim Michael (talk) 21:30, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

DVD on eBay
The claimed second hand price "upwards of £70" for complete 1-7 dvd box set looks exaggerated. Three just sold on ebay prices were £37, £40, £70. If this is relevant, perhaps a price range would be better ? peeky Talk 11:10, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think listing the eBay price is in any way relevant, especially considering how much the price fluctuates. Besides, I've seen a version of the box set advertised on Amazon for £29.99, far less than any of the prices quoted above. This set has a more up to date version of the BBC logo and Amazon quotes a date of 2014, and I'm guessing that as of now this set is NOT yet out of print.Lee M (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 04:37, 21 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Given that this was first broached five years ago, there's no point at all in having a single claimed eBay price listed. I've removed it.  Chaheel Riens (talk) 12:59, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Broadcast dates?
I absolutely don't remember the real broadcast dates, so could somebody in the know please confirm?

The problem is that the main article starts with saying the show ran "from 1993 to 2001", but then continues with explaining it was 1991 to 1997. This should be corrected! Pim 2 (talk) 12:30, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Doesn't make sense
In the 'Critical response' section, there is a fairly long quote whose last sentence reads thus: "...A show for all the couch." 'Couch' what? I would guess it's meant to be something like "potatoes", but can't click on the source to check it out. RASAM (talk) 13:02, 8 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I think it means family, as all the people sitting on the couch. Lbc07 (talk) 20:27, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Black comedy
I am not sure that The Brittas Empire could really be described as 'black comedy' as it is not especially dark and the article does not claim it to be a black comedy, so I would question its inclusion in Category:1990s British black comedy television series. Dunarc (talk) 23:59, 4 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Its primary genre is farce, but there's also a lot of black comedy, especially in relation to frequent instances of characters being injured & in some cases killed. Jim Michael (talk) 21:30, 9 October 2021 (UTC)