List of The Brittas Empire characters

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

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	Helen Brittas (wife) Reverend Horatio Brittas (twin brother), Jim Brittas (father),five Children (three adopted)

Gordon Wellesley Brittas 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's 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".^[1]

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.^[2] 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.^[2] Also once, Laura points out that he is very good at solving big problems, but is hopeless at solving all the other ones.

In "Back From The Dead", it is revealed that Gordon was born in 1958 (2 years before Chris Barrie, who was born in 1960). In series 6, it was revealed that Helen was born in 1956, making her two years older than Gordon. In series 3, it is revealed that his middle name is "Wellesley".

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.

Brittas can in many respects be considered a forerunner to David Brent of The Office. His lack of self-awareness and ability to alienate and offend his staff despite his genuine good intentions are examples of commonality between the characters.

Writers of the show Norriss and Fegen decided to make series five the final series, thus Brittas is "killed" by a falling water tank. However Chris Barrie returned to play Brittas for a further two series, as the BBC wanted the popular show to continue. New writers were brought on to replace the show's creators. The show's actual ending was in 1997, when Brittas, at the end of series seven, wakes up on a train heading for Whitbury. According to this ending, the entire series was a dream.^[3]

Helen Brittas

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	Physiatrist (as of series seven)
Family	Gordon Wellesley Brittas (husband)

Helen Brittas is the long-suffering wife of Gordon Brittas.

Helen starts out as a marginally depressed housewife, disillusioned and agitated by her oblivious husband and his grand schemes. Throughout the course of the show, she becomes gradually more neurotic and insane, to the point of forgetting how many children she has.

She often requires support from Brittas's deputy Laura Lancing, and frequently pours her heart out to Laura, telling her the stress Gordon is causing her, and about her latest one-night-stands or stupid mistakes. Helen relies on other people to lie for her, to cover up her addictive shoplifting^[4] and her constant cheating on Gordon with other men.

At the beginning of the show, whenever something goes wrong with Brittas, Helen will respond very casually, implying she is used to it. In series 6, Helen nearly poisons everybody in Whitbury as a revenge on the chemist by spiking his medicine to make people ill to doubt his products. Helen's erratic and often illegal behaviour do make life difficult for Gordon on more than one occasion. In "Sex, Lies, And Red Tape", a department store accuses Helen of stealing a wedding dress, some shoes, a handbag, a pair of gloves, and a barbecue set (which she has done!), also revealing she has a criminal record and 9 previous charges of shoplifting. In "The Chop", Helen steals £300 from the centre's petty cash to buy a dog, which forces Gordon to resign (although he is reinstated a few weeks later), in order to protect her.

Throughout the series, it is clear that Helen has an addiction to drugs (which she uses to help herself deal with the agitation she receives from Gordon), such as demanding them from a doctor, marching through a snowdrift to get some more, and once when being assaulted, all she cared about was that the attacker had taken her drugs.

She has also plotted several times to get rid of Brittas, including arranging for him to be assassinated while on holiday in Bulgaria. Despite this, however, Helen loves Gordon very much, and her affection for him grows as the series progresses.

Once, Helen tries to kill her children's teacher by reversing into his classroom for giving them a "D" in English (Helen completed the work herself, and so the teacher had actually given her a "D"). Helen casually states to Laura how he wasn't hurt and "swung up on a light fitting".^[5]

Helen appears in all episodes, apart from one in series four when she "accidentally" books the family holiday to Cornwall on the wrong week, thus leaving Gordon unable to attend; a mistake she also made the previous year.^[6]

Helen and Gordon have five children, whom she gives birth to in the middle of Whitbury High Street after a comedy-of-errors which results in their car being blocked in.

Laura Lancing/Farrell (series 1-5)

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)

Laura Lancing/Farrell is the Deputy Manager Dry of Whitbury Leisure Centre.

Laura is calm and extremely efficient at management, often bringing normality back to the centre after a disaster has escalated. She's also the voice of reason, talking sense into those around her. Laura is usually warm and understanding, and has peoples' best interests at heart.

A common thing she does is comfort colleague Tim when he suspects Gavin is having an affair.

She understands that however much chaos her boss Gordon Brittas causes with his half-baked ideas, he means well, so she will occasionally defend him from criticism by staff, councillors and even Brittas's unhinged wife, Helen. Laura is often seen lending support to Helen, who goes into states of shock and panic whenever Laura is away or planning to leave. Helen is convinced the centre won't cope without Laura, with no-one there to "pick up the pieces" after Brittas has caused another disaster.

Brittas is seen to be very fond of Laura, perhaps because of her kind, helpful nature and his lack of close friends in his personal life. In later series, hints are dropped at a possible romance between Brittas and Laura. In one episode of series 3, she kisses Brittas in a flurry of emotion, leaving him in a state of shock. No more is said about it, but in the next series, when Helen deliberately books a holiday that she knows Brittas can't attend, Laura proves very supportive towards him, and the two bond further. A scene in series 5 shows Laura finally confessing her feelings for Brittas and passionately kissing him, although this turns out to be Brittas fantasising. As a result of this, Laura is the only girl whom Brittas has ever considered having an affair with.

Laura is legally married to Michael T. Farrell III, the son of an American billionaire. However, she has been estranged from him for over two years and uses her maiden name, Lancing, in everyday life until he appears one day, searching for her at the centre. Despite the best efforts of a jealous Brittas, Laura gradually reconciles with Farrell again, and becomes pregnant with his child. Because of this, she turns down the opportunity to take over from Gordon as manager of the leisure centre, and moves to Chicago, USA to start a new life with Farrell at the end of series 5.

Colin Weatherby

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

Colin Weatherby is a Deputy Manager and janitor of Whitbury Leisure centre.

Colin is a gentle, loyal and friendly character who is popular with all of his colleagues. However, he is also forgetful, disorganized, almost always late for staff meetings, highly incompetent and appears constantly dishevelled and filthy. However, Colin is a skilled carpenter and engineer and also has an impressive knowledge of biology, woodwork, construction, science, midwifery, plants, natural foods and healthy lifestyles. Despite this, he often suffers from unpleasant medical symptoms, and often has cuts, bruises and boils, and suffers seborrhea. One of his hands is also septic and infected and seen in a bandage throughout most of the series. (As a result of this, whenever he shakes someone's hand, a dirty piece of bandage is left behind.) Colin is accident-prone and frequently late or absent, from receiving medical attention for injuries he has sustained (then gives an disgusting explanation of this, despite Brittas telling him to be quiet). He hails from Sunderland and, like Julie, speaks with a distinctly northern English accent, in contrast to everyone else at the centre.

Colin is the only member of staff who respects and reveres Gordon Brittas as a role model, and will not hear a word against him and will always defend him. However, while Gordon appreciates Colin's loyal nature, feels sympathetic towards him, admires his scientific and artistic knowledge, and is good friends with him (even going as far as to save his life by sucking spider venom out of Colin's buttocks), he is well aware throughout the show of Colin's incompetence as a manager and comes very close to firing him on several occasions. Gordon prefers working with the other deputies such as Laura or Gavin, rarely delegating jobs or responsibilities to Colin. Gordon also tries to keep Colin as hidden from the public as possible, afraid that he may present a bad image of the centre. Once in Series 2, when Colin makes a stupid comment, Brittas acts sarcastic and rude to Colin, upsetting him, so when Gavin goes to tell Brittas that's something's gone wrong, Colin, along with Tim, goes to see how upset Brittas is. In Series 6, Brittas dismisses a potion that Colin makes, outraging him.

An example of Colin's popularity among his colleagues, is that whenever Gordon tries to sack Colin, the staff always protest.

From Series 1 to halfway through Series 5, he serves alongside fellow manager Laura as Deputy Manager Wet, "Wet" referring to his pool duties. Brittas then promotes Gavin to Acting Deputy Manager with the intention of sacking Colin due to his incompetence, but Laura eventually forces Brittas to "promote" him to "Manager of Building Fabric" - essentially a glorified janitor's position - and gives him a new uniform, a 2% pay rise, and an 'office' in the basement. Colin is immensely happy with his new position and goes on to create many dangerous, crackpot inventions in the basement, ranging from waste recycling devices to Suffolk Punch powered baby cradles.

Colin later clashes with Gavin after his promotion to Acting Deputy Manager out of jealousy. However, Brittas later reveals that Colin was never actually terminated as Deputy Manager Wet and is still technically Gavin's superior, much to Colin's delight and Gavin's chagrin.

In Series 4, it is revealed that Colin has an illegitimate daughter, Stephanie, who lives in Tasmania, Australia. Colin sends her lots of letters, telling her that he's the manager or that he's done something amazing. When Stephanie comes to stay, all the staff try to help Colin by saying about all the hero acts he's done, or saying he is the manager. When Brittas finds out, he is enraged and incensed, but then does the best things he ever does in the series: backing up Colin's stories. Colin also has a relationship with a milkwoman, Pauline (who, unbeknownst to Colin, is a male transvestite). He was once in a relationship with an Mrs Edwina Harcourt, but that affair did not work out. In Series 6 and Series 7, hints are dropped at a possible romance between Colin and Julie. In "Back From The Dead", Julie shows sympathy towards Colin when he is dumped by his girlfriend. Colin also threatens to attack anyone who insults Julie. He also comments how pretty Julie is and offers to marry her when he discovers she is pregnant. Although she refuses, she names him as the baby's godfather, and often goes on strike upon discovering Colin could be sacked. In the later series, when Laura leaves, Colin twice acts as Helen's supportive willing-to-listen friend: once when she confides in him about her marriage, and another time when she confides she suspects Gordon is having an affair with Carole.

Carol Parkinson

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

Carol Parkinson is Brittas's unfortunate and often tearful receptionist.

She is a loving mother to her three children, whom she keeps in the drawers and cupboards in the reception area, where she also lives. She is unfortunate in the sense nothing ever seems to go right for her, and despite having creative talents, her ambitions as a pianist and author never work out, nor does she ever have any happy romantic relationships. Early in the series, her husband (who appears once, briefly, in series one) runs off to Spain with her best friend.

Brittas tries to help Carol; however, his tactless advice only ever manages to upset her further. Brittas also inexplicably sees Carol as aging and unattractive, and commonly makes remarks along these lines. Unbeknownst to Brittas, however, he is the father to two of Carol's children. This is hinted at several times in the second series and finally confirmed to the characters and viewers in the final episode of that series.^[7] Carol's parenting standards are a humorous subplot in the series - for example, she often stores her young children in desk drawers or cupboards, either to hide them or make them behave.

Apparently, Carol finally finds happiness in series five when she moves away with an Austrian man named Von Trapp; however, he also has an affair, the excuse given to return Carole to Whitbury Leisure Centre for an unexpected sixth series.

Carol appears in all episodes of the series. Her questionable methods of looking after her children and her frazzled and tearful nature are her most memorable characteristics.^[7] She is fired by Brittas in series 3 after repeated warnings not to keep her children in the reception desk, but after Laura puts a word in, she is accepted back into the Centre with a new job title, "Manageress of the Creche."

Gavin Featherly

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

Gavin Featherly is a pool attendant, and later Acting Deputy Manager of the leisure centre.

Gavin is gentle and caring, and gets on with his job under Brittas. He later develops a certain arrogance when being promoted to deputy manager. After this promotion, he occasionally clashes with the previous Deputy Manager "Wet", Colin Weatherby, claiming he only "cleans toilets".

The promotion causes a rift in his relationship with boyfriend and co-worker Tim Whistler, and also causes him to pick up some of his boss's mannerisms, in the form of what he says and hand gestures. Gavin falls out with his boyfriend on many occasions, because of either keeping secrets from him or the jealousy and jumping to conclusions on Tim's part.

The relationship between Gavin and Tim provides a humorous subplot, because Brittas, who is unable to detect the subtle communication between the two, remains unaware they are a couple. In the last episode of the first series, Brittas even asks Gavin to keep on eye on Tim, because Brittas suspects that Tim is gay.

Gavin is the only staff member who wears a tie and blazer (after his promotion), just like Brittas, showing just how seriously he takes his career in leisure management.

Linda Perkin

Linda Perkin
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

Linda Perkin (played by Jill Greenacre) is a pool attendant at Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. Linda teaches and trains people in different sports.

Linda is loyal to Brittas and deeply admires him, yet like Laura and Gavin, is not above taking part in strikes against him, and is enthusiastic, despite being easily suggestible and slightly naive. Linda usually carries on diligently with whatever tasks Brittas and her co-workers assign to her, no matter how strange or illogical they may seem. Linda also acts as Receptionist when Carol is absent. Because of her extra work, she receives the highest wages. In one episode, Gordon suspects Linda is having an affair with colleague Gavin (towards whom Linda shows great friendship in many episodes).

Linda is extremely talented in fighting, for example; when somebody tries to attack her, she thumps them and breaks their arm, twice whilst trying to protect Brittas, she forces the attacker into a sack, and once beat a man unconscious. She also restrained men from fighting in reception. She even forced a man into a basket.

Linda also strongly protests against animal cruelty such as refusing to shoot an ostrich, stopping a canary being crushed and protesting against a dolphin being used for human entertainment.

Linda once mentions that she has a brother who is learning about spiders and plants, and works in a Birmingham tropical disease centre, and that they want to go to Oregon to start up a gun shop there. Linda once mentions that she has a sister, although she could be making this up to hide an embarrassing fact.

Linda is in most episodes of the show, except for two in series one, for unknown reasons. She is one of the smaller main characters in the series, but her role is significantly larger from the second series onwards.

Tim Whistler

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

Tim Whistler (played by Russell Porter) is a pool attendant. He is also a chef. Tim is bisexual and, unbeknownst to Gordon Brittas, is in a secret relationship with fellow pool attendant Gavin Featherly, with whom he shares an apartment. Like most of his colleagues, Tim despises his manager, Brittas, and often complains or schemes to disrupt the centre to get at him through strikes and protests.

Although a lively, confident worker, Tim is slightly mentally troubled and has regular appointments with psychiatrists. He has mood swings, gets jealous over Gavin, and can't endure Gavin's noticing anyone but him. His unbalanced, emotional persona makes their relationship increasingly strained as the series progresses and causes a further rift between them when Gavin becomes a deputy manager. Tim and Gavin stay together despite this tension but Tim occasionally snipes at Gavin and resents his sucking up to Brittas.

Although Tim has few apparent aspirations within the leisure centre, he briefly gets excited at the prospect of becoming a deputy manager when Brittas leaves for a new job of European Sports Commissioner in Brussels. However, this fails to eventuate after Brittas is "killed" at the end of series 5. Tim continues as a pool attendant, unaware he is earning the lowest wage in the centre. He eventually learns this and revolts, holding Gavin, Linda, Julie, Laura and Colin hostage in the staff room.

It later emerges that Tim's real name is Tim Göbbels, that he was born in East Germany and that he illegally changed his name to "Whistler" out of shame. Gordon refuses to recognize Tim as a legal entity after this revelation and opens up a vacancy for Tim's position, allowing Tim to re-apply to the centre only by using his real name. However, Tim finally receives a large pay-rise afterwards, when Brittas categorizes him as an imported "EU Acquisition" because of his German nationality.

Julie Porter (Series 2-7)

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

Julie Porter is Gordon Brittas's secretary and first appears in Series 2, replacing Angie.

Born and raised in Rotherham, Julie is distinguished from her colleagues by her strong northern accent and fiery personality. An outspoken and insubordinate character, she often flatly refuses menial tasks assigned by Gordon. During collective staff action against Brittas, such as strikes or protests, Julie joins in with great enthusiasm, often being the instigator. She dislikes Brittas more than any of her colleagues (except, possibly, Tim), and genuinely hopes he will be replaced by someone more capable. Gordon, however, hardly ever notices her animosity towards him.

She later becomes pregnant to her boyfriend, and gives birth in Colin's basement office, during a bungled night-time burglary she attempts with Helen. Julie names the child Gordon Colin Porter, after Gordon's and Colin's delivery attempts.

Recurring characters in the show

Angie (series 1)

Angie (played by Andree Bernard) is Gordon Brittas's first secretary when the leisure centre opens, and appears throughout the first series.

She is a caring and relatively calm character who is very similar in personality to Laura. Despite her obedient nature, she does portray a nastier, more reactionary streak at times, similar to Julie, her later replacement. She is good friends with Carol and is often seen lending her support through her emotionally dark times. Angie also defends Carol against criticism from Brittas, even going so far as to tip three cups of coffee on the reception floor in protest.

Angie appears very similar to Julie - both have blonde hair and wear classy female office clothes. However, Julie has a far more blunt and aggressive nature than Angie. Julie appears from series two onwards, and Angie's disappearance and replacement is never actually explained in any episode of the show.

Pam Shields (series 1)

Pam, played by actress Frances Low, is Helen and Gordon Brittas's new neighbour. In series one, Pam is Helen's friend, a minor character Helen can talk to. She is used to reveal Gordon Brittas's character: Helen describes Gordon to Pam, including the chaos he caused in previous jobs.

In Series Two, Pam is replaced as Helen's supportive, glad-to-listen friend, by Laura (who shared a more distant relationship with Helen in series one). Pam didn't appear in any further series because she was no longer needed.^[7]

Councillor Daphne Dapping (series 1, series 2)

This character is portrayed by actress Jo Kendall, and is the character responsible for putting Brittas in charge of the new sports centre in Whitbury New Town. In the first episode, when, within minutes of arrival Brittas is already upsetting staff and causing strikes, Dapping quickly regrets who she has put in charge.

Councillor Dapping only appears in the very first episode and the series two episode "Safety First"; in the latter, she falls from a fire escape and injures herself, and is replaced by the harsher Councillor Drugett.^[7]

Councillor Jack Druggett (series 4, series 5, series 6, series 7)

Stephen Churchett played Councillor Druggett, a more determined character to remove Brittas than Councillor Dapping was. Druggett first appears at the end of series four, in the episode "The Chop". He succeeds is sacking Brittas as manager of the leisure centre, and also sacks Carol as receptionist after seeing her children kept in office drawers. However, in the following episode Brittas once again inadvertently manages to burn down the building, but in the process saves three children. He is crowned a local hero and with the backing from the press, he returns to manage the newly rebuilt centre in series five.

Druggett's second attempt to remove Brittas then comes at the beginning of series five, when leaving a paper in the centre for Brittas, advertising a job in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. Although Brittas accepts this, he is crushed by a falling water tank, thus his career move to Belgium is ended. Brittas is then taken to hospital and recovers. Druggett tries on several occasions after this to remove Gordon from management, such as in Wake Up The Lion Within, where he conspires with Carol to allow her to replace Brittas as manager. However all of these attempts fail.

Druggett's final appearance is in the final episode, where he dies after eating gypsy-cursed biscuits Brittas has cooked.^[7]

Horatio Brittas (series 3, series 4)

The Reverend Horatio Brittas (played by Richard Braine) is the fraternal twin brother of Gordon Brittas. He was mentioned in series 2. Their father (Robin Parkinson) is still alive. He shares the same "dream" for world peace and social unity that Gordon does, and it is revealed that as children, the two brothers came to an agreement - for Gordon to fulfill the physical part of the dream, while Horatio took care of the spiritual part, as a vicar.

Horatio is a gentle character, and in terms of his voice and mannerisms, appears very similar to Gordon. Like Gordon, while trying to do the right thing, he unintentionally brings chaos and destruction into the lives of those around him. However, unlike Gordon, during the third series he has a crisis of faith when he realizes that his spiritual and peacekeeping interventions have been mostly unsuccessful, and lacks Gordon's unbreakable motivation and self-confidence.^[8] This proves a problem to him as whilst he is staying with Gordon and a pregnant Helen for 4 months, he is considering whether or not to be a missionary in Lebanon, however at the end of the episode, Gordon rallies him and Horatio strongly decides to go to Lebanon. Horatio is also said to be a school teacher of Religious Studies.

Horatio returns to the centre early in series four to baptise Gordon's five young children.^[9] Unfortunately, however, Horatio brings his new girlfriend, Philippa Bellmont, who turns out to have a similar personality to that of Gordon. She annoys Gordon intensely and gets into a fight with Helen, which disrupts the proceedings.

Jim Brittas (series 2)

Jim Brittas (Robin Parkinson) is the father of Gordon Brittas and his brother Horatio. Jim appears in series 2, where he delivers a piano to the centre. It immediately becomes clear that Gordon and Jim get on very well. Whilst talking to Helen and Laura, Jim explains that he is very proud of his sons and confides that he feels he has been a failure at his life because he wanted to become an astronomer but instead ended up as a night watchman for concrete fabric materials which was very worthwhile, but it wasn't his dream. So he vowed that if he ever had children, he would make sure it never happened to them. Jim tells Laura that the secret is constant praise from a very early age and your children will go out into the world with an unshakeable belief that they can really do some good in the world.

By this, we also find out about some of the staff's past's; Laura reveals that her parents just wanted her to do flower and handkerchief arranging; Helen reveals that if she had been a boy, her parents would have inherited a jam factory, so they were disappointed when she was born; Carole reveals that she wanted to become a concert pianist, but her parents wanted her to become a domestic scientist. Jim also says that the ones who didn't have any praise are anxious, indecisive and dose themselves up with tranquillisers- a description which strongly applies to Helen!

This praise is presumably why Gordon is never shaken when he makes a mistake. However whilst Gordon never has any doubts about his abilities, Horatio is known to have doubts about his abilities and sometimes sees what he really does, suggesting that Jim didn't give as much praise to Horatio as he did to Gordon. While Helen and Laura are often driven to madness by Gordon and Horatio, Jim does not appear to upset them and gets on well with them. Jim does not also appear to notice his son's habit of upsetting people and clearly loves them dearly and is very proud of their success.

Michael T. Farrell III (series 3, series 4, series 5)

David Crean portrays Laura's handsome, billionaire but deceptive husband Michael. Hailing from America, Michael first shows up at the centre in an attempt to win Laura back, which fails.^[4] His second attempt in the next series, however, succeeds, but he continues to be deceitful. Nevertheless, it seems he genuinely loves Laura in series five, willing to start work at the sports centre to try and please her. But when Laura Lancing falls pregnant, he instead decides he wants the baby to be brought up in America, to which Laura agrees. An episode set in the future reveals that they name their son Barney.

Brittas hates Farrell, seeing him nothing more than a liar and a cheat. In series four, Farrell turns up for the staff ball, thus preventing Brittas from taking Laura as his dancing partner, making Brittas particularly bitter.^[7]

Penny Bidmead (series 6)

Penny is portrayed by actress Anouschka Menzies, is introduced in Series 6 and operates the leisure centre's "newly privatised" sauna beauty department.

Her role was to replace Laura. She's an attractive blonde, with an air of arrogance about her, which leads to her frequently clashing with other members of staff, including Brittas. However, she does get on well with Helen, and seems to take over Laura's role of Helen's supportive friend. All of the staff treat her with hostility. However Penny was removed for the final series, apparently due to the actress having other filming commitments.

Character	First Appearance	Last Appearance	Episode Count
Gordon Brittas	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	53
Helen Brittas	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	52
Laura Lancing	Laying the Foundations	In the Beginning	37
Colin Weatherby	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	53
Carole Parkinson	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	53
Gavin Featherly	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	53
Linda Perkin	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	51
Tim Whistler	Laying the Foundations	Curse of the Tiger Woman	53
Julie Porter	Back from the Dead	Curse of the Tiger Woman	46
Angie	Laying the Foundations	Stop Thief and Assassin	6
Pam	Laying the Foundations	Underwater Wedding	3
Councillor Dapping	Laying the Foundations	Safety First	2
Councillor Druggett	The Chop	Curse of the Tiger Woman	6
Horatio Brittas	Two Little Boys	The Christening	3
Michael T. Farrell III	Sex, Lies and Red Tape	The Lies have it	3
Penny Bidmead	Back with a Bang	Snap Happy	7

References