The Brittas Empire - Season 1 (1991)

Well-meaning perfectionist and incurable bumbling busybody Gordon Brittas moves into Whitbury as manager of the brand new municipal leisure center. After annoying his new neighbors almost immediately, he enters the center, not without infuriating the builders so they stop finishing work on it. Inside his totally scientific, alas reality-unrelated roster is just the first on an endless list of ill-considered decisions with even more disastrous consequences then a pessimist could expect, all the series long.

Mr. Brittas takes charge of preparations for the official opening of Whitbury Leisure Center with a royal visit: the Duchess of Kent. Alas, the builders hate Gordon so much that they don't bother to tell him that the brand-new pool is leaking. The heating is operated by Boilerman Barnes (retired from the Navy), who takes Brittas' instructions to heat the pool 'at warp speed' literally. The electrician who should have taken care of a malfunctioning automatic door gets sent away and a well-meaning Boy Scout is commandeered in his place. The Duchess is walking straight ...

Gordon takes charge at reception, but once he sends Carole away, who is desperately worried about her baby and hoping for a reconciliation with her husband Derrick--everything goes wrong. Schoolboy Peter Philips inquires whether his tie was found, but Gordon's 'methodical' approach causes a huge, noisy queue to build up behind the boy. The desperate boy pretends to have found it, only to be reported to the police as a budding thief. Ken Owen comes to give a lecture on stress management, but with Gordon as the slide-show operator, Ken fights the urge to go for his ...