The Brittas Empire - Season 4 (1994)

Gordon is most eager to depart to press his candidacy for a European Committee on the Leisure Industry at a dinner, but Helen, who tells Laura he always makes waiters so furious they throw food at them, has psychosomatically-blocked muscles and various staff members are programmed to make wacky responses to certain signals by a hypnotist. Gordon asks him to cure Helen, but when he also goes into a trance, Laura convinces the therapist to temporarily remove his need to change the world.

Helen has (conveniently?) booked a week in Cornwall a week before Gordon's leave, so he's even more focused on the job, notably Energy Conservation Week, producing a mountain of (5-page) forms to be filled in at every use of electric equipment. Colin builds a complete methane digestion system for human bio-waste. Gavin's fiancée Jenny turns up after five years abroad, with amnesia. His gay colleague, housemate, and partner Tim goes through hell while Mr. Brittas champions the welcome committee. When Gavin says she was in psychiatric therapy for years after her parents...

Brittas sees the annual official dance as a rare occasion for his staff to mix with society, but is gravely disappointed when many seem unable or unwilling to get a suitable partner. Colin asks his milk-deliverywoman; Carole places an ad and gets an answer from her first teenage boyfriend, who is now wealthy but gets his hand stuck in the suggestion box and gets into worse trouble; Laura's Texan ex-partner Michael T. Farrell III turns up, disinherited and broke. Helen has rushed back home, but in what state? The weather isn't festive either.

Mr. Brittas has the staff play an intricate board game which paints a grim vision on life, seemingly designed to show that hard work pays, but as Tim finds out, it only demonstrates that life is unfair. Councilor Jack Drugget, the new man in charge of sports, announces that the council simply is no longer prepared to foot the bill for the Leisure Centre's enormous deficit, and offers Brittas a generous pension with a bonus if he leaves the county, but he won't hear of it. Receptionist Carole asks Laura to help convince Gordon that her son Ben needs a larger cupboard. ...

Since the last disaster actually got Gordon fired, he took a new job: petrol-station attendant. Laura isn't surprised to witness the endless lines of unhappy clients that his obsession for rules has created. An hour later, Helen tells Laura that Gordon has already been sacked. Meanwhile, at the Centre, only Colin misses Brittas' endless staff meetings and other nonsense. The new manager, Alan Digby, visits daily with unwanted, detailed 'suggestions,' but this time Gordon delivers a weather clock, personally installs it, tinkers with the timetable, and manages to ...