The Brittas Empire (TV Series) The Trial (1993) User Reviews

One of the funniest episodes.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 4 December 2021]

Gordon Brittas is on trial, for six counts of murder, and several other crimes, he pleads not guilty, but faces some tough evidence.

I would say this is one of the show's best episodes, it's definitely one of my favourites. It's well and truly at its peak here, and that confidence shines through, in what is a pretty outrageous episode, one which is almost cartoon like, but works on every level, it is side splitting.

Barrie is at his absolute best here, his character CA understand what's going on, he's innocent, but capable of causing genuine chaos, the scene with the old people on their zimmer frames, just hilarious.

Harriet Thorpe is awesome here as Carol, I love that scene where she appears on the stand to give evidence, with the shoe on the other foot, we see a different side to her character, she's fierce.

Side Splitting, 9/10.

HELP ME FOR GODS SAKE BEFORE I HURT SOMEONE!

[mouserd · 10/10 · 9 February 2024]

The Brittas Empire was an okay show that I watched when nothing else was on as I was a Red Dwarf fan but this episode sucked me right into the series.

Its a bit of a Rashamon, court mystery of a comedy and without doubt the best episode of the series and made me a fan.

So what does a court case, involving drug lords, multiple gun murders, decapitation, an out of control chainsaw and super glue have to do with each other.

If I say any more I would spoil the surprise, just see this episode immediately before someone spoils it for you.

Brittas makes mister Bean look positively sane and Arnold (Judas) Rimmer seem competent in comparison.

This is as far as I can tell Barrie's best work and worth the watch.

Just remember the reviews title when you watch this: HELP ME FOR GODS SAKE BEFORE I HURT SOMEONE!

Brittas at its Best

[michael-1151 · 10/10 · 14 March 2024]

I rarely award ten out of ten, after all, life is imperfect, nothing is actually worth the ultimate reward - apart from England winning the World Cup in 1966, my first kiss, the iconic inscrutability of Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner and Tottenham Hotspur winning the double - that's not cream, by the way, it's soccer - or football to us Brits.

This is the darkest episode of the series but amongst the best. Brittas with his anally retentive attitudes, understandably checks the lavatories for cleanliness and finds a key to a locker behind one - and the key to another locker, behind another.

The keys belong to gangs, including one from Bolivia - a beautiful country which shouldn't be judged by the ham actors playing Bolivian gangsters in this episode - doing a drugs deal with a local gang. One case from the locker contains £650,000, the other, the drugs.

Both are taken to Gordon's office where Helen is told to find her new prescription - which clearly has an uplifting effect on her.

Meanwhile the gangs, thinking each has double-crossed the other, have a shoot-out, Brittas gets stuck to a chain saw, which amazingly goes mad and carries him into the sports hall, where he cuts through the Zimmer frames of elderly exercisers.

At his trial, the gangster he'd given a squash trophy to and told of his dream, provides perfect redemption and enables the jury in to find him not guilty.

He is guilty of a breathtaking comic performance, so tongue in cheek, it almost protrudes into the leisure centre pool. Carol for-sees the carnage - but can't prevent it.

During these time of greater sensitivity, such a plot would have difficulty getting past the chainsaws of script editors and producers. In 1992 it was hilariously, side-splittingly funny - and still is, today.