TV Comedy: The Brittas Empire – #47 – S07 E04 – Wake Up the Lion Within – Chris Barrie, Pippa Haywood,

This episode

Carole uses Brittas’ “Waking up the lion within” technique to spawn an alter ego, which commands her to take control of the centre using any means necessary. This leads to the once tearful receptionist taking Brittas’ job.

Wikipedia

The Brittas Empire is a British sitcom created and originally written by Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen. Chris Barrie played Gordon Brittas, the well-meaning but incompetent manager of Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre.

The show ran for seven series and 52 episodes — including two Christmas specials — from 1991 to 1997 on BBC1. Norriss and Fegen wrote the first five series, after which they left the show.

The Brittas Empire enjoyed a long and successful run throughout the 1990s, and gained large mainstream audiences. In 2004 the show came 47th on the BBC’s Britain’s Best Sitcom poll,and all series have been released on DVD.

The creators Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen often combined farce with either surreal or dramatic elements in episodes. For example, in the first series, the leisure centre prepares for a royal visit, only for the doors to seal, the boiler room to flood and a visitor to become electrocuted. Unlike the traditional sitcom, deaths were quite common in The Brittas Empire. MORE AT LINK