Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s Day 9 of ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendar 2024.
Here’s the ninth Christmas recommendation by me on ‘Bradley’s Basement’.
I’m currently revisiting ‘The Brittas Empire’ on ITVX and hopefully on DVD with Series 6 and 7. I don’t usually revisit ‘The Brittas Empire’ Christmas Specials that often, as there are only two of them, but when I’m able to, it’s always lovely to watch them at Christmas.
Arguably, ‘In the Beginning’, which was shown after Series 5, is better than ‘Surviving Christmas’, which was shown between Series 6 and 7. Series 5 was originally meant to close off ‘The Brittas Empire’, so it’s fitting ‘In the Beginning’ would be the final episode.
There are issues concerning ‘In the Beginning’, particularly in terms of continuity with the main story taking place in 1989, which contradicts the series taking place in the 1990s. The main story also clearly looks like it’s from Series 5 instead of taking place in Series 1.
‘In the Beginning’ is also more of a New Year’s Special instead of a Christmas Special. Regardless, it does well with developing the characters and how Gordon Brittas and his team are regarded as a family, especially when they appear to meet up for every New Year.
It’s also the last episode to feature Laura as a regular character in ‘The Brittas Empire’, which is something I feel the series lost when it came to Series 6 and 7. ‘Surviving Christmas’ might be entertaining and set at Christmas, but Laura’s absence is truly felt.
Thanks for reading!
Check out what Day 9 of my ‘Bradley’s Basement’s Advent Calendars for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 were about!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Hi Tim,
I’ve enjoyed the advent calendar so far. I’m pleased to hear you’ve been revisiting ‘The Brittas Empire’. I’ve been rewatching some of my favourite episodes from the series recently, and I’ll be revisiting both Christmas specials.
P.s. the third ‘Sonic’ movie is close to being released. I’ve seen the trailers for it and it looks good. Also, Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman are, from a real-world standing point, the same age as Gordon Brittas and most of the shows regular characters, except Julie. 😀
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
Glad you’re enjoying my advent calender so far, including Day 9 about ‘The Brittas Empire’. I saw ‘In the Beginning’ last night. I was surprised to find ‘The Brittas Empire’ is no longer on ITVX. I ended up watching the special on DVD, which reminds me of how good it is to have films and TV shows you love on DVD and Blu-ray just in case they get taken off streaming sites without warning. I enjoyed revisiting ‘In the Beginning’, despite some of the continuity issues I have with it.
I’m looking forward to seeing ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ at the cinema too. A shame it’s not being released before Christmas but I’m sure I’ll get to enjoy the film when I see it after Christmas. I’ve just purchased my copy of the Christmas bumper edition of the Radio Times today. Looking forward to the variety of Christmas entertainment in December, including ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Wallace & Gromit’ and ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.
Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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