‘CURSE OF THE TIGER WOMEN’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
It’s the final episode of ‘The Brittas Empire’ series! Series 6 and 7 have been pretty average as seasons compared to the first five, but I have enjoyed ‘The Brittas Empire’ overall. It’s fitting that this episode resolves a plot thread that began in Series 2 concerning the parentage of certain twins here.
The episode has Mr. Brittas celebrating the leisure centre’s 7th anniversary. He becomes generous by offering his staff his self-baked cake. But the staff are afraid to eat Gordon’s cake. This is from a ‘curse’ put upon Brittas from a gypsy woman who declared that his food is fatal for those who eat it.
Reports come in of people and animals dying from Brittas’ cooking and cake-baking. It starts when Brittas’ best friend Harold dies from eating some kedgeree prepared by Mr. Brittas himself. There are also reports of a goldfish and a canary getting killed by the cake crumbs which Brittas gave them!
A fatal casualty is when Stephen Churchett as Councillor Jack Drugget dies from enjoying a biscuit, made by Brittas, in the leisure centre manager’s office. This is all after Drugget ‘happily’ reports that the municipal council has voted for Mr. Brittas to retire early from being a leisure centre manager. 😐
Thankfully Brittas is able to keep on being leisure centre manager once Drugget is dead and he tears up the form confirming his early retirement. To be fair, Drugget was very insensitive to Brittas when announcing his early retirement, especially since Brittas was going through troubles of his own here.
The troubles involve Helen and Carole figuring out that Carole’s twins were fathered by Gordon. This happened during the two tigers and one gorilla fancy dress New Year’s Party at Julie’s during Series 2. Helen and Carole were the tigers and Gordon was the gorilla. You can see where this ended up. 😐
I like how Brittas handles the issue regarding Carole’s twins. That scene between Brittas and Carole where there’s an understanding between them was nicely handled and even Helen seems to take it well. A contrast to how Helen treated Carole during the events of ‘Surviving Christmas’ before this. 😐
The episode concludes with Brittas being knocked out by an attacking flying goose after flocks of birds who ate Brittas’ cake die to the ground. Brittas ends up in a Noah’s ark-like dream and it may be everything that happened in the series was a dream for Brittas. I like how in the ‘Colin/Linda and kids Noah’s ark’ scene in the swimming pool, Batman ended up being Noah. That was very funny!
The DVD special features for Series 7 of ‘The Brittas Empire’ are as follows. As well as the ‘Surviving Christmas’ Special, there’s a picture gallery.
‘Curse of the Tiger Women’ rating – 8/10
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Hi Tim,
Suffice to say, I don’t like this episode. Interesting that you rated 8/10. I’d personally rate it 4/10. The very last scene really did the series an injustice, not to mention, how is it possible to dream about the events of every episode in the series. I feel like the curse plot could have been more entertaining if the one that ‘cursed’ Gordon hadn’t been a ‘gypsy’, which I found to be rather offensive. Councillor Drugget may have been insensitive towards Gordon in this episode, but you could say it was the other way around when Councillor Drugget died.
At least the Noah’s Ark plot was funny, and I also liked that Gordon got closure with him being Jessica and Emily’s biological father, despite the episodes ending. And I’m pleased that I’ve managed to finally watch every episode of ‘The Brittas Empire’.
Xavier
Hi WF92,
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this episode when you saw it. I suppose on reflection, it’s an episode that doesn’t entirely conclude the series on a high (I mean, Laura’s not in it and I would have preferred an hour-long Christmas Special to bring all the elements of the TV series together). But it’s intriguing how they concluded the series on a note where it could have all been a dream. Had the original writers of ‘Brittas’ penned this series finale, they would have given the characters more dignity, particularly in how they reacted to Councillor Drugget”s death.
Yes, the Noah’s Ark plot was amusing and I like how things were resolved concerning Gordon being the father of Carole’s twins and how Helen coped with that. I’m pleased you got to see every episode of ‘The Brittas Empire’. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the episodes.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂