‘MR. BRITTAS FALLS IN LOVE’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
In this ‘Brittas’ episode, Mr. Brittas falls in love! No, not with another woman! He’s fallen in love with a dolphin! This is from touring European leisure centres for the EU. He and his wife Helen encountered a dolphin called Ingrid on their journey to Europe. Brittas believes they’re therapeutic.
When he shares this to his staff, Brittas plans to hold a special healing day called ‘dolphin day’ next Tuesday in order to allow the visitors to interact with the dolphin in the leisure centre swimming pool. Only Linda is firmly against Gordon’s healing day, since she considers that to be ‘animal abuse’.
This is a side we’ve not seen often enough in Linda before. I don’t know if Linda’s ‘animal rights’ views have been introduced before, but it’s nice to see that side of her character highlighted in this episode. For the most part, Linda’s been fiercely loyal to Brittas. Here, she may not be so loyal to him.
Tim also gets the chance to demonstrate his culinary skills when making food in the canteen. I suppose this makes a nice change in Tim’s career at the leisure centre since he felt undervalued and underpaid in the previous episode. Alas, his culinary heights are wasted on the clients except Carole.
That might down to the menus being pricey. 😐 Also, on the ‘dolphin day’, Brittas has someone from a comprehensive school come in for work experience. This is Vicci Avery as Rosemary Rawlinson. Unfortunately, she has a speech and hearing impediment. This does get on Mr. Brittas’ nerves a bit here.
Rosemary also ends up working with the ever-disgusting Colin. I hope Rosemary didn’t have to be with Colin for the two weeks she was meant to be spending at Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. Mind you, Rosemary probably didn’t end up doing two weeks, as she was almost eaten by a shark. 😮
Yeah, about that. Julie messes up Gordon’s order for live dolphin Wally and Tim’s order for shark fillet. So, in the end, the ‘dolphin day’ attendees get a shark instead of a dolphin. That was really funny! I bet Julie couldn’t be bothered about making that error when Brittas told her off afterwards.
Linda also mobilises a small array of animal right activists. This ends up having her colleague Tim be injured in chickens cages and soon, the animal rights activists have the dolphin-now-shark removed out of the leisure centre and put back in the sea. Brittas is unaware of Linda doing this in the story. 😐
‘Mr. Brittas Falls In Love’ rating – 8/10
| Go back to | Go next to |
| Return to The Brittas Empire | |
| Return to Comedy |
Hi Tim,
Not a bad episode by any means, and it was good that Linda got prominence for the first time ever in the show, although I did think her change of heart towards the end was rather rushed. Also, whilst what she did is a little worse than what Tim did in the previous episode, I actually think he would have hurt Linda, Colin and Gavin if they tried to escape from their hostage situation. Even though he did have his reasons, he acted like a coward and a petulant man-child.
This is the first time I’ve heard that dolphins can be therapeutic, allow I have heard that they are calm and friendly animals.
I feel like the humour in this series has been a bit too un-PC at times, compared to the first five series. Helen saying in ‘Back with a Bang’ that Carole shouldn’t trust Austrian men with moustaches in reference to Von Trapp was rather offensive, not to mention the fact that Von Trapp didn’t even have a moustache. I feel like this episode in particular made a bit too much out of Rosemary’s speech impediment. I did however like Rosemary as a character and I was relieved when it was revealed that the shark didn’t eat her.
Xavier
Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Mr. Brittas Fall in Love’. Yeah, in retrospect, I suppose I would have written Linda and Tim differently in the way they rebelled against Brittas in their respective episodes. As you rightly said, Tim would have probably hurt people in the previous episode and the way Linda had a change of heart by this episode’s end did seem rather rushed. Again, it’s due to the fact that the two original writers Andrew Fegan and Richard Norriss didn’t write the episodes of Series 6 and 7 and there were different writers for each episode, making the consistency of the characters’ journeys inconsistent. I’m not really sure who was in overall charge of the series’ script-writing and whether there was a definite plan for how each season was going to turn out in ‘The Brittas’ Empire’s latter years.
I suppose dolphins can be therapeutic. I’ve never swam with a dolphin to find out myself, but I’d like to think that’s true. It’s certainly ideal to swim with a dolphin instead of a shark. 😀 Actually, I’ve looked up on Wikipedia and apparently, Georg von Trapp did have a moustache according to his photo (which is quite a surprise considering why was Christopher Plummer cast as Captain von Trapp in ‘The Sound of Music’ and he didn’t have a moustache in the film), but I take your point. Helen did seem rather insensitive about Austrian men when she chatted to Carole in ‘Back with a Bang’, and I wouldn’t have had Rosemary be a character with a speech impediment in this episode. In fact, I would have done an entire episode from Rosemary’s point of view in experiencing what Whitbury New Town Lesiure Centre is like as a work placement and whether she would recommend it for future work experience pupils.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
H Tim,
I was actually referring to ‘The Brittas Empire’s Herr Wilhelm Von Trapp, who does not have a moustache. I found a screenshot of him in ‘UXB’ which I have emailed to you.
I can sort of agree with you on the problems of Richard Fegen and Andrew Norris not writing the last two series. Mind you, it’s been suggested that they already knew that the show had been renewed for another series before series 5 was even over, so I wonder why they didn’t return. Also, I think having multiple writers in a series can work well when done right.
Xavier
Hi Xavier,
Ah, yes, that makes sense. Which then makes me question, why did Helen say he had a moustache when surely she would have seen him in the party scene at the end of ‘UXB’? I would need to revisit the episode to be sure. Either way, it sounds like the writers of Series 6 and 7 didn’t pay attention when doing their research for the previous five seasons. Unless of course she meant male Austrians in general having moustaches, which doesn’t make sense for her to say and sounds insensitive anyway.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
Hi Tim,
I’ve had a think about Tim in this episode. He was planning on using shark meat, which is incredibly pretentious, and I bet it wouldn’t have been ethically sourced. So maybe Tim wasn’t so innocent after all, not that it warranted him being locked in a cage.
Xavier
Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your extra thoughts about Tim in this episode. I forgot Tim was using shark meat in the episode, but it doesn’t sound ideal. I’ve read that some people can eat shark meat, but it comes with significant risks due to high levels of pollutants like mercury and concerns about sustainability. I’ve never had shark meat as part of a meal, but it’s not something I’d go for and I’d prefer the usual fish and chips instead. 😆
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂