Chris Barrie played titular character Gordon Brittas, the well-intentioned but hugely incompetent manager of the fictional Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre.

Best of the Britcoms noted the series has been hailed as "the Fawlty Towers of the 1990s" due to its "fast-paced, outrageous [comedy] full of inventive gags".

Barrie described the humour as "straightforward, slapstick, very accessible characters, larger-than-life abnormal things happening in a very normal situation".

Completely tactless, totally annoying, and forever coming up with 'half-baked' ideas (and oblivious to all of his aforementioned faults), Brittas frequently upsets his staff, public, and his frazzled wife Helen (Pippa Haywood), often bringing confusion and chaos into their lives.

Helen Brittas finds coping with Gordon increasingly difficult and often turns to medication and affairs with other men to maintain her sanity.

Helen is often helped by her supportive friend Laura Lancing (Julia St John), Brittas' calm, efficient deputy manager.

Though she is fully aware of his incompetence and the annoyance he causes his colleagues and customers, Laura has a grudging admiration for Brittas, regarding him as honest and decent.

The other core members of the team are Carole (Harriet Thorpe) the unfortunate, often tearful receptionist, who keeps her three children in the reception drawers and cupboards; the gentle-hearted Gavin (Tim Marriott) who becomes Deputy Manager in Series 5; his paranoid, sometimes-manic partner Tim (Russell Porter); lively, principled Linda (Jill Greenacre); and Julie (Judy Flynn), Brittas' sarcastic secretary, who hates her boss and refuses to do any work for him.

According to Barrie, Gordon Brittas is well-meaning but insensitive because he has a lofty dream to make the world a better place, but he doesn't know how to execute it on the small-scale.

These writers were: Paul Smith (who also wrote the series seven episode "Malcolm ex" for Andrew Marshall's 2point4 Children), Terry Kyan, Tony Millan, Mike Walling, Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent.

The book Writing Dialogue for Scripts argues that the show's comedy is largely fuelled by the dramatic irony of the audience knowing that the main character is not important, while he believes he is, and compared Brittas to Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army.

[12] Critics John Lewis and Penny Stempel noted the series' theme of "an incompetent in charge of others" in the vein of TV humour from Dad's Army to Are You Being Served?, coupled with an element of absurdism.

[14] I'm Too Busy to be Stressed described Gordon as a classic example of an over-compensating individual who exhibits a sense of authority to camouflage the inferiority beneath.

[17] According to the Eastern Europe Travel Survivors Kit 1994, shows like The Brittas Empire and American primetime soap opera Dynasty formed the backbone of Poland's two state TV channels.

[22] In 2017, Digital Spy wrote that the show "arguably inspired Ricky Gervais' The Office in the early noughties, which went on to have huge success – so it's only natural The Brittas Empire may be in for a reboot".