Gordon Brittas: Sharing the Dream is a tie-in book released for The Brittas Empire in 1994. Written from the perspective of Gordon Brittas, the book is about his philosophy of life, his way of coping with issues such as marriage and parenting, and of course, the Dream. The book also serves as a partial Novelisation of Series 1-4 of the TV show, with several scenes rewritten in prose to help support Brittas' opinions and ideas.
An audio cassette version of the book, read by Brittas' actor Chris Barrie, was released in 1995.
Tropes in this book:
- Acquired Error at the Printer: It's revealed that the Whitbury Printing and Publicity Co. Ltd (which is apparently responsible for the badge misprints depicted in the show) printed one thousand publicity booklets for the book as "Gordon Brittas - Sharing the Cream". Granted, they did eventually correct this error - to "Shaving the Dream".
- AM/FM Characterization:
- Brittas cites his love for "Climb Ev'Ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music and what appears to be a line from the 1993 song "No Limit" as an indicator of his philosophy of life, with both used as examples of both the scope of his Dream and his belief that there is no limit in what you can achieve and the latter used to show that he understands the youth (although the slightly mangled recounting of the latter suggests that he isn't as close to the ear as he would claim).
- When talking about the Neil Sedaka tape that he once gifted Helen, Brittas mentions that her favourite songs on it are "Little Devil", "King of Clowns", "One Night Stand", "Solitaire", and "Our Last Song Together", referencing how she is a sexually promiscuous but depressed woman who wants nothing more than to get away from Brittas, not that he completely realises.
Mr. Brittas: Helen says it sums up all her hopes and dreams. - All There in the Manual: The book reveals a bit more about Brittas' life not shown in the TV series, such as the fact that he's the older twin to Horatio's younger and the fact that he was born on the 25th of April 1958.
- Canon Marches On: The book mentions Carole as having a son named Tom, which was consistent with what had been shown on-screen prior to the book's release. The next series to release after the book, Series 5, retcons Tom's existence into a daughter called Jessica.
- Comically Missing the Point: Brittas shows the reader the amount of complaints he received, which gradually rise over the first three months of the year until they're as tall as him in March. Brittas is pleased to see this, seeing it as a sign that it's a roaring success and one of the most popular features in the centre, and doesn't realise that all of these complaints are really a sign of how much of an Obstructive Bureaucrat he is.
- Direct Line to the Author: Brittas thanks Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss (the creators of Brittas) and Chris Barrie (who played Brittas) for helping him "bring my thoughts to a wider public, by putting into words and actions the deeper recesses of my mind", suggesting that Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre, as well as Brittas, does actually exist, and the show is based on these real life exploits.
- Doorstopper:
- The instruction manual for Brittas' version of "Game of Life" is described as a "900 page shelf bender", complete with illustrations.
- The Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre Safety Manual is described as being 560 pages in length, with poor Colin having to copy it 10 times.
- Fun with Acronyms: An example predating the Running Gag in the TV series comes with Brittas promoting the benefits of healthy eating using acronyms based off his own name, with "Good Diet Organically Regulates Digestion Of Nutriment", Bad diet Results In Tummy Troubles And Smells" and "Why Eat Large Lunches? Eat Something Like Elderberry Yoghurt".
- Exact Words: Brittas was told that his book would require a list of contents, so he provided several pie charts regarding discipline, advice, and weight contained in the book. He is disturbed to later find out that all that was needed was a list of subject headings and the pages in which they appear.
- Given Name Reveal:
- Jim Brittas in his one appearance in "Mums and Dads" was referred to as either "Dad", "Mr. Brittas", or "Jim", but the book reveals that Jim's actual first name is James.
- The name of Brittas' mother is not given in the TV series, but here, she's given the name of Jane.
- The Graph Shows the Trend: Provided are graphs regarding the number of new courses introduced in the leisure centre and the average of attendance for the courses. Amusingly, Brittas gets happier and happier as he shows the reader these graphs, with a notable smile as he shows the rock-bottom numbers for the average attendance.
- Handwriting as Characterization: A brief glimpse of Colin's attempts to copy out the Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre Safety Manual depicts his writing style as scrawly and difficult to read, an indicator of Colin's status as The Ditz.
- Money Dumb: In his recounting of his meeting with Horatio regarding if Philippa is right for him, Brittas reveals that Helen is good at managing money - as long as she isn't given too much of it at any time.
- Retcanon: Brittas' charts regarding the creation of courses and the average attendance of them suggests that the leisure centre opened in 1989 rather than the 1991 date given in earlier episodes, something which ends up in later episodes, most notably "In the Beginning...".
- Road Apples: Brittas, in his recounting of the incident regarding Wayne the dog doing his business in the pool reveals that the poop which Colin managed to pick up from the pool somehow made its way into Brittas' office. This recounting is accompanied by a picture of Brittas holding his nose whilst handling the poop.
- Waxing Lyrical: Brittas' recounting of his meeting with Dr. Alan Matthews adds a reference to the musical number "Happy Talk" from South Pacific that wasn't in the original episode.Alan Matthews: Dreams can be dangerous. I sometimes think we'd be better off without them.Mr. Brittas: But you've got to have a dream. If you don't have a dream... how you going to make a dream come true?"
