Helen: Gordon! The boots! The getup! You're Indiana Jones! I love it!
Vlad: No Indiana, Ruthenia!
Helen: Ruthenia Jones!
— Helen Brittas mistaking Vlad for her husband getting ready for some Kinky Role-Playing.
- Date First Aired: 26/03/1996
It's another day at the centre and the Ruthenian State Circus has come to town as part of an EU initiative. As Carole is milling about, she encounters Vlad, one of the acrobats at the circus. Vlad looks exactly like Brittas, but he's a lot dodgier and proceeds to convince Carole to play music. Carole ends up believing that Vlad is Brittas. As Vlad is hitting on Carole, Brittas drives past, deciding to record Carole as late for work and to not talk to strange people on the street.
As Brittas makes it into the centre, he is introduced to the members of the Chattanooga Church. The members had heard about Brittas' death and resurrection, and they want to complete the rebirth by baptising him in his own pool. Brittas does not like the idea, believing it would be best that he's not associated with any religion as a leisure centre manager.
Meanwhile, Brittas prepares for the circus to come and considers merchandising for the circus. Apparently, the circus is quite shit and comes with a bear. Sometime later, Linda comes in with drawings of her boyfriend Edward. As it turns out, Brittas told her she was beautiful at the supermarket, even though Brittas doesn't remember being there.
Sometime later, Carole is practising her violin playing when Helen comes in. Apparently, the romance has gone out of her and Brittas' marriage. As she discusses this with Penny, she puts forward the idea that they dress up for sexual purposes.
Meanwhile, the Chattanooga representatives continue to pursue Brittas. Just then, Vlad shows up and starts seducing Carole again. As he wanders around the centre, Helen finds him and mistakes him for Brittas with a Indiana Jones get-up and decide to have sex in a towel cupboard. Just as they're about to do the act, however, Brittas appears. Helen is horrified, and considers checking her back into the clinic for more therapy. Brittas and Helen chat and Brittas states that he does love her, to the happiness of Helen.
The staff finally figure out that Vlad is a doppelganger of Brittas. They note the mythology that if you see a doppelganger of yourself, you're dead. Whilst Julie, Gavin, and Tim are happy to see Brittas dead, Linda isn't and she ends up knocking out Vlad when he shows up. As Vlad is driven off, a bear gets loose in the car park. Brittas immediately gets everyone in the pool for protection. The bear gets into the centre and is rid on by Helen (who believes that it's Brittas wearing a bear costume). The Chattanooga representatives use the opportunity to baptise him then and there. Vlad eventually wakes up next to a group of sheep and the episode ends.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Accidental Misnaming: The representative of the Chattanooga Church keeps calling Brittas "Mr. Brightass".
- Beary Funny: A bear manages to get into the centre. On top of it looking more like a man wearing a costume than an actual bear, humour is mined from the fact that Helen, mistaking it for Brittas, ends up on top of it as it's cycling down the side of the pool.
- Bears Are Bad News: A bear gets loose in the centre, leading to Brittas asking for everyone to get into the pool for their own safety. Helen ends up riding it thinking that it was Brittas in a costume.
- Brick Joke: Tim briefly mentions how something that Colin gave Brittas which was intended to cure his athlete's foot instead caused his hair to begin to fall out, at which Colin retorts that it was a labelling error. At the end of the episode, Colin makes the same mistake, leading to several members of the public being given laxatives instead of the tonic he was peddling all episode.
- Call-Back:
- Brittas' resurrection in "The Last Day" is what brings representatives from the Chattanooga church to the leisure centre to attempt to convert Brittas, with Tim even referencing how Brittas died in the episode.
- Mention is made of Helen having been committed to a mental clinic in the time that Brittas had been dead, with Helen considering going back there for more therapy upon apparently seeing Gordon in two places.
- Came Back Wrong: Apparently, Brittas hasn't noticed Helen much since his return from the dead. As such, Helen briefly ponders if it's because he left his libido in the afterlife.
- The Casanova: Vlad, who keeps trying to seduce the female members of staff so that they can "play music" with him. He's almost successful with Helen, until the real Brittas shows up.
- Celebrity Resemblance: According to Helen, Brittas looks a lot like Harrison Ford. Well, when she's on the right pills of course.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early on in the episode, Penny makes a derogating remark about a wart on Brittas' jaw, which comes into play when she figures out that Vlad and Brittas are different people based on the fact that Vlad doesn't have this wart.
- Circus Episode: This episode revolves around the Ruthenian State Circus coming to Whitbury as part of an EU initiative. Chaos ensues when one of the acrobats performing as part of the act, Vlad, is revealed to be an Identical Stranger to Brittas.
- Closet Shuffle: Helen, who is about to make love to Vlad, overhears someone coming, so stuffs Vlad inside the towels cupboard. Unfortunately for her, that person is Brittas, and she is left with the impression that she had just hallucinated Brittas in a costume. It's only after she follows Brittas when Vlad come out, wondering if it was because of something he said that caused her departure.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Neither Tim, Gavin, or Julie are bothered by the idea that Brittas might die from seeing his own doppelganger. Gavin even hopes that it will make him Manager.
- Continuity Nod: Colin and Carole recall the time that Colin proposed marriage to Carole, only for her to turn it down.
- Competition Freak: According to Helen at least, Brittas is very serious regarding competition - he apparently even has to win at French Cricket games with his children.
- Dead Sparks: Helen fears that the spark has gone out of her and Brittas' marriage since he returned from the dead.
- Doppelgänger: This episode reveals Brittas has one in the form of a sleazy, but harmless Ruthenian acrobat.
- Distinguishing Mark: The wart on Brittas' jaw turns out to be the one thing distinguishing him from his doppelganger.
- Double Vision: The issue of depicting Brittas and Vlad on-screen is resolved by simply not doing so. The first exception comes when Brittas passes by Vlad in his car at the beginning of the episode - this is achieved through an Over the Shoulder shot from Brittas' end with Vlad (likely through stand-in) portrayed as a passing blur. The other exception comes in the case of Vlad entering Brittas' office whilst Brittas is present, which is resolved by having Brittas' head hidden by a bag until Vlad is knocked out and taken out of frame.
- Dramatic Irony: Linda goes to great lengths to keep Brittas and Vlad apart under the belief that Brittas will die if he sees Vlad, completely unaware of the fact that Brittas drove past Vlad at the beginning of the episode and acknowledged his existence without dying.
- Dreadful Musician: While Carole has been previously established to be amazing at playing the piano, this episode reveals her skills don't carry over to any other musical instrument. One round of the trombone is enough to make Brittas cringe.
- Failed a Spot Check: Despite how different Vlad is from Brittas both personality, clothing, and voice-wise, all of the staff (with the exception of Penny, although she doesn't get a chance to see Vlad until close to the end) genuinely believe Vlad to be the real deal and don't question it too much until near the end of the episode. Helen at least gets the explanation that she had been hoping that Brittas would spice up their sex life.
- Fan Disservice: Linda was inspired by Vlad to draw a nude painting of her 70-year-old, wrinkly boyfriend Edward. The audience gets a glimpse of it and it is exactly as unpretty as it sounds.
- Fictional Document: The Whitbury Times, an apparent newspaper which chronicles how Vlad gave the kiss of life to a bull terrier.
- Funny Foreigner: Vlad is Eastern European, speaks in a comically exaggerated accent, and much humour is mined at how he's essentially the opposite of Brittas in spite of his appearance, as well as the general misunderstandings which come from having two people who look the exact same running about the place.
- Identical Stranger: Vlad, a sleazy Ruthenian acrobat, looks exactly like Brittas.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: There is one physical difference between Vlad and Brittas - Brittas has a wart on his jawline, whilst Vlad doesn't.
- Idiot Ball: Most of the staff grab it when they mistake Vlad for Brittas, not questioning why Brittas has decided to randomly and suddenly change his accent, clothing, and personality, and outright ignoring both him and his doppelganger's statements to the contrary.
- Kinky Role-Playing: Ever since he returned from the dead several episodes prior, Brittas has not noticed Helen that much on a sexual level. When she mentions this to Penny, she suggests spicing up the sex life through the use of costumed role-play. Naturally, when Brittas' Identical Stranger Vlad comes to the centre, Helen thinks it's Brittas putting on a Indiana Jones get-up for the purpose of sexual role-play and prepares herself to have sex with him until the actual Brittas shows up. She later repeats this mistake with a bear that had gone loose in the centre.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Helen was about to make love to Vlad inside the towels cupboard before Brittas finds her.
- Mistaken for Insane: Linda's theory for why Mr. Brittas is acting so odd is that he has schizophrenia. In truth, the reasoning for Brittas' strange behaviour is that he has an Oddball Doppelgänger running around the centre, who the others mistake him for.
- Mistaken Identity: The cast spends much of the episode believing that Vlad is actually Brittas wearing a costume.
- Mondegreen Gag: When Carole meets Vlad for the first time, she asks why Brittas (whom she has mistaken him for) is speaking so oddly. Vlad mishears "Brittas" as "British" and tells her that he isn't British but rather Ruthenian.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: An odd variant - the part of the myth of the doppelganger where if a person sees their doppelganger, they die is brought up and Linda tries her best to make sure that Brittas and Vlad don't see each other as a result. She's unaware that Brittas did see his doppelganger briefly at the beginning of the episode and survived to tell the tale.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, Brittas was once offered a circumcision, although he turned it down.
- Colin once offered Brittas something to cure a case of Athlete's foot, only for his hair to start falling out.
- Helen and Brittas once went to a vicar and tarts party, with Helen as the vicar and Brittas as a Bakewell tart, only for the dog to go all over Brittas.
- Not a Mask: Helen ends up on top of a bear at the end of the episode, clearly under the belief that who she's on is Brittas in a bear costume. It isn't until the real Brittas, situated in a pool, reminds her that the bear isn't him that Helen begins to panic.
- Oddball Doppelgänger: Vlad stands out for his particularly eccentric personality compared to his doppelganger Brittas - whilst Brittas is straight-laced, clean, and uninterested in having sex with anyone beyond Helen (and even that is in doubt this episode) at this point, Vlad speaks in a broad accent, smells of manure, is somewhat sleazy, and is rather interested in having sex with everyone. Oddly enough, this doesn't stop the rest of the staff from believing Vlad to be Brittas.
- Oddly Small Organisation: Parodied with the Ruthenian State Circus, which has literally three members. Apparently, if there appear to be more of them, it's actually the same members wearing moustaches.
- One-Shot Character: Vladimir.
- One-Steve Limit: Vlad shares the same name as a pianist from "Mums and Dads".
- Overworked Sleep: Tim has been up all night at his catering job, which has led to him sleeping everywhere in the centre, including reception.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: Brittas apparently became Man of the Year for Time Magazine, the cover story of which revealed to the Chattanooga Representatives his brief period being dead.
- Roundhouse Kick: Linda kicks Vlad in the face in a bid to prevent Brittas from seeing him.
- Rule of Pool: Brittas makes everyone get in the pool for safety and ends up being baptised there.
- Ruritania: Vlad hails from Ruthenia, which is described as a poor Eastern European country taking advantage of a European scheme.Vlad: Soon, Ruthenia join the Common Market, win Eurovision contest!
- Shout-Out:
- According to Penny, people in Whitbury are doing their chores dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Helen wonders if that means that Brittas has to dress as Toto.
- Helen mistakes Vlad for Brittas doing a Indiana Jones roleplay.
- Carole is seen to own a bust of Ludwig van Beethoven.
- Brittas tells Carole that she isn't any Louis Armstrong.
- Helen claims Brittas looks like Harrison Ford.
- Vlad hopes that his country wins the Eurovision.
- Suddenly Voiced: After not speaking at all for the first 5 series, Ben gets an actual line here.Gavin: Carole, can I borrow a marker pen?Carole: Yes, borrow one of Ben's felt tips. I'm sure he won't mind.Ben: Oh no! I won't get it back!Carole: You'll get it back!
- Symbolic Baptism: The Chattanooga representatives want to baptise Brittas to complete the cycle of death and resurrection that he went through. They eventually get their wish in the end.
- You No Take Candle: Due to his Eastern European origins, Vlad doesn't have the firmest grasp of English.Vlad: No British, no, no, no, no. I no speak English good, you know. I'm Ruthenian.
