Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf. The series was created by Franc Roddam after an idea from Mick Connell, a bricklayer from Stockton-on-Tees, and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge. It starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Christopher Fairbank, Pat Roach and Gary Holton, with Noel Clarke replacing Holton for series three and four and the two-part finale. The series were broadcast on ITV in 1983–1984 and 1986. After a sixteen-year gap, two series and a Christmas special were shown on BBC One in 2002 and 2004.
In 2000, series 1, set in Germany, was ranked number 46 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in a list compiled by the British Film Institute. In 2015, the 1980s series was voted ITV's Favourite TV Programme of all Time in a Radio Times readers' poll in order to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the station. The show was the subject of the first episode of the BBC documentary series Drama Connections in 2005.
Series 1: 1983–1984
The first series, co-produced by Witzend Productions and Central Television for ITV in 1983, is the story of seven out-of-work construction workers from various parts of England who are forced to look for work in West Germany as a result of the recession and high unemployment of the early 1980s, although its initial emphasis is on three bricklayers from Newcastle upon Tyne making the journey to Germany, with the others being introduced along the way.They find work on a German building site in Düsseldorf but, despite promises of hostel accommodation, are forced to live in a small hut that reminds them of a World War II POW camp. The rest of the series is driven by the interactions and growing friendships between the various characters. Barry, a "spark" from the Black Country, is an obsessive bore; Neville, one of the Geordie "brickies", is an insecure young newlywed; fellow Geordie Oz, another bricklayer, is aggressive and jingoistic; and London "chippy" Wayne is a womaniser. Dennis is another Geordie bricklayer who, being older, more experienced and generally more mature than the others, becomes the de facto leader of the group. Bristolian "brickie" and wrestler Bomber being the oldest is usually the calmest and sense of reason in the group; Scouse ex-con plasterer Moxey is a jittery, recidivist arsonist. Over the course of 13 episodes the "Magnificent Seven" enjoy comic, dramatic, and romantic adventures, until a change in German tax laws forces them to return home.
The "building site" used for most of the filming was a set created on the backlot of the former ATV Elstree Studios at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire. After its sale to the BBC in 1984, the "Albert Square" set of EastEnders was built there. Such was the attention to detail that the producers imported thousands of bricks from West Germany as these were slightly bigger than those used on English building sites.
The show was one of the first to use lightweight video cameras, including the Philips LDK 14S, on location in drama production. Previously used in electronic news-gathering they were more versatile and cheaper to use than studio-based cameras. Interior scenes were shot in studios at Borehamwood. Some location filming was conducted in Hamburg, despite the fact that the series was set in Düsseldorf. In these scenes, most of the cars' registration numbers begin with HH denoting Hamburg.
The location sequences in Hamburg and Düsseldorf actually only lasted 10 days. The Intercontinental hotel which Dennis, Wayne and Barry visit in episode 7, titled "Private Lives", was the same hotel in which the cast and crew stayed while filming there.
In the last episode of the series, "When The Boat Goes Out", the hut on the site where the gang live accidentally catches fire and burns down. The ruins shown on the end credits were the actual ruins of the hut that was used for filming.
The first series was placed at number 46 in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes list compiled in 2000.
Series 2: 1986
The second series of 13 episodes in 1986 saw the boys reunited, initially to help Barry complete extensive building work on his new home in Wolverhampton. Dennis is working for a crooked businessman, Ally Fraser, to whom he owes money. Dennis encourages the rest of the gang to help renovate a country manor house owned by Fraser, Thornely Manor, but they end up falling foul of the locals. Fraser then invites the boys to Spain to complete his swimming pool at his Spanish villa. Once in Spain, the gang are mistaken for criminals themselves and the series ends with them fleeing the Spanish police in a motor yacht, together with Barry's new wife, who had only expected a wedding at sea.The second series had several on-set problems. Actor Gary Holton died before some of the final indoor scenes were filmed, and the scripts had to be reworked to explain Wayne's absence from these indoor scenes. Examples of this include various characters enquiring about Wayne's whereabouts, only to be told that he was chatting up a girl in the next room or that he had gone away for the day. A double was used in other scenes, such as one where Bomber manhandles Wayne away from Ally's girlfriend in a nightclub. The transmission of the final episode of Series 2 saw an introduction by Tim Healy dedicating the episode to Holton.
In his autobiography, Nail said he was glad to be done with filming, not just because of Holton's death but because he felt the second series lacked the gritty edge of the first series, something Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais later said they agreed with. On the audio commentary for series two, Clement said the series was much more contrived in getting and keeping the gang together, and La Frenais said he felt the gang weren't trapped together enough like they were in Germany in the hut. In particular, he felt the Spanish episodes were too luxurious for the gang: instead of sleeping rough, having arguments, and clashing with the Spanish locals, they were often seen relaxing in summer clothes, and occasionally had female partners tagging along, which reduced the impact of the series.
Despite these concerns, the ratings remained high throughout. The episode titled "Marjorie Doesn't Live Here Anymore", which Clement and La Frenais described as their favourite in the second series because it was "drab and grey looking", and "added some meat to Oz's character", was not only the most watched episode of the show's run but drew in the highest audience percentage out of all the channels on the night of its screening, with sixteen million viewers.
Location scenes in the UK were shot around the villages of Caunton, Nottinghamshire, Redmile, Leicestershire and Denton, Lincolnshire. Roundhill Primary School, Beeston, Nottinghamshire was used as the location for 'Walker Street Middle School'. Some scenes were also filmed in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. Location shooting in Newcastle lasted for four days at the end of August 1985. Studio scenes were filmed at Central's new studios in Nottingham, replacing those at Borehamwood.
In 1988, ITV decided to show repeat episodes of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet against EastEnders, the BBC's twice-weekly soap that had grown considerably in popularity since its launch in 1985. The episodes had originally been shown in a late evening slot and hence were very adult in content; ITV wanted to show them during family viewing time, and also in a 30-minute slot. Consequently, they cut each 50-minute episode into two 25-minute ones, thus turning the 26 episodes of the first two series into 52. The shows had to be further edited to remove adult language and sexual references to make them suitable for the desired family-viewing timeslot, and hence the plots often became confusing as key scenes were removed and much of the humour was lost. From 5 April 1988, the edited shows began an ITV network run, slotted on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.30pm in direct competition with EastEnders on BBC One. There were viewer complaints about the editing, and after a few weeks Thames and TVS both opted out of the run and instead showed the original uncut episodes at 10.30pm on Mondays. The majority of ITV regions stayed with the edited run until its natural end in September.
''Educating Oz'' Sketch
The Dennis and Oz characters were reunited for a one-off educational sketch for Tyne Tees in 1986. Made at the height of the AIDS epidemic, it consists of Northern Life presenter Paul Frost and Peter Jones, director of the Haemophilia Centre in Newcastle, discussing HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention in a TV studio, but cuts back and forth to a skit set in a pub, where Dennis and Oz are watching the broadcast, and are themselves discussing the issues over a pint of beer. In the conversation, Dennis becomes increasingly frustrated at Oz's typically ignorant views towards sexual fidelity, safe sex practices, homosexuality and drug abuse. Eventually Jones enters the pub for real and then explains the issues directly to Oz, who eventually takes heed.Series 3: 2002
Sketches written and performed for the Sunday for Sammy charity concerts inspired Clement and La Frenais to revive the series. In 2002, the show was revived, this time as a six-part series produced by Ziji Productions for BBC One and aired from 28 April to 2 June 2002. The original writers and all of the surviving cast returned, joined by Noel Clarke as Wayne's son Wyman. The characters all appeared to have moved on: Moxey was no longer a wanted criminal; Oz had given up drinking; Barry ran a seemingly successful business exporting out-of-date food and Lada cars back to Russia ; Neville and his wife Brenda ran a building company called Nevenda Homes supplying pre-built homes from Scandinavia to DIY home builders. Dennis was now a taxi driver whose biggest fare was on Tuesdays and Fridays driving a drug dealer around the area. The series' storyline revolves around a plan by corrupt politician Jeffrey Grainger, whom Oz had met in prison, to dismantle the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge and sell it for reconstruction in the Far East. Persuading Oz to get the old gang back together to dismantle the bridge, he then plans to cheat them out of their share of the profits, until a Native American, Joe Saugus, from Arizona, arrives to buy the bridge for the benefit of his tribe's casino after seeing an advert placed online by Oz. The lads fly to his reservation to reconstruct the bridge.Each episode except the first featured a re-cap of the previous episode's events in a voiceover from Dennis, a feature not continued in the fourth series.
The special-effects depicting the dismantling of the bridge were so realistic that many people believed it was really being removed, forcing the BBC to add a caption to the final episode reassuring them that it was still there. Middlesbrough Council also issued a press release stating that the bridge remained in situ.
Despite some initial scepticism that the revival would not work, the show was an immediate hit. It won the National Television Award for Best Drama, and a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Drama. In a later television documentary, original executive producer Allan McKeown stated that he had been deeply disapproving of the series' revival and requested that it not be titled Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. However, this was refused and he fell out with La Frenais as a result, though they later reconciled.