Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - ITV1 Comedy Drama - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)
Genre
Broadcast
Channels
Episodes
40 (4 series)
Creator
Stars
Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Gary Holton, Pat Roach, Timothy Spall, Christopher Fairbank, Julia Tobin and more
Writers
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais
Directors
Roger Bamford, Paul Seed, Maurice Phillips, David Innes Edwards and Sandy Johnson
Producers
Martin McKeand, Joy Spink, Chrissy Skinns, Allan McKeown, Laura Mackie, Franc Roddam, Peter Millhouse, Nick Goding and Matthew Patnick
Companies
With jobs scarce in the recession-ridden UK of the early 1980s, the Geordie trio of Dennis, Neville and Oz decide to leave their wives and girlfriends in search of employment overseas. Dennis is the most mature of the three, philosophical and reasonably sensible. Neville is the drippy one, emotionally strained at having to leave his new wife, Brenda, while Oz is the archetypal slob: big, fat, bigoted and dense.
They are taken on as labourers on a Düsseldorf building site, where they share a hut with four other expatriates - boring Brummie electrician Barry, Cockney carpenter Wayne, level-headed Bristolian wrestler Bomber and Scouse petty crook Moxey. The seven make quite a team. Sharing each other's joys, despairs, hopes and worries, they drink and womanize through their tour of duty, edging from scrape to scrape and from scam to scam.
In the second series, the boys are reunited to renovate the Derbyshire mansion of Newcastle gangster Ally Fraser, for whom Dennis has been forced to work after amassing gambling debts. When that ends, the lads head off for a few episodes' labour under the Spanish sun, building a swimming pool at Ally's villa.
The series was revived for a third and fourth series by the BBC. By this time, Oz has decided to take life seriously, largely kicking the drink habit and looking to make business work for him. A spell in jail alongside disgraced politician / wheeler-dealer Jeffrey Grainger has set him up with an idea for dismantling and selling the transporter bridge at Middlesbrough.
He needs help, however, and recalls his old buddies so that the magnificent seven can ride again, this time into the desert sun of Arizona. There the bridge is used to spawn a canyon, rendering a casino, owned by native Chocanaw Americans, more profitable, and so saving their community. To replace the late Gary Holton, Noel Clarke was cast as his son, Wyman.
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Additional details
Production
Location
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour
Website links
Broadcast details
First broadcast
Friday 11th November 1983 at 9pm on ITV1
Next repeats
- Series 2, Episode 11: Thursday 3rd October at 9pm on ITV4
- Series 2, Episode 12: Thursday 10th October at 9pm on ITV4
Most recent repeats
- Monday 23rd September 2024 at 1:00am on ITV4 - Series 2, Episode 10
- Thursday 19th September 2024 at 9:00pm on ITV4 - Series 2, Episode 10
- Sunday 15th September 2024 at 10:00pm on ITV4 - Series 2, Episode 9