TV Shows We Used To Watch - British TV show - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
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Description
Auf Wiedersehen Pet is a British comedy-drama series about a group of seven British migrant construction workers: Wayne, Dennis, Oz, Bomber, Barry, Neville and Moxey; who, in Series 1, are living and working on a German building site. It was created by Franc Roddam and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who also wrote The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge. Stan Hey also contributed writing a number of episodes. The first two series of the show were co-produced by Clement and LaFrenais's Witzend Productions and Central Television for ITV (the assistance of ITV was necessary at that time to gain access to the network) and broadcast in 1983/84 and 1986 on ITV. A successful revival of the show saw two series and a Christmas special shown on BBC One (after ITV had failed to re-secure rights for the Network) in 2002 and 2004. It starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail, Noel Clarke, Christopher Fairbank, Pat Roach and Timothy Spall as the leading roles. In 2005, the show was chosen as the subject of the first episode of the BBC documentary series Drama Connections. Summary Dennis (Tim Healy), Neville (Kevin Whately) and Oz (Jimmy Nail) are three unemployed bricklayers living on Tyneside in the early 1980s. They decide to travel to West Germany to find work in the booming German construction industry. They end up working on a building site in Dusseldorf, sharing a Nissen hut with Barry (Timothy Spall), Wayne (Gary Holton), Bomber (Pat Roach) and Moxey (Christopher Fairbank). The seven are reunited for the second series, working for Tyneside hoodlum Ally Fraser (Bill Patterson). They start off renovating an old country house, then move to Spain to do some work on Ally's holiday villa. A further series was made in 2002. This featured the same main cast as the original programme, with the obvious exception of Gary Holton. The boys got together again to dismantle a transporter bridge in Middlesborough and move it to Arizona. A fourth series was transmitted in the UK early in 2004. After a disastrous trip to Russia, the boys find themselves in Cuba, refurbishing an embassy building. It wasn't possible to carry out location filming in Cuba, so series 4 had to be filmed in the Dominican Republic. This much-loved 1980s drama follows the humorous misadventures of seven unemployed men from the UK, who end up working together on a building site in Germany. There’s Geordie brickies Oz (Jimmy Nail), Neville (Kevin Whately) and Dennis (Tim Healy), Brummie sparkie Barry (Timothy Spall), Cockney chippy Wayne (Gary Holton), Scouse plasterer Moxy (Christopher Fairbank), and Bristolian brickie-cum-giant Bomber (Pat Roach). Oz (Jimmy Nail) provides much of the comedy, thanks to his getting into various scrapes (often as a result of a big night out). The show provided a launch-pad to bigger things for many of the cast. Cast Dennis Patterson (Tim Healy) - Dennis, whether he likes it or not, has been co-opted as the leader of the seven. When we first meet the Geordie bricklayer, he is being divorced by his first wife Vera. He later has an affair with a German on-site secretary named Dagmar, played by Brigitte Kahn. In series two, he is working for a Newcastle-Upon-Tyne gangster, Ally Fraser, to whom he is in debt. Fraser has a notorious reputation throughout the northeast. Dennis has two children and can sometimes be short-tempered, but is basically a man of high moral standards and good people skills. At the opening of the third series, he is driving a mini-cab for a living and supplementing his income by working as a drug-dealer's driver. Neville Hope (Kevin Whately) - Neville is under the thumb of his formidable wife Brenda. He constantly worries about the welfare of his wife and 3 children, and his heart is in Newcastle. He married young and has no regrets about it, although in the third series he is clearly suffering from a mid-life crisis. Leonard "Oz" Osborne (Jimmy Nail) - Oz, in the original series was a loud, belligerent, abrasive, drunken Geordie lout who showed no fidelity towards his wife or concern for his son. He had a xenophobic attitude to Germans, and later to Turks and Spaniards. His major passions in life were drinking and supporting Newcastle United. At the end of the second series, he wins the Spanish lottery and spends much of his new-found wealth on presents for his friends, but has squandered it by the beginning of the third series, in which he re-unites his five surviving pals at his own phoney funeral. By this time the character has changed somewhat, becoming more mature and less violent, and is prepared to lead his friends off on new adventures overseas. His son has grown up and is gay, which at first horrifies Oz. Barry Spencer Taylor (Timothy Spall) - Barry is a bashful, boring, bumbling West Midlander (he mentions connections with West Bromwich and Wolverhampton) electrician with a large vocabulary and a motorbike. His tendency to be 'boring' and to look on the bleak side of things are mocked by his mates, but they retain some affection for him. He has been married twice, first to a local girl named Hazel (played by Melanie Hill), then later the glamorous Russian Tatiana played by Branka Katic. Both marriages end in divorce, but at the end of the series he is reconciled with Tatiana. Wayne Winston Norris (Gary Holton, d.1985) - Wayne, as he so accurately describes himself, is a 'jack the lad', a chirpy chippy (carpenter), who's proud of his Cockney roots. His obsession with women often lands him and his friends in trouble. He drives a flash red BMW and wears a trademark red/blue hockey jacket (also an electric pink blazer early in the first series). At the end of the first series, Wayne marries Christa, (played by Lysette Anthony), a secretary at the building site. The character of Wayne died in the year 2000 due to a congenital heart problem (according to his son, who knows little about his life or death), by way of explaining why he was no longer in the show. He was replaced by his illegitimate son Wyman (although this character had less charisma than Wayne, and was, according to some critics, "a great deal more irritating and far less likeable). Gary Holton died in 1985 after overdosing on drugs and before the filming of the second series finished. Often, Wayne's absence in the second series is explained in dialogue with phrases like "He's gone to town to look for girls", so the audience is not left wondering where he is. The series was not filmed in chronological order; indeed, he is present in the final episode in Spain but sometimes absent in the first half (set in England). The last episode is dedicated to the late Gary Holton. Albert Arthur Moxey (Christopher Fairbank) - Moxey is the only character not introduced in the first episode. He's a Liverpudlian plasterer with bad acne and originally a stutter, although he has clearly had it cured by the time of the third series. Despite his friendly exterior, Moxey has a dark side: he is a convicted arsonist. At the beginning of the second series, he absconds from an open prison, and is thereafter on the run. He emigrated to Australia in the final episode. Brian "Bomber" Busbridge (Pat Roach, d.2004) - Bomber is a quiet West Country brickie [known as the gentle giant, the toughest member of the group with a towering height of 6 ft 4 ½ in and a great physical shape] with rippling muscles and a bushy beard, having worked as both a professional wrestler and a nightclub bouncer. He very often 'goes with the flow' and lets others make decisions, much to the respect and admiration of his associates. He laid his last brick before the final two episodes. In real life, Pat Roach had been a very popular star of ITV television wrestling shows throughout the 60s, so his series character had great authenticity for viewers. Wyman Ian Norris (Noel Clarke) is introduced in season 3 at the "funeral for Oz" where they find out Wayne died a few years ago. He is a DJ but then decides to join the gang to try to make some money on the bridge job and find out more about his father he never knew. See video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohwpa3n5vQo" >www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohwpa3n5vQo -
Owner
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License
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Further information
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/20654194@N07/4934559998/
Resource type: Image
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 7 years, 3 months ago
Viewed: 1295 times
Picture Taken: Unknown -
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