I HEART 80s

Auf Wiedersehen Pet was an absolutely integral part of my growing up.  The first series of 13 shows, broadcast between 11 November 1983 and 10 February 1984 was a Friday night institution.  In those days of course we only had three or if you were lucky, four channels to choose from.  As a result the onus was on everybody to make good quality programming.  There was no requirement for filler.  BBC and ITV vied with each other to produce the very best programming and this show more than stands up to scrutiny.  In addition, we all sat and watched the TV together so it had to have broad appeal and I do not mean that it was dumbed down in any way shape or form.

On first impressions it looks very much like Auf Wiedersehen Pet was filmed on location on a real West German building site.  This was not the case, although the bricks used on the site were genuine, imported especially from the continent.  The 'city' scenes were filmed on location but in Hamburg rather than Dusseldorf where the series was set.  The drama majored on the inevitable conflicts between seven effectively single men living, playing and working together.  The character set with Geordies Dennis, Neville and Oz; Barry from the Black Country; Bomber from Bristol; Moxey from Liverpool and Londoner Wayne were as wonderful a collection of comic creations / unappealing group of grotesques* as you could ever hope to meet.  Or wish to avoid for that matter.

The thing that marked Auf Wiedersehen Pet out for me was the camaraderie between the lads in the hut.  Regardless of the garbage heaped upon them by life, Thatcherite Britain; German bosses; German workers; thuggish fellow Brits and so on and so forth, they all pulled together to get each other through.  Of course within this they all play predefined roles:

• Oz is the loudmouthed oaf who always seems to be at or near the centre of trouble;
• Wayne is the jack-the-lad hit with the 'birds';
• Neville is the seemingly shallow whinger with hidden depths;
• Dennis is the fixer of everybody's problems, save from his own;
• Bomber is a seemingly strong man who is actually running away from life;
• Moxey is the ex-con plasterer who is actually trying not to run away anymore and finally;
• Barry is the sap who always seems to get lumbered, and absolutely finally,
• Auf Wiedersehen Pet is proof positive that they don't make telly like they used to.

* delete as applicable

Auf Wiedersehen Pet - The Complete Series 1 [DVD] [1983] List Price: £44.99 Sale Price: £13.90 You save: £31.09 (69%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days 17 new from £13.90  15 used from £7.77

Description

First broadcast in 1983, Auf Wiedersehen Pet was an unlikely comedy hit about a group of British labourers forced to work in Germany during the recession. Scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, (previously responsible for Porridge and The Likely Lads) its main players are likeable stereotypes from all over England: there’s Wayne (the late Gary Holton), a cockney charmer and womaniser; Barry (Timothy Spall), the bumbling, haplessly pretentious Brummie; gentle West Country giant Bomber (Pat Roach); amiable Scouse Moxey (Christopher Fairbank); and the three Geordies; nervous Neville (Kevin Whately), loudmouth xenophobic lummox Oz (Jimmy Nail) and put-upon Dennis (Tim Healy), the reluctant gaffer of the mob. The show spawned a second series in 1986 then a belated follow-up in 2002. The plotlines were entertaining--capers usually involving misunderstandings or hangovers or both: Oz eating rat poison, Oz attempting to smuggle porn, Neville waking up after a large night out with a German girl’s name mysteriously tattooed on his arm; Dennis’s tentative relationship with a German woman named Dagmar while on the rebound from his recent divorce. However, the real meat of Auf Wiedersehen Pet was in the interplay of the characters--who were confined in prison camp-style conditions--and Clement and Le Frenais’ rueful sense of the comedy of men in crisis. Tim Healy’s Dennis in particular was a classic example of the indignity of the traditional grafter who suddenly finds himself struggling in mid-life, a condition exacerbated at having to "wet nurse" a bunch of wayward geezers, as he frequently complains. --David Stubbs

DVD Information

Binding: DVD
Aspect Ratio:
Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Brand: ITV GRANADA VENTURES
Manufacturer: ITV Studios Home Entertainment
Original Release Date:
Actors:

• Timothy Spall
• Jimmy Nail
• Tim Healy
• Kevin Whately
• Christopher Fairbank

Reviews

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