One of my favourite programmes is the classic sit-com Auf Wiedersehen Pet about a group of British workers who initially go to Germany seeking work as unemployment is rife in 80's Britain, their new life consists of the seven of them living in a hut on the building site where they work, drinking and generally bemoaning their fate while getting into trouble. The seven consist of Dennis Patterson(Tim Healy), who by common concensus is the group's unwilling leader, homesick Neville Hope(Kevin Whately), boring Barry Taylor(Timothy Spall), jack-the-lad Wayne Norris(Gary Holton), arsonist Arthur Moxey (Christopher Fairbank), wrestler Brian (Bomber) Busbridge (Pat Roach), and self-centered slob Leonard (Oz) Osbourne (Jimmy Nail) who's done a runner from home without telling his wife. Some of the jokes and language take a bit of getting use to (they call the Germans "Erics" so they can speak about them without the Germans knowing) but are well worth the effort to understand the humour.

AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET SERIES 1

The first series (13 episodes) concentrates on their adventures in Germany which include scamming their way into their building site jobs by pretending that Neville is a joiner when in fact he's a bricklayer (If I Were A Carpenter), finding an unexploded bomb (Who Won The War Anyway?), Oz getting drunk and returning home to Newcastle on a football supporters chartered plane (The Girls They Left Behind), a spate of thefts in the hut which turns everyone into suspects (Suspicion), Bomber's daughter arriving in Germany looking for him (Home Thoughts From Abroad), Neville getting arrested for rape (The Accused), harbouring an army deserter(The Fugitive), and smuggling (Last Rites).

Series 1 is now available to rent or buy on DVD

EPISODE GUIDE:-

Episode 1 : If I Were a Carpenter, Episode 2 : Who Won the War Anyway?, Episode 3 : The Girls They Left Behind.	Episode 4 : Suspicion, Episode 5 : Home Thoughts from Abroad, Episode 6 : The Accused.
Episode 7 : Private Lives, Episode 8 : The Fugitive, Episode 9 : The Alien.	Episode 10 : Last Rites, Episode 11 : The Lovers, Episode 12 : Love and Other Four Letter Words, Episode 13 : When the Boat Goes Out.

SERIES 2

The second series sees them all back in England, some of them have been working abroad, Oz and Barry worked in the Falklands, Wayne got married to Christa, Dennis is working for local villain Ally Fraser because he owes him money and Moxey is in prison for his usual crime (fireraising), but unemployment still looms large for most of them. Barry is about to get married and summons all the team to help him finish his house before the wedding, they finish the house but Barry's fiancée gets cold feet (The return of the seven 1&2) so Barry joins them when Ally (Bill Patterson) contracts them to convert a large house into a nursing home. The boys come under the eye of the law investigating the sale of the house, as it was owned by a big time pornographer who now lives in Spain to avoid being jailed, this causes Moxey, who has escaped from prison, to get a new identity. The team find they have scruples and rebel against Ally for trying to do the job on the cheap so Ally sends in the heavy mob to 'persuade' them back to work (Cowboys), finding himself out-manoeuvred he relents and upgrades the conversion, he then takes them out to Spain to finish the swimming pool at his villa. As the work at the villa proceeds the lads find that working in the "Costa del Crime" draws them into some unsavoury situations when their names become linked with a robbery back home, some of their new "friends" happen to be the biggest crooks around and Ally is concocting a scheme to get some money smuggled into Spain.

Series 2 is also now available to rent or buy on DVD

EPISODE GUIDE:-

Episode 1 : The Return of the Seven (Part One), Episode 2 : The Return of the Seven (Part Two), Episode 3 : A Law for the Rich.	Episode 4 : Another Country, Episode 5 : A Home from Home, Episode 6 : Cowboys.
Episode 7 : No Sex Please, We're Brickies, Episode 8 : Marjorie Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Episode 9 : Hasta La Vista.   ;	Episode 10 : Scoop, Episode 11 : Law and Disorder, Episode 12 : For Better or Worse, Episode 13 : Quo Vadis Pet.

SERIES 3

The third series (6 episodes) shows their lives 16 years later. The intervening years have been kind to some, Barry and Neville have their own firms, while Dennis, Moxey, Bomber and Oz have had mixed fortunes but they are all drawn together when they receive invites to Oz's "funeral", a meeting that Oz has orchestrated to get them all working on dismantling the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge for crooked ex-MP Jeffrey Grainger(Bill Nighy), Wayne's son Wyman(Noel Clarke) joins the group after he comes to the "funeral" with the sad news that Wayne died a few years ago (actor Gary Holton died during the filming of the second series). Their problems start when they use foreign labour in the shape of Serbs and Kosovans who hate each other and Moxey has to hide from a hitman after stealing from his employer but they sell the bridge to a native American tribe, The Chocanaws, (who need the bridge to increase the revenue of their casino) and find themselves heading for Arizona to re-assemble it, needless to say nothing goes smoothly because wherever the gang go trouble follows, they soon find the American law on their tail when drugs are found in their luggage and the Middlesbrough police take an interest when a body turns up on Teesside.

EPISODE GUIDE:-

Episode 1 : Bridging the Gap, Episode 2 : Heavy Metal, Episode 3 : Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Episode 4 : A Bridge Too Far, Episode 5 : Another Country, Episode 6 : An Inspector Calls.

Series 3 now available to rent or buy on DVD (2 discs)

The theme tune to series 3 ( Why Aye Man, with backing vocals by Jimmy Nail & Tim Healy ) is now available on Mark Knopfler's new album The Ragpicker's Dream.

Further details available at the Auf Wiedersehen Pet Homesite and the BBC site and if you want some pics from series 3 to use as wallpaper click here WALLPAPER

THE NEW SERIES (4) HAS ALREADY STARTED FILMING