The adventures of a gang of British workmen abroad. Combines black and white humour with moments of drama, poignancy and drunkenness. In series 1, the lads head to Germany seeking work, and are thrown together by virtue of shared nationality and a run-down wooden hut. The story follows the lads' relationships with women, Germans and each other, and their attempts at passing the time away from home, saving money and ordering food in a German curry house. The series ends with new employment legislation forcing some of the Brits having to choose between the UK and their new-found pleasures abroad. Two years later the gang are reunited for a second series, in which they travel to Wolverhampton to rebuild both the "magnificent seven" and Barry's home for his impending marriage. A further offer of work sees the lads head to a Derbyshire stately home in need of refurbishment. Here they fall foul of an irritable pub landlord, suspicious locals, a less than enlightened employer and the Inland Revenue. Finally, they are packed off to Spain as illegal workers for Tyneside villain Ally Fraser, and they fall under the unwelcome spotlight of tabloid publicity. Despite this, they still manage to indulge in some serious drinking practice AND complete the building work.

Tim Healy - Dennis L. Patterson

Kevin Whately - Neville Hope

Jimmy Nail - Leonard Jeffrey 'Oz' Osborne

Timothy Spall - Barry Taylor

Gary Holton - Wayne Winston Norris

Pat Roach - Brian 'Bomber' Busbridge

Christopher Fairbank - Albert Arthur Moxey

Noel Clarke - Wyman Ian Norris

Julia Tobin - Brenda Hope

Bill Paterson - Ally Fraser

Ray Knight - Barman

Lesley St John - Vicki

Val McLane - Norma

Peter Birch - Herr Ulrich

Actor Gary Holton, who played Wayne Norris, died of a drugs overdose in 1985 while filming the second series, leading to a somewhat watered-down appearance in the last few episodes. As they had filmed all of the exterior scenes with Wayne in them but had not started any of the interior scenes, they decided to dress one of the production team in a wig to look like Wayne for backshots during indoor scenes to keep some form of continuity going. For many of the indoor scenes, he was written out entirely, and his presence was accounted for by explaining he was elsewhere at the time.

During the filming at Barry's house, production crew were forced to buy the local children sweets to keep them quiet during the shoot.

Many of the scenes shown in the second series set in Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Derbyshire and even one in Spain were in fact filmed in Nottingham.

So many people believed that, after watching the third series, the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge had really been pulled down (one couple reportedly travelled from Portsmouth for one last look at the bridge) and Teeside Council were inundated with telephone calls, for people worried that the bridge had gone. To reassure that public that the Bridge was still there, and legend reading "The Transporter Bridge is Still in Middlesbrough" was added to the closing titles of the last episode of series 3. The deconstruction was of course done by computer generated effects.

The fourth series, although set in Cuba, was filmed in the Dominican Replic, after the Cuban authorities refused filming permission.

A third season was originally planned soon after the second series completed, to be set in Moscow, seeing the lads rebuilding the British Embassy, but it was declared too expensive, and the other actors did not want to carry on without Gary Holton, so the third series did not go ahead until it was picked up by the BBC some 15 years later. The rebuilding of the British Embassy was later used as the premise of the fourth series.

The first and second series were broadcast on ITV in 1983 and 1986. Years later, the show was picked up by the BBC and the third and fourth series were shown in 2002 and 2004.

Some of the actors' families also starred in the series. Tim Healy's wife Denise Welch appeared as Jean, the new resident of Oz's flat. Kevin Whately (Neville) starred with his daughter Catherine Whately, who played his on-screen daughter Debbie in the second series, and with his wife Madelaine Newton, who played Dennis' girlfriend Christine Chadwick. Jimmy Nail's son Thomas O. Jones also has a small part as Sir James and Celestia Palmer's son Henry in series two, as did his sister Val McLane who played Dennis' sister Norma.

Jimmy Nail had done a spell of manual work in Germany himself, before filming the series.

Val McLane (Norma) and Jimmy Nail are real life brother and sister.

During filming the first episode, the production crew had to hire a coach load of prostitutes from Hamburg's red light district for the "brothel" scene. On arriving at the sets, the producers discovered that most of these were actually transvestites.

During the filming of the same episode, a coach load of British soldiers from a nearby camp were hired to play the parts of the pub goers. Unfortunately the beer was real which led to drunken chaos, and a chase involving gun toting German police

During shooting the intended script of "Last Rites", Pat Roach (Bomber), broke his foot doing a stunt. This had to be written in to the script, and the episode therefore features a pile of bricks landing on his foot

During filming the second series Tim Healy injured his eye, by catching it on the page of a magazine he was reading. This left it very sore and swollen. This is very evident in the scene where Neville confronts Dennis over the terms of his relationship with Ally Fraser

Jimmy Nail's girlfriend Miriam, now his wife, heard about the auditions and suggested that he try out to be an extra.

Neville's wife Brenda (Julia Tobin) is the only female character to have appeared in every series.

Before shooting in the UK began, the cast were sent on a practical bricklaying course.

The highest recorded audience for any series was 16,017,000 for episode eight of series two in which Oz returns to Newcastle to stop his son moving to Italy.

In order to get the role of Wyman in series three, Noel Clarke had to pass his driving test.

Franc Roddam got the idea for the show after he returned to his Teeside home to find that many of his friends were working abroad on German building sites.

Jimmy Nail won the part of Oz after auditioning for a walk-on part in the show.

Soon after the second series ended, Tyne Tees Television produced an AIDS awareness show in the form of a mini episode. 'Tim Healy' and Jimmy Nail reprised their roles in Educating Oz, a 25-minute show.

Apart from the regular series and the spin-off, Educating Oz (1986) (TV), there was also a special short episode made in 2003 for Comic Relief starring Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail and Christopher Fairbank. Three sketches were also acted out on stage in 2000 as part of a charity concert in Newcastle, which starred Tim Healy, Kevin Whately and Jimmy Nail and depicted the events that preceded occurred before, after and between the first two series.

In a South Bank Show documentary in the late '80s, Jimmy Nail said that he wouldn't play Oz again as he thought it was a character that no one nowadays would find funny. He was proved wrong when the series returned in 2002 and Oz continued to be the most popular of the seven main cast members.

Oz's grimy underpants actually belonged to Kevin Whately. He was washing his car with them at the set and producers thought that they would be perfect for Oz.

The building site, although set in Germany, was actually in Hertfordshire in Elstree studios. It is now the Albert Square set of "EastEnders".

German authorities complained that the show glamorized the hard work that German building sites entailed. To redress the balance, Channel 4 produced The Real Auf Wiedersehen Pet, a documentary that put forward the true facts.

The Intercontinental Hotel featured in the episode "Private Lives" was the same hotel in which the cast and crew stayed over the duration of the German filming. It is actually in Hamburg, not Düsseldorf.

The filming in Germany (in the cities of Hamburg and Düsseldorf) for the entire first series only actually lasted for ten days.

Soon after the series began transmission, Newcastle United played at home to Liverpool. The fans began to chant "Oz is harder than Yosser!", relating their new icon to Scouse character Yosser Hughes from Alan Bleasdale's "Boys from the Blackstuff".

When the Berlin wall was pulled down by German citizens, a British journalist found some interesting graffiti. It read "Built by Germans, demolished by Oz".

The show was the first drama series to be broadcast under the banner of Central Television as opposed to ATV.

Gary Holton (Wayne) wrote and sang a song about the show in 1984 with international artist Casino Steel.

In "Last Rites", Hedley is offended at being branded a Geordie, retorting that he is from Darlington. Despite this, the actor playing him, Des Young, did so with a pure Newcastle accent, not the softer Darlington one.

The burning ruins you see in the end credits for the last episode of the first series was the real hut where they filmed.

Soon after the first series had finished, rumors were rife that the follow-up series would be set in the Falklands. However, this location only played a very small part in the first episode of the second series.

The open prison we see Moxey plastering in the first episode of series two is actually a room in the same building that served as Thornley Manor.

The spire-shaped tower we see on Thornley Manor was not part of the original building. This was added by the production crew to make the house look more Victorian. The house in fact dates back to the 16th century.

Filming in Newcastle's Bigg Market drew a huge crowd, so much so that when you watch the scene of Dennis picking Vicki up from the hairdresser in the first episode of series two, onlookers can be seen from most angles.

During the scene in the last episode of series two where everyone is waiting to board Kenny's yacht, watch little Debbie. She gives dad Neville quite a hefty left hook in the jaw.

During filming at the house being used as Thornley Manor, a member of the television crew named Colin was pushing some heavy equipment over some undergrowth and had a narrow escape. The ground collapsed beneath him, giving way to an old, and previously unknown well. To this day, the owners of the house refer to it as "Colin's well", although for safety reasons, Central TV (now Carlton) had it professionally sealed off and covered.

The scene in which Ally and Kenny are sitting in the tennis club having a discussion and the lads return home in the second series had to be filmed several times. The club is on the main flight path to Malaga airport, and the frequent aircraft noise kept muffling the shot.

Although Moxey was a central character, he did not appear until the second episode; he was the only one of the seven original main cast members not to be introduced until the second episode, possibly due to the limitations of introducing so many main cast members in the first episode and still leave room for establishing the story.

The novelization of the second series ("Auf Wiedersehen, Pet 2" by Fred Taylor) ended abruptly with Oz winning the Spanish lottery. It went into no details about Barry's wedding and the impending customs chase. This was because the novel was based on an earlier version of the script. This is also apparent as the book covers some of the scenes that Gary Holton would have filmed had he been alive.

Continuity error: Although Neville only gets his tattoo at the end of the first episode, it can be seen beforehand coming out of the bottom of his shirt sleeve in come scenes. One in which it is particularly noticeable is the scene in the hut in which he and Barry stay in whilst the others are having a night out in the town.

Revealing mistake: In "Love and Other Four-Letter Words", at the end of the scene where Christa is going hysterical after seeing the rat, she bursts out laughing just before the cut.

Continuity error: In "When the Boat Goes Out", at the beginning of the opening scene where Dennis is mulling over his future, there is a complete weather change (cloudy to very sunny) between shots because the two parts of the scene were shot at different times, complete with change in the background noise as the scene switches angle.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the scene in Asda in "A Home from Home", where Oz is loading the trolley high with cans of John Smith's bitter, the sound of cans being loaded into the trolley stops, but when the camera is back to its original position, Oz had cleared another rack of cans from the shelf.

Continuity error: In "Hasta La Vista", Neville says that Moxey has another two years to run on his prison sentence, yet earlier in "A Law For the Rich" Moxey tells them he only has one year.

Continuity error: Near the end of the final episode of the second series, as Ally gets off Bobby's boat, the rose attached to his jacket falls off. When he gets on Kenny's yacht, the rose has "re-attached" itself to Ally's jacket.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In "Britannia Waives the Rules", during the scene in which Heather is interviewing Neville in the pub, part of her line about Bomber being "long in the tooth" is delivered with the camera facing Neville and only the side of Heather's face can be seen. When this happens, her facial movements do not correspond to her dialogue.

Due to copyright complications there are cuts in the series 2 video releases. However, these cut scenes are still broadcast in the TV & satellite repeats. Also, due to the editing out of the commercial breaks for the video release of both series, scenes either side of these breaks have been shortened and/or cut completely. It is hoped that all these cuts/edits can be fully restored for the DVD release, tentatively scheduled for 2002.

Series 2 - Cowboys - Scene with Barry, Moxey & Wayne discussing the Ghost: this scene has had a few lines about the "revenge western" cut, along with the lines sung by Barry from "Riders on the Storm" by "The Doors." Lyric copyright complications prevented its inclusion.

Series 2 - Hasta La Vista - The start of the disco scene has had about 90 seconds cut. These scenes include: Shots of the lads dancing, Moxey telling the lads he is thinking of staying out in Spain for good, Oz pulling the bird, and Oz recognizing the Copper. The scene does not really make sense with this cut. Note, "The Fine Young Cannibals" is played in the background for all this cut scene, copyright complications prevented its inclusion.

A rather curious expurgated version of both series 1 & 2 was aired on ITV in 1988. Each 55-minute episode was cut down into two separate programmes, edited for pre-watershed viewing (no swear words, nude scenes or striptease artist) and shown twice-a-week at 7-7.30pm.

The first episode of series 3 was released to the media to previewing and reviewing about a month before it's broadcast. This had a different incidental musical score, including a 'funeral march' tune for when the lads recieved their invitations to Oz's wake.