# Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983)

> Seven British construction workers flee the dole queues for a building site in Dusseldorf, bringing their friendship and homesickness with them.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/4406

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 38
- Episode runtime: 50 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy, drama
- Created by: Franc Roddam
- Network: ITV1, BBC One
- Cast: Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Michael Sheard, Jimmy Nail, Gary Holton, Christopher Fairbank, Timothy Spall, Pat Roach
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086665/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: comic, wistful, gritty, warm, melancholic

## Synopsis

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983-2004) is a British television comedy drama created by Franc Roddam for ITV1 and BBC One. Seven construction workers from northern England, including Dennis Patterson (Tim Healy), Neville Hope (Kevin Whately), Leonard Oz Osborne (Jimmy Nail) and Barry Taylor (Timothy Spall), leave the dole queues behind to take jobs on a building site in Dusseldorf. Their engine is the grind of working away from home, with each episode built from site frictions, shared lodgings, pub nights and the strain of missing the wives and girlfriends they left behind, such as Brenda Hope (Julia Tobin). The series runs across four seasons and thirty eight episodes, moving from a sitcom like rhythm into more sober material as the men's lives drift. Set in 1980s Germany and Britain, it captures the era of unemployment and a sharp culture clash between northern English workers and German employers. The tone mixes banter and affection with wistful homesickness and working class melancholy. Fans of Boys from the Blackstuff and Men Behaving Badly will find resonance in its blend of humour and quiet hardship.

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