Next year will mark an incredible 40 years since Auf Wiedersehen, Pet first burst onto our TV screens.
It featured three Geordies, a Brummie, Cockney, Bristolian and a Scouser. They were living in a hut on a German building site as they escaped unemployment in early-80s Thatcherite Britain.
There would be a further three series - and a TV special - over the following three decades. But it was the ITV series one, set in Dusseldorf, which best captured the imagination of the TV public.
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Central to the group’s on-screen shenanigans were a trio of Geordies - bricklayers Dennis, Oz and Neville - brilliantly played by the relatively unknown Tim Healy, Jimmy Nail and Kevin Whately. The other major characters were Barry, Wayne, Bomber and Moxie, played by Timothy Spall, Gary Holton, Pat Roach and Christopher Fairbank.
The TV-viewing nation would quickly take them to their hearts. Some of the action was filmed on Tyneside - although nearly all of the first series was shot in Germany and at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, in Hertfordshire.
Here we follow their career paths from their early days to where they are now.
Tim Healy - Dennis
Healy was a welder in a factory and served part-time in the 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment (Territorial Army) before embarking on his acting career. He struck fame when he played Dennis Patterson in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and is still a firm favourite.
In the early days he appeared in a Minder episode, played Barney Bodger, the blundering handyman in the Children’s ITV series Tickle on the Tum, appeared as a cockney ex-pat in the BBC series Boys From The Bush and played a binman in Common as Muck. He appeared in Phoenix Nights and then played Jackie Elliot in the West End musical Billy Elliot.
Healy appeared in the film Purely Belter and Coronation Street as Paul Jones, the father of barman Sean Tully. In 2003 he was in BBC drama Murder in Mind. In 2009, he featured in the BBC drama Waterloo Road as a Security Guard, Dave Miller, a love interest for Steph Haydock, played by former real life wife, Denise Welch. In 2013, he was Eric in the Sky Living Sitcom The Spa for one series.
Healy starred in the third series of the ITV comedy Benidorm playing a cross dresser Lesley. He later became a regular in the fourth series in 2011. His character is really called Les and has a son, Liam.
Healy has had a role in Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer’s show Catterick and in November 2013, he filmed a cameo in the first episode of the second series of the BBC sitcom Hebburn.
Healy also recorded many voiceovers in radio commercials. He has never forgotten his roots and often shows support for the children’s charity, Children North East, by making appearances at events and showing support at their community based projects.
He also co-founded the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund, established to support young talent in North East England. And he has regularly hosted the popular Sunday for Sammy concerts in aid of the fund.
Healy currently plays Gastric in the British sitcom Still Open All Hours which is a sequel to Open All Hours. It's a role he has had since 2014.
Jimmy Nail - Oz
Nail is an actor, singer-songwriter, film producer, and television writer. He is known for his role as Leonard “Oz” Osborne in the hit television show Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, his title role in Spender, and his 1992 number one single, “Ain’t No Doubt”.
In 2000 he began work on reviving the Auf Wiedersehen, Pet series, this time for the BBC. It was filmed in 2001 and aired in 2002, with audience figures of over 12 million. Another series saw the brickies holed up in Cuba, and the final two-hour instalment, set in Laos, broadcast over Christmas 2004 attracting over seven million viewers.
After the first two series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Nail found himself typecast before creating the detective series Spender, which he co-wrote with Ian La Frenais. The show ran for three series from 1991 to 1993 and also produced a tele-film and a novel. This was followed in 1994 by Crocodile Shoes, which he also created and starred as musician Jed Shepherd.
In 2008, Nail created and starred as Phil Parker in Parents of the Band, a BBC1 series. Later he came out of retirement to act and sing in The Last Ship, a musical by Sting about the shipbuilders of Newcastle. The show opened in Chicago but he was replaced when ticket sales dropped. He also played Parson Nathaniel in War of the Worlds alongside David Essex at the Dominion Theatre, London in 2016.
Nail appeared with Madonna and Antonio Banderas in the film Evita (1996), directed by Alan Parker and adapted from the musical. Two years later, he co-starred in the film Still Crazy. He played the role of gamekeeper Rabbetts in the film Danny, the Champion of the World, based on the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl.
Although he made a living through acting, his first love was music. He had pop hits with “Ain’t No Doubt”, written by Charlie Dore, “Crocodile Shoes”, and “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” He was also actively involved in the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund. He participated in the Sunday for Sammy benefit concerts, until workload forced him to resign from the board.
His work has resulted in five BAFTA nominations (three in total for A.W.P., one for Spender, one for Crocodile Shoes), a Golden Globe nomination (Best Original Song – “Still Crazy”), an Ivor Novello nomination (for “Ain’t No Doubt”) and numerous other awards and nominations. Having lived in London for many years, Jimmy is still involved in the Sunday For Sammy events, which he helped co-found in 2000.
Kevin Whately - Neville
Whately is primarily known for his role as Robert “Robbie” Lewis in the crime dramas Inspector Morse and Lewis, his role as Neville “Nev” Hope in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and his role as Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice, although he has appeared in numerous other roles. He began his working life as a folk singer and plays the guitar.
Along with other Auf Wiedersehen, Pet stars, he makes a regular appearance at the benefit concert Sunday for Sammy in Newcastle. His acting career includes several stage plays, among them an adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, and film appearances in The Return of the Soldier, The English Patient, Paranoid and Purely Belter.
Whately’s television appearances include episodes of Shoestring, Angels, Juliet Bravo, Strangers, Coronation Street, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Alas Smith and Jones, Look and Read, You Must Be The Husband, B&B, Peak Practice, Skallagrigg, The Broker’s Man, Murder in Mind, Inspector Morse, 2003 Comic Relief Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Lewis, New Tricks, Who Gets the Dog?, The Children and Silent Cry. Whately provided one of the voices for the English-language version of the 1999 claymation Children’s television series Hilltop Hospital. He has also done voiceovers for a WaterAid advertisement.
In 1985, Whately appeared in a 3-part Miss Marple adaptation (“A Murder Is Announced”) for the BBC. Two years later he was cast as Detective Sergeant Lewis, the down-to-earth complement to the eponymous Inspector Morse played by John Thaw. Whately starred opposite Thaw in 32 episodes over 13 years in the hugely successful series that established him as a household name in the UK.
He reprised the role in the spin-off series Lewis, in which Lewis returned to Oxford as a full Inspector. In 2010, Whately played the lead in the television film Joe Maddison’s War about strained family and social relations in wartime.
On 4 November 2012 Whately performed in a radio drama on BBC3 called The Torchbearers. Whately lives in Woburn Sands near Milton Keynes with his wife actress Madelaine Newton, who starred in the 1970s BBC drama When the Boat Comes In.
Following the end of the ninth and final series of Lewis, Whately announced his retirement from acting. He had played the character Lewis over a span of 28 years. In recent years he has appeared on the likes of Lorraine, Pointless Celebrities, and Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, as well as starring in the two-yearly Sunday For Sammy show.
Timothy Spall - Barry
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is where Spall became a household name. And since then his career has gone from strength to strength.
He received critical acclaim for his performance in Secrets & Lies (1996), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Subsequently, he starred in supporting roles, including Simon Graham in The Last Samurai (2003), Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter film series (2004–2010), Albert Pierrepoint in Pierrepoint (2005), Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Peter Taylor in The Damned United (2009), and Winston Churchill in The King’s Speech (2010).
He starred in the television documentary Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (2010–2012) and in 2014 won the Best Actor award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for portraying J. M. W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s biographical film Mr Turner. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours.
In 1996, Spall was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, but has since been in remission. He is the owner of a Dutch barge on which he and his wife, Shane, sailed around the British Isles as part of a BBC Four TV series Timothy Spall: Back at Sea.
More recently Spall has appeared in the 2021 film The Last Bus and starred alongside Kristen Stewart in Spencer, a film about Princess Diana. He is also due to star in the upcoming American horror-thriller film The Pale Blue Eye.
Gary Holton - Wayne
Holton was a singer-songwriter, musician and actor from London. He was the frontman of the band Heavy Metal Kids (1972–77), he worked with Casino Steel (1981–84), and played the part of Wayne in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet from 1983 to 1985. He died from an overdose of morphine combined with alcohol in 1985 aged 33.
In his early years, he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford. But in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Holton played a Cockney carpenter who liked his women, music, and drink, which was similar to his off-screen personality.
He landed the part after he was introduced to Ian La Frenais at a party. La Frenais and his writing partner Dick Clement had been drafting storylines and working on an idea given to them by Franc Roddam, who was the director of Quadrophenia in which he appeared.
The first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet ran between 1983 and 1984. In February 1985, filming began on the second series. The final episode of the second series, broadcast after Holton’s death, was dedicated to his memory.
He died midway through the second series but the producers used body doubles and editing of dialogue already recorded to allow the series to be completed. They eventually rescripted the series, such that in every indoor scene that originally included Holton, excuses were made for his absence.
While acting on Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Holton had only two other roles. He appeared in the TV series Minder, in which he played villain Barry, in 1984. He played an uncredited extra in the television series Bulman, in 1985, and also appeared in an episode of “Shoestring” filmed in Bristol.
Holton was offered the role of villain ‘Nasty’ Nick Cotton in the television soap opera EastEnders. He turned down the role and it was instead given to Holton’s friend John Altman, who bore a strong resemblance to him, and would go on to succeed him as the lead singer of the Heavy Metal Kids.
Pat Roach - Bomber
Roach was an English actor and professional wrestler. During an acting career from the 1970s to the 1990s he appeared in multiple cinema films, usually cast as a support player strongman villain.
He appeared in the Indiana Jones cinema films, as well as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet as the West Country bricklayer Brian “Bomber” Busbridge and in the role of Petty Officer Edgar Evans in the television production The Last Place on Earth.
Roach boxed as an amateur before becoming professional as a protege of Jack Solomons. He went on to play a number of strong-man supporting character roles in films, including the non-speaking role of Hephaestus in Clash of the Titans alongside Laurence Olivier.
Coincidentally, he later appeared as Atlas on “Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Greek Myths” in the story of Perseus and the Gorgon, on which Clash of the Titans was based. He also appeared as an assassin in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again, and as bandit-warlord Lord Brytag in the sword-and-sorcery film Red Sonja in 1985.
He appeared as the skull-helmeted ‘General Kael’ in the film Willow, the evil wizard Thoth-Amon, the ‘Man Ape’ in Conan the Destroyer, and as the Celtic chieftain in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. In an alternative to playing strongman villains, in 1985 he played Petty Officer Edgar Evans in the Central TV mini-series The Last Place on Earth about Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.
Roach was turned down as Darth Vader in Star Wars, however its director, George Lucas, subsequently cast him as several burly villains in the Indiana Jones series in the 1980s. In Raiders of the Lost Ark he played two roles, the first being giant Sherpa who fights Jones in the bar in Nepal, the second a Luftwaffe airman who fist-fights with Jones before being killed by an aircraft’s propeller blades on the airstrip in Egypt.
In the next film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Roach played a Thuggee guard in a mine who fights with Jones before being killed in to a rock crusher. His final appearance in the series was as a Gestapo officer in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; however, he appears only briefly, as the character’s fight with Jones was cut because director Steven Spielberg considered the scene “too long” and served as a subplot.
In the 1990s Roach owned and managed a scrapyard in Saltley, Birmingham. He also ran a gym on Gravelly Hill North, Erdington, in North East Birmingham.
Roach died on 17 July 2004 of throat cancer at the age of 67. His body was buried in Bromsgrove Cemetery, Worcestershire.
Christopher Fairbank - Moxey
Actor Christopher Fairbank was best known for his role as Moxey in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Born in Hertfordshire, he first developed an interest in acting while appearing in a play at his primary school in Clavering, Essex.
He has numerous television credits to his name, including Sapphire and Steel, The Professionals, and The Scarlet Pimpernel. He provided voice talent for two Aardman feature-length films, Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away.
Fairbank also appeared as one of the pair of muggers who rob an out-of-town family, heralding the first appearance of the Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 film. He also had roles as Mactilburgh the scientist in the film The Fifth Element, the prisoner Murphy in Alien 3, and the Player Queen in the Franco Zeffirelli version of Hamlet, opposite Mel Gibson. He appeared in the Goal! trilogy as a Newcastle United fan.
In 2010, he appeared as a detective in Five Daughters, and as Alfred “Freddie” Lennon in the biopic Lennon Naked. In 2011 Fairbank starred in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as a pirate called Ezekiel, and in 2012 he appeared as an Australian in Sky 1’s Starlings. In 2017 he played Ibbotson, Delaney’s tenant farmer in BBC One’s drama Taboo.
In recent years, he starred in the British comedy film Walk Like a Panther in 2018, the Russian-Chinese film Viy 2: Journey to China in 2019, and the 2020 British comedy film The Show.
