A big happy 70th birthday to one of Tyneside's favourite sons, Tim Healy.
Born in Benwell, Newcastle, on January 29, 1952, and brought up in Chester-le-Street, the actor has enjoyed a successful stage and TV career stretching back five decades.
A young Tim paid his dues with the Live Theatre Company, and performed around the workingmen's clubs of Tyneside in a comedy duo and as a solo comic, before landing a role in A Captain's Tale (1982), a TV dramatisation of West Auckland FC's two 'world cup' wins in the early 1900s.
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His other television work has included Boys From The Bush (1991), Breezeblock (2002), Benidorm (2009), Waterloo Road (2009) and Still Open All Hours (2014), while he also appeared in the film Purely Belter (2000), and in Billy Elliot The Musical.
There were also smaller parts in Crown Court, Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm and When The Boat Comes In - and more recently in the comedy shows Catterick and Hebburn.
Tim is one of the co-founders of the two-yearly Sunday For Sammy concerts in memory of Tyneside actor Sammy Johnson which raise funds to help young upcoming musical and acting talent on Tyneside.
But it's for his brilliant portrayal of Geordie bricklayer Dennis Patterson in the classic TV comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet that he's best known.
Dennis was the reluctant gaffer of a bunch of mis-matched British workers thrown together on a 1980s German building site, keeping them in line and sorting out their problems.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet first was first aired on Friday, November 11, 1983 (and there would be three subsequent series and a two-part special over the next couple of decades).
It was a huge, instant hit.
Speaking to the Chronicle on the day the first episode appeared on ITV, Tim told us: “It took eleven months to make. Each episode is a little play on its own.
“When we first got the scripts we all had a real buzz. They were the best TV scripts I’d ever read.
“It started off as a drama series, but later tended to develop as a situation comedy."
The filming of the first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, was not without incident, however.
In one scene where real prostitutes were used as extras, their German pimps took badly to it and moved in.
“They were really seedy looking guys with scarred faces and vicious dogs,” remembered Tim.
Meanwhile, co-star Kevin Whatley, who played soppy Neville Hope, jumped off a wall in one scene, only to break his ankle in three places, throwing production into chaos.
Notwithstanding, the show would become a huge hit and the stars would be recognised wherever they went.
Three months after the show kicked off, Tim told us: “It’s been incredible. It’s like being one of The Beatles. We get mobbed wherever we go.
“People in cars slow down and wave, and shout across in the street.
“It’s everywhere we go. I was sitting in a bar last week and suddenly realised all the heads were turned towards me.
“You have to be careful you don’t pick your nose, or anything,” he laughed.
“But it’s smashing up here because they’re so nice and genuine and want to tell us how much they enjoy the show.”
Nearly 40 years on from its first appearance, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is regarded as a television classic.
But in 2020, the Daily Mirror told how Healy was unhappy that scenes had been cut from the show's repeats on UKTV. “It’s political correctness gone mad,” he said. “The rhythm of the scenes is now stilted and awkward. It's a “shame all the gags have gone”.
Last month we reported how Tim spent Christmas Day in Northumberland with his ex-wife Denise Welch and their respective other halves Joan Anderton and Lincoln Townley.
The eldest of Tim and Denise's two sons, Matthew, has achieved major success with rock band The 1975.
All the best, Tim.
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