Auf Wiedersehen Pet - The Complete Series 1 (Mini Tool Box Set) (DVD)

This has to be one of the best comedy dramas ever. Set in the early 1980s in Thatchers Britain when the building trade was, in real life, on it's knees, Dennis, Oz and Neville, three bricklayers from Newcastle, decide they've had enough of being out of work and having no money and head off to Germany to make their fortune.

When they get there they are told the only accommodation left is the hut on the building site and it's there that ...
...For all of them, this is the start of the most amazing friendship. Through thick and thin, they stick together and, as we find out in later series, when one needs help, the other six come running.

Dennis (Tim Healy) is the matriarch of the group, the one the others turn to in times of trouble and the one who always sorts it out. For Neville especially, Dennis is the father figure.

Oz (Jimmy Nail) is really the joker ... more

This has to be one of the best comedy dramas ever. Set in the early 1980s in Thatchers Britain when the building trade was, in real life, on it's knees, Dennis, Oz and Neville, three bricklayers from Newcastle, decide they've had enough of being out of work and having no money and head off to Germany to make their fortune.

When they get there they are told the only accommodation left is the hut on the building site and it's there that they meet Wayne, Bomber, Barry and Moxey.

For all of them, this is the start of the most amazing friendship. Through thick and thin, they stick together and, as we find out in later series, when one needs help, the other six come running.

Dennis (Tim Healy) is the matriarch of the group, the one the others turn to in times of trouble and the one who always sorts it out. For Neville especially, Dennis is the father figure.

Oz (Jimmy Nail) is really the joker of the group. Always fooling around with no sense of responsibility whatsoever. Does things before thinking and generally jumps in with both feet, often coming off worst. He's a basic lout who's always up for a fight and has no regard for his estranged wife or his son back at home.

Neville (Kevin Whatley) is the total opposite of Oz. Devoted to his wife, Brenda, and his new born daughter, Neville misses them both dreadfully and is never off the phone to them. He's a young, naive character who's very easily led by the others and often needs Dennis' help to get himself out of a scrape.

Bomber (Pat Roach) is a bricklayer from the West Country. Quite a sensitive sole at heart and cares a lot for his children. The comical thing about Bomber is he more often than not talks about himself in the third person (e.g. he'll say something like "that souds good to Bomber" rather than "that sounds good to me") which sounds really funny.

Barry (Timothy Spall) is an electrician from Wolverhampton. Barry is the one that seems to get on everybodys nerves. He likes things to be organised and is often petty minded. Him and Oz in particular get on each others nerves, but it seems to be good for the friendship.

Wayne (Gary Holton) is a womanising cockney chippie. Out on the town most nights and will sleep with any woman he can get, which is why Bomber nearly has a heart attack when he finds out that Wayne is in the hut with Bombers daugher. For all his womanising ways, he has a heart of gold underneath. At the end of the series, he falls for the new secretary on the building site and stays in Germany to be with her but, as we find out in series two, things go wrong when he cheats on her, which I guess was to be expected.

Moxey (Christopher Fairbank) the plasterer, is an arsonist from Liverpool who is allowed to stay in the hut on the grounds that he has a dart board. As he walks in, he announces "I've not got any darts though".

The series really showed what life was like for those in the building trade in the early 1980s. It's one of those series that I can watch over and over again and still find it hilarious, even laughing at things before it gets to them.

The DVD box set has all the episodes from the first series. Unfortunately, there's no extras, but it's worth 5 stars for the series alone. This is TV at its best and that's for sure. 

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