Marjorie Doesn't Live Here Anymore - S2-E8
Trivia: The highest recorded audience for any episode of any series of Auf Weidersehen Pet was 16,017,000 for episode eight of series two, in which Oz returns to Newcastle to stop his son moving to Italy.
Trivia: Jimmy Nail's girlfriend, Miriam, (now his wife) heard about the auditions for Auf Wiedersehen Pet, and suggested that he try out to be an extra. (Nail had already had a brief appearance as an extra in the 1971 movie "Get Carter"). At the time (1982), Jimmy was in a band called The Crabs and he used to perform in a dress and hobnailed boots. Nail reportedly turned up late for the auditions, had to double park his car, and was very rude to the casting director holding the auditions. Little did he know then that his "bluntness" was exactly what the casting director was looking for...
Trivia: The "Dusseldorf building site" that features extensively throughout the first series was not in Dusseldorf at all. It was not even in Germany. A replica of a German building site was constructed on the back lot at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. When filming of the first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was completed in early 1984, the site was levelled and it became Albert Square, Walford, London, E20 - the home of the Soap Opera "EastEnders" to this day.
Trivia: In 2000 (about 15 years after the programme ended), when Tim Healy, Kevin Whately and Jimmy Nail were performing a few sketches (written by Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement, the show's original writers) of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet", during the first 'Sunday For Sammy' charity concert (staged by Tim Healy and Jimmy Nail, to commemorate the life and work of actor Sammy Johnson, who died suddenly in 1998), Franc Roddam, the show's creator, decided to revive the show for Season 3. Allan McKeown, who was the executive producer of Series 1 and 2, was against the idea and never signed on.
Last Rites - S1-E10
Trivia: During shooting of the episode 'Last Rites', Pat Roach (who plays "Bomber" Busbridge), broke his foot doing a stunt. This real-life event had to be 'covered' by having it written in to the script, and therefore this episode has a pile of bricks landing on the unfortunate West countrymans foot.
Trivia: Both of the series one opening and closing title songs ("Breakin' Away" and "That's Livin' Alright") are exactly the same length in duration to the second. Both were sung by Joe Fagin, who had a top ten hit with the songs (as a "double A-sided" single - although "That's Livin' Alright" got the most airplay) in late 1983.
Trivia: Location options for series two were Spain's Marbella, Saudi Arabia and the Falklands. With Saudi Arabia's strict no alcohol regime, the writers didn't think it was a natural home for Britain's booze-loving brickies. Whereas the Falklands didn't seem to have the story potential of Spain, although the Falklands did make a brief appearance in the opening part of Series Two episode one.
Trivia: 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. Also, during the filming of the same episode, a coach load of British squaddies for a nearby camp were hired to play the parts of the pub goers. Unfortunately the beer supplied was real which led to drunken chaos, and a chase involving gun toting German police.
Trivia: The Fourth series, although set in Cuba, was actually filmed in the Dominican Republic, after the Cuban authorities refused filming permission. Also, the "winter scene" in St. Petersburg that featured in the opening part of Series 4, episode 1, was actually filmed at Shepperton Film Studios in Surrey - with a lot of assistance from some ex-RAF snow blowing machines to provide the appropriate wintry weather.
Trivia: During the first three episodes of season one there is actually another worker in the hut, not just the 'magnificent seven'. The extra character never speaks and is only seen rarely in the first few episodes, before being removed altogether.
Trivia: A third season of Auf Weidersehen, Pet was originally planned soon after the second series completed, to be set in Moscow, seeing the lads rebuilding the British Embassy. If it had gone ahead, it would have been made by Central TV for the ITV network in 1987. However, it was declared too expensive, and the other actors did not want to carry on without Gary Holton (Wayne) who died in October 1985 during the filming of the Second Series. But the idea was revived in 2002, and formed the basis of the storyline for the fourth series (filmed 2003 and first broadcast on BBC-1 in January 2004) with one main change - Havana replacing Moscow.
Trivia: Many people believed that, after watching the third series, the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge had really been pulled down. So many, in fact, that Middlesborough Council were inundated with telephone calls, from people worried that the bridge had gone. To reassure that public that the Bridge was still there, a caption reading "The Transporter Bridge is Still in Middlesbrough" was added to the closing titles of the last episode of series 3. The deconstruction of the Transporter Bridge in Middlesborough (and its rebuilding in Arizona) was, of course, all done by computer generated effects (CGI).
Trivia: Two years after the second series, ITV decided to repeat both series on Tuesday on Thursday at 7:30pm (against popular BBC soap EastEnders). This wasn't popular as the episodes had to be cut to remove material unsuitable for early evening (the original episodes were shown on Fridays at 9:00pm) and so each episode was split into two 30-minute segments. Removing key scenes wasn't popular as it made the plots muddled, and some regions opted out mid-run.
