We're back again, Pet!

I'VE BEEN watching a TV series of which I have a great memories, and I'm pleased to say that it doesn't disappoint.

The original series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet (ITV 3, Tuesdays and Wednesdays) was, for me, little less than an inspiration. And a frustration.

The theme of the series was amusing enough in a fish-out-of-water sort of way: a group of Geordie brickies leave recession-blighted England to find work in Germany. And predictably, all the national and character clichés are there in full measure.

But what lifts this into something wonderfully iconic, was the timing of it. 1983. Maggie Thatcher and three million unemployed. (In the opening title sequence, one of the characters walks past the street poster that helped the Tories into power: a picture of a long, long queue of people standing in line with the words "Labour isn't Working" above them.)

And somehow the despair and sheer indignation that many of us felt during those grim years is brilliantly and sympathetically reflected in the misadventures of this group of builders. It was as if the very reality of the times compelled you to both laugh and cry with this bunch of British misfits abroad.

It was as if the series hit the nail on the head.

Their very ordinariness, in an English working-class sort of way, was what appealed. With only basic manual skills and little education (homesick Neville has an O-level in woodwork!) we understood these characters, because in some small way they were us.

And surely, this is the definition of great drama?

And to one who flirted with writing for television at one time, I found this series both great and deeply frustrating. Not just because it was so well written - although it was - but because it made you aware that luck made such an imponderable element to the equation of writing popular television drama.

Auf Wiedersehen Pet returned for another three series and a couple of Christmas specials, but none of them had the same impact, the same relevance, as the original first series.

And if nothing else, it made me realise I was wasting my time writing for television. It was too much a ethereal medium for my rather stolid temperament. I don't know if I was right or wrong, but this television series certainly changed the direction of my literary aspirations.