Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - Characters

Characters

• Dennis Patterson (Tim Healy) - Dennis, whether he likes it or not, has been co-opted as the leader of the seven. When introduced, he is being divorced by his first wife Vera. He later has an affair with a German on-site secretary named Dagmar, played by Brigitte Kahn. In series two, he is working for a Newcastle upon Tyne gangster, Ally Fraser, to whom he is in debt. Fraser has a notorious reputation throughout the northeast. Dennis has two children and can sometimes be short-tempered, but is basically a man of high moral standards and has good people skills. At the opening of the third series, he is driving a mini-cab for a living and supplementing his income by working as a drug-dealer's driver.
• Neville Hope (Kevin Whately) - Neville is under the thumb of his wife Brenda. He constantly worries about the welfare of his wife and three children, and his heart is in Newcastle. He married young and has no regrets, although by the third series he is suffering from a mid-life crisis.
• Leonard "Oz" Osborne (Jimmy Nail) - Oz, in the original series was a loud, belligerent, abrasive, drunken Geordie lout who showed no fidelity towards his wife or concern for his son. He had a xenophobic attitude to Germans, and later to Turks and Spaniards. His major passions in life were drinking and supporting Newcastle United. At the end of the second series, he wins the Spanish lottery and spends much of his new-found wealth on presents for his friends, but has squandered it by the beginning of the third series, in which he re-unites his five surviving pals at his own phoney funeral. By this time the character has changed somewhat, becoming more mature and less violent, and is prepared to lead his friends off on new adventures overseas. His son has grown up and is gay, which at first horrifies Oz.
• Barry Spencer Taylor (Timothy Spall) - Barry is a bashful, boring, bumbling West Midlander (he mentions connections with West Bromwich and Wolverhampton and has a poster of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. on the wall of his office) electrician with a large vocabulary and a motorbike. His tendency to be 'boring' and to look on the bleak side of things are mocked by his mates, but they retain some affection for him. He has been married twice, first to a local girl named Hazel (played by Melanie Hill), who left him for another woman, which is found out in the third series. He then later marries the glamorous Russian Tatiana played by Branka Katic. Both marriages end in divorce, but at the end of the series he is reconciled with Tatiana.
• Wayne Winston Norris (Gary Holton) - describes himself, as a 'Jack the lad', a chirpy chippy, proud of his Cockney roots. His obsession with women often lands him and his friends in trouble. Initially without transport he relied on friends for lifts but by series 2 he has bought a red BMW 520. At the end of the first series, Wayne marries Christa, (played by Lysette Anthony), a secretary at the building site. According to his son, who knows little about his life, Wayne died of a congenital heart problem in 2000, and his part in "The Magnificent Seven" was replaced by his illegitimate son Wyman. Gary Holton died in 1985 after overdosing on drugs and before the filming of the second series finished. Often, Wayne's absence in the second series is explained in dialogue with phrases like "He's gone to town to look for girls". The series was not filmed in chronological order so he is present in the final episode yet absent during earlier Spanish indoor scenes. The last episode is dedicated to Gary Holton.
• Albert Arthur Moxey (Christopher Fairbank) - Moxey is the only character not introduced in the first episode. He is a Liverpudlian plasterer with bad acne and originally a stutter, although he has clearly had it cured by the time of the third series. Despite his friendly exterior, Moxey has a dark side: he is a convicted - albeit reformed - arsonist. At the beginning of the second series, he absconds from an open prison, and is thereafter on the run. He emigrated to Australia in the final episode.
• Brian "Bomber" Busbridge (Pat Roach) - Bomber is a quiet 6'5 West Country brickie heavily built with a bushy beard and incredible strength. He very often 'goes with the flow' and lets others make decisions. However, when the lads found themselves in trouble they often ran to Bomber for help, even Oz. In real life, Pat Roach had been a very popular star of ITV television wrestling shows throughout the '60s, so his series character had great authenticity for viewers.
• Wyman Ian Norris (Noel Clarke) is introduced in season 3 at the "funeral for Oz" where they find out Wayne died a few years ago. He is a DJ but then decides to join the gang to try to make some money on the bridge job and find out more about his father he never knew.