Auf Wiedersehen, Pet Series 1 Episode 2: Who Won the War Anyway?

Episode Summary:

Opening with regular intro credits for the first time.  It's another workday at the construction site.  Oz recognizes a tune coming from a German worker's portable radio: a German-language rendition of Sheena Easton's "9 to 5 (Morning Train)".  He sings along for a while, then remarks to Dennis that the Germans are copycats, and yells out at the worker carrying the radio "why can't you write your own songs"?  The German worker replies "Was?  Verstehe das nicht." (What?  I don't understand.).  "That's easy for you to say" replies Oz.

Meanwhile, Neville's struggling in his role as a pretend carpenter.  We see Herr Ulrich for the first time; Neville notices that he's always looking at Neville when he talks, and tells Wayne it's only a matter of time before it's discovered he's not a carpenter.  Wayne tells him that whenever Ulrich or anyone else like him looks over at Neville, just take out his measuring tape and measure something.  Ulrich goes over to inspect the bricklayers' progress.  Oz deliberately stops working and starts drinking when Ulrich comes around; explaining to Ulrich that if he works faster than everybody else, then he's entitled to take his tea-break sooner than the rest of the workers.

Back with the carpenters, Wayne assures Neville that he's getting by, but Neville says he doesn't just want to get by; it's not fair to Wayne and the other carpenters.  The siren sounds, denoting a lunch break for all workers.  German carpenter Helmut introduces himself to Neville; he noticed Neville playing soccer the other day and wants to know if Neville's up for a game during the lunch break.  Neville says no, he has to see someone about something; he tells Wayne he's going to see Dennis and ask if he can pull strings to get him transferred to work as a bricklayer.  Dennis is a little preoccupied at the moment, having received a letter from Vera's divorce lawyer.  Still, though, Neville wonders what will happen to him.

Smash cut to the supervisors' office/trailer.  Dennis and Neville are in front of Herr Ulrich's desk.  Ulrich is incredulous that Neville worked 3 weeks at the site without credentials.  At first Dennis tries to claim it must be due to some sort of clerical error.  After Herr Ulrich show that that can't be the case, Dennis comes clean and explains that he said that Neville was a carpenter because he didn't want to split the group up.  They're bound to need another bricklayer at some point; until then, Neville could do whatever they need, even if it's just shoveling.  Herr Grunwald overhears this conversation, and tells Herr Ulrich to take care of the problem himself.  Ulrich tells Neville he will not work today, while he considers what course of action to take.

Back at the site, Neville packs up his tools.  Wayne assures him that it'll be all right; Ulrich's just on a power trip, and wants to make Neville sweat.  Helmut comes by, having heard the news, and offers his condolences.  He notes that Neville doesn't seem to enjoy living in Germany; Neville replies that he's hardly seen any of the place other than when he went out drinking with the other British workers.  He and Helmut get to talking and show each other pictures of their wives; Helmut invites Neville to his house for dinner.

At the hut, Barry announces that they should elect a hut leader who will decide things like what everybody will eat (because apparently Barry thinks that everyone deciding for themselves what to eat is near-anarchy).  This eventually devolves into a shouting match and near-fight between Dennis and Oz (Bomber restrains Dennis).  Moxey comes in, saying he was told to go to hut B.  Bomber says he should go to the next hut, and once Moxey's out tells the others that the last thing they need in their hut with its tensions is yet another resident.  Moxey dropped off his gear when he went to the other hut, and Neville notices Moxey's brought a dartboard along, so they invite him back.  The group of seven is now complete!

The next morning, while the others are going to work, Neville kicks his ball around in an area nobody's currently working on.  He kicks his ball too hard, and it goes over a wall and into a pit being dug out by a backhoe (probably for a basement).  Neville goes to retrieve his ball, and sees something sticking out from the edge.  Realizing it's a bomb, he tries to get the backhoe operator to stop; the operator does so, at almost the very last second possible!

Back at the manager's trailer, Dennis is arguing with Grunwald when a German worker comes in and yells (in German) that a bomb's been found on the site!  Grunwald and the other run off, leaving Dennis, Dagmar, and another German manager in the trailer.  She tells Dennis a bomb's been found.  Grunwald, Ulrich, Neville, and the German backhoe operator are in the pit near the bomb.  Grunwald tells Ulrich to telephone the police and the army for bomb disposal experts.  Grunwald asks how Neville found the bomb, and commends him for his bravery in stopping the backhoe.  Grunwald tells the workers retreat to a safe distance, and wait for the army technicians to come and disarm the bomb.  Bomber asks what kind of bomb it was; Grunwald says it was probably left over from the war.  Oz jubilantly exclaims that means it was a British bomb!  The others make various comments, like Barry saying that one of their dads could have dropped it.  Oz loudly states to Grunwald "It was us lot that flattened you lot in the first place!  That was a British bomb, wasn't it?"  "Yes," replies Grunwald, "It did not go off..." he observes pointedly.

In the hut, Barry says Neville displayed the qualities needed in a hut leader, but Neville says he'll probably go back tomorrow.  Oz wonders if they're still getting payed and goes out to ask Ulrich, much to the latter's irritation.  Ulrich orders Oz to go back to his hut, and to tell Neville to come out, as he's wanted for a TV interview.  Later at the bar near their site, the group (minus Neville) watch a broadcast about the bomb discovery on the bar's TV.  They boo when Grunwald comes on.  Meanwhile, at Helmut's home, Neville is watching the broadcast with Helmut's family.  When the broadcast ends, Helmut's parents and wife say that Neville's a true hero and that they had no idea that Helmut was inviting such a famous person over for dinner!  Helmut's mother says dinner is now ready and they go into the dining room.

At the bar, the other British workers are talking to each other about Neville; Wayne thinks Neville should have made a pass at the attractive female reporter who was interviewing him.  Barry says that what Neville's doing is a good example of what they all should be trying to do in terms of integrating with the German community, noting that when Kevin Keegan played for Hamburg he learned to speak German and made many friends among the German community.  Oz says if that's the case, then why's he (Keegan) now playing for Southampton?  He points out Germany must be pretty desperate if he preferred living in Southampton to Germany... A German worker overhears this and asks Oz if Germany's such a no-good place why doesn't he piss off back to England.  Close-up shot of Dennis' face; he knows this will end badly.  Breaking glass is heard in the background.

Back at Helmut's house, dinner has just ended.  Helmut's mother and wife clear the table, and Helmut's father tells Helmut to go get another bottle of schnapps, as the one he has is almost empty.  Helmut goes off to get another bottle, leaving Neville alone with Helmut's father, who apparently only speaks German.  He offers Neville a cigar; Neville declines.  He gets across to Neville that smoking isn't good for you, but he's too old to worry about those kind of things.  After a fairly lengthy silence, he goes and gets out an old family photo album.  He shows Neville pictures from his albums, including himself in a WWI German uniform.  Neville tells Helmut's father, through a variety of gestures and a smattering of German words he's picked up, that his grandfather was on a ship that the German cruiser the Scharnhorst sank.  Once what Neville's saying sinks in (no pun intended), Helmut's father is stunned by the revelation and calls his wife in.  After Helmut's father tells his wife the story of Neville's grandfather, they both toast Neville.  Neville decides to accept their toast, saying "Might as well, it was a long time ago".

The next morning at the site, everyone's heading to work.  Helmut gives Neville a lift on the back of his motorcycle.  Neville thanks him for the evening, and letting him sleep there overnight.  Helmut says he hopes everything works out with Neville's job situation.  Ulrich calls Neville over, and brings him to where the other bricklayers are working.  He says that Neville will start working as a bricklayer.  Neville thanks him, and Oz (now sporting a bandage on his nose) points out that it's only fair hiring Neville after he saved the German worker's life.  Ulrich agrees that it's fair, and also says that there's now a vacancy; Osbourne's fired, and Ulrich is only too happy to inform Oz of that fact.

At work, Neville tells Bomber he feels terrible getting his job at Oz's expense, but Dennis tells him Oz had it coming.  Later in the bar (the same one they were in the night before), the bartender orders Oz out after what happened last night, but the others convince him to let Oz stay.  Oz says the other British workers should go on strike in support of him; if they don't work that week then the managers will be left short-handed for that week.  Dennis points out if they did that, the managers would just call up Herr Pfister to send for 7 more out-of-work Britons; they've got over 3 million to choose from back home... Oz huffs out.

The next morning, the German workers are arriving at the site; 2 of them (including one who fought with Oz at the bar) are talking to each other.  The one that was at the bar says that he'll speak to Grunwald, tell him the fight wasn't Oz's fault and that hopefully he'll be allowed to come back.  He stops at the manager's trailer and knocks on the door.  Meanwhile in the British hut, the others are going to work while Oz packs.  Neville says his farewells and gives Oz a letter to post when he gets back to England.  Dennis is called to the manager's trailer and is told Oz can return and keep working there; Grunwald tells Dennis he hopes Oz changes for the better. Grunwald leaves.  Dagmar tells Dennis that Grunwald is furious; the reason Oz got rehired is because the German workers threatened to strike (they think an Englishman getting fired because of an argument with a German construction worker makes them look bad).  Dennis goes out to the scaffolding, thanks the German workers, and invites them to their hut for a round of drinks.  He then rides pillion behind Barry on Barry's motorcycle, and flags down the bus Oz is taking to the airport.

Back at the hut, the 7 are getting ready for the arrival of the Germans, stacking crates of beer.  Dennis reminds Oz that he's getting his job back because of them, and tells him that the darts match isn't the world cup or a replay of WWII.  Oz says that regardless, they still need to beat the Germans at darts.  They ask Oz why, and he says "'Cause they're the bastards that bombed my granny."  Roll end credits.

Commentary and observations:
 

• During Oz's rendition of Morning Train ("My baby takes the morning train, he gans to graft and cooms back again...", all sung with a thick Geordie accent), note Bomber's expression:
  
• Ironically, Jimmy Nail is actually a quite skilled singer; in an episode in series 2 he shows off his singing skills.
• Every time I hear Morning Train this sketch from Not the Nine O'Clock News always pops up in my head...
• Evidence of Neville's ineptitude as a carpenter: the saw he uses keeps bending, and when he's cutting a board, he also saws through the sawhorse below it.
• Oz demonstrates his less-than-extensive knowledge of the outside world when Dennis complains about how complicated his divorce is.  Oz points out that "When the Arabs get divorced, the husband just says 'I divorce you.'  Then they smash a glass on the floor."
• Ulrich and Grunwald's objections to Neville working as a carpenter are perfectly reasonable; in fact, they're prime examples of Jerkass has a point.  Neville working with all those woodworking tools he's not qualified to use is an accident waiting to happen, and a threat  to both himself and other workers (he's already injured himself at least once).  Another aspect that goes unmentioned is what about the risk of Neville not building something properly; what if a staircase collapses because Neville didn't install it the right way?  If I was the site manager, I'd have a team of carpenters go over anything Neville made and double-check his work.
• The name Helmut always reminds me of the New York sequence of Night on Earth...
• It never even occurred to anyone there that the bomb could have been an American bomb?
• Grunwald's comment about the British-made bomb not going off reminds me of Mr Burns' comparing himself to Oskar Schindler: "Schindler and I are like peas in a pod! We're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, dammit!"
• It's quite a contrast to see where the 7 go to every night vs where Helmut goes home to every night:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Oz's wit (from just before the fight):  German worker: "I have question for you."  Oz: "You wanna see me papers, then, is that it?"
• Helmut's mother has the same name as the name on Neville's tattoo (Lotte)... there has been a certain amount of fan speculation over this...

Trivia:

• German character actor nationalities: Herr Grunwald, Herr Ulrich, the German bartender, Helmut's wife, and the German construction workers (including the backhoe operator) are played by British actors (Michael Sheard, Peter Birch, Ray Knight, Terry Gurry, Suzie Breaknell, Richard Mitchley, and Seamus O'Neill, respectively), Dagmar, the German reporter, and both of Helmut's parents are played by German actors (Brigitte Kahn, Corinna Schnabel, Irene Prador, William Merrow [born Werner Leopold Meirowsky]), and Helmut is played by Dutch actor Lex van Delden.
• Corinna Schnabel (the German reporter) worked as a presenter for BFBS (British Forces Brodcasting Services) TV in the 1970s and 80s, teaching basic German to British soldiers and their families stationed in West Germany.  A short documentary on BFBS: Part 1 Part 2
• If you've seen A Bridge Too Far, you might recognize Lex Van Delden as Scharführer (SS NCO) Matthias, adjutant and interpreter to SS General Wilhelm Bittrich (Maximilian Schell).

Finally, sorry this recap took so long.  The write-up was done rather quickly, but the screencaps took much longer.  Up next: Episode 3: The Girls They Left Behind.

PS I've started another blog in addition to this one: http://lukes-random-thoughts.blogspot.com/

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Series 1, Episode 1: If I Were a Carpenter (Commentary and Trivia)

All in all, I thought this was a terrific first episode, doing an excellent job of setting up the different personalities of all (but one) of the main characters: Barry subjects others to boring lectures, Neville is homesick, Bomber is generally easygoing, Dennis is the often short-tempered leader and voice of reason, Wayne's successful with women, and Oz's irresponsibility gets others in addition to himself in trouble.  Indeed, the first scene on the ferry illustrates the trio's personalities quite well: Oz is clowning around, Neville's writing a postcard to Brenda, and Dennis reminds them that doing what they're doing is the only way for the 3 of them to make a decent amount of money.

I liked that the episode started with them in transit on their way to the site (and it shows how getting there's an adventure in and of itself), and didn't just start off with them already working at the site.  I also like how it didn't start off with all 7 arriving there at the same time; Bomber's already been working at the site for quite a while, the trio and Wayne are on their way there, Barry arrives later after having transferred from a site in Mönchengladbach, and Moxey hasn't arrived yet (he will get to the site next episode).

Other notes:

• The title of this episode refers to a certain well-known song. 
• Early installment weirdness:  The opening credits and theme, while featuring the same song as other episodes, doesn't use the regular opening credits sequence; rather, it uses several close-up shots of the ferry.
• The bar full of other British workers reminds me of the bar in Star Wars, and not just because it's so packed; it does a great job of showing in just a few scenes that it's not just the 3 Geordies or even the 7 that are doing this: rather, what it does is establish that there's a whole bigger picture with thousands of other British construction workers doing the same thing all over West Germany.  Barry mentioning the other cities and going over to work in Mönchengladbach before coming to the Düsseldorf compound similarly helps establish the setting.
• It's so weird seeing Timothy Spall looking so young and thin, especially considering what he looked like more recently...  
• Other cast members that may be familiar to American viewers:  Herr Grunwald (Michael Sheard) got strangled by Darth Vader and signed Indiana Jones' grail diary (as you can see, AWP isn't the only time Michael Sheard played a German-speaking character with a mustache and an authoritarian streak...).  Speaking of Indiana Jones, Pat Roach (Bomber) got into a fight with Indy several times; his fight near the "flying wing" aircraft ended rather messily.  Pat Roach also played a bouncer in the Korova Milkbar in A Clockwork Orange and got into a fistfight with Ryan O'Neal in Barry Lyndon.  Also, while Phoenix Nights might not be a show familiar to many Americans, I couldn't resist sharing a clip of Tim Healy's (Dennis) guest appearance as a racist folk singer.
• I'm surprised the car they drive even passed inspection in the first place; leaving aside the fact that their car (a Ford Zephyr, which at the time this show was made even the newest model would have been at least 11 years old) has parts in at least 3 different colors (4 if you count primer), the bumper's held on with string, the engine often backfires, and there's often a thick cloud of smoke trailing from the exhaust pipe.
• That weird arrow logo on the front of Nijmegen station is that of Nederlandse Spoorwegen, the Dutch State Railways.
  
• Seeing the trio drive over several bridges in Holland (and stopping in Nijmegen station) always reminds me of A Bridge Too Far:
  
• Oz's best lines (other than the ones quoted already in the previous post) At the border checkpoint: Dennis: He's an avid reader, Oz.  Oz: Oh, aye, that's why I left home, I owe so many library tickets.  Dennis and Neville are talking about Dennis' divorce; Oz comes over, not having heard the conversation, but seeing Neville and Dennis with very solemn expressions.  Oz:  So, who's died then?  Dennis:  Me and Nev were just, uh, discussing the meaning of life.  Oz: Oh, I've given that a lot of thought myself, being a bricklayer; it makes you a bit of a philosopher.  Early morning in the hut: Dennis and Oz have an argument about Oz letting Neville out of his sight.  Barry: Could you two be quiet please?  Oz:  Ah, bollocks!  Barry:  Some of us are trying to sleep, you know.  Oz: Ah, DOUBLE BOLLOCKS! 
• It's interesting how the buildings being built use only one outer layer of  "decorative" red bricks, while all the inner parts of the structures use more functional Concrete Masonry Units.
  
• One thing I never noticed until doing this recap: during a lunch break, one of the (Turkish?) workers is sleeping in the bucket of a backhoe:
  
• It's interesting to see some of the 80s European fashion on display; while Bomber's best suit is a rather nice double-breasted blazer (which when combined with his beard makes him look like a sea captain), all I can say about Wayne's pink suit and the outfits the nightclub band are wearing is yikes...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• When Barry starts showing Neville his Polaroids of Belgium, Neville makes this excellent "I should have gone with the others" look (also, there's a bit of a continuity error in that Neville already has a visible tattoo on his arm):
  
• I think a round of applause is owed to both makeup and Kevin Whately's acting for when Neville shows his new tattoo; the reddened skin and the way he winces when he takes his shirt off are both perfect touches.
  
  That's all for this episode!  Up next:  Who Won the War, Anyway?