Television series
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
Seven British tradesmen - three Geordies, a Scouser, a Brummie, a Cockney and a Bristolian - cross to West Germany for a construction contract, fleeing Thatcher-era unemployment. It's blokey, funny and unexpectedly tender, mixing site-hut banter with real homesickness and class anger. For anyone who wants comedy with grit under its nails, and men who bicker like brothers because they basically are.
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Boys from the Blackstuff1982
Alan Bleasdale's five-part masterpiece about unemployed Liverpool tarmac layers is the direct spiritual parent of Auf Wiedersehen Pet's Thatcher-era despair - funnier and far more devastating, with Bernard Hill's 'gizza job' a landmark of British television.
But Bleaker and slower than the sitcom-adjacent Auf Wiedersehen Pet, with far less warmth to cushion the blows.
The Full Monty1997
Unemployed Sheffield steelworkers turn to stripping to survive - same mix of blokey banter and quiet devastation, same argument that dignity and humiliation can share a stage.
But Broader and more sentimental, aiming for uplift where Auf Wiedersehen Pet prefers ambiguity.
Brassed Off1996
A colliery closes and the brass band plays on - Mark Herman's film has the same ensemble-of-blokes structure and fury under the jokes, refusing to let politics kill the music.
But More overtly political and didactic than anything in Auf Wiedersehen Pet's shrugging comedy.
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Something you would not have found on your own.
Rocco and His Brothers1960no page yet
Both follow tradesmen who leave home for a foreign city's construction sites, testing whether brotherhood survives displacement and desperation - Rocco got there first, and played it dead straight.
Visconti's operatic Italian neorealist epic follows brothers migrating from the rural south to industrial Milan for work, exposing exploitation and broken solidarity decades before Auf Wiedersehen Pet's site huts.
But Nearly three hours of black-and-white Italian tragedy, with none of the sitcom relief that softens Auf Wiedersehen Pet's punches.
More like this (8)
This Is England2007
Shane Meadows' portrait of working-class Britain adrift under Thatcher follows a younger generation but carries the same wounded pride and sense of men left behind by the economy.
But Much darker and more violent, with youth culture and race politics Auf Wiedersehen Pet never touches.
Our Friends in the North1996
A sweeping decade-hopping saga follows four Geordie friends chewed up by British politics from the sixties to the nineties - same regional voice, vastly bigger canvas, same ache for lost solidarity.
But Nine hour-long episodes of slow-burn political disillusionment demand more patience than a workplace comedy.
Shameless2011
Frank Gallagher's Chatsworth estate runs on the same anarchic camaraderie and laughing-through-poverty energy, with the same conviction that working-class life deserves comedy as much as tragedy.
But Rowdier and ruder, and far less interested in earning your sympathy for its characters' failings.
Common as Muck1994no page yet
Bin men navigate privatisation and job insecurity with the same ensemble warmth and gallows humour as the site huts of Auf Wiedersehen Pet - underseen and overdue for rediscovery.
But A less starry cast and rougher production values than the BBC's bigger eighties hit.
The Likely Lads1964
Bob and Terry, two Geordie mates navigating work, women and each other, are the comic ancestors of Oz and Dennis - same regional wit, much gentler stakes.
But A pure sitcom with none of the economic anger or drama that gives Auf Wiedersehen Pet its bite.
When the Boat Comes In1976no page yet
A Geordie period drama following a First World War veteran back to unemployment and class struggle on Tyneside - same accent, same fight for dignity, decades earlier.
But A slower-paced period drama more concerned with history than with the sitcom rhythms of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
Local Hero1983
Where Auf Wiedersehen Pet sends workers abroad chasing money, Local Hero flips it - outsiders arrive chasing profit and get gently undone by place and people, same economic anxieties, opposite tone.
Same year, same Thatcher-era friction between community and capital, but told as a gentle, whimsical comedy where an oil executive's Scottish deal gets quietly derailed by the very locals he's trying to buy out.
But Almost nothing happens; the pleasures are atmosphere and mood rather than plot or workplace grit.
Nomadland2021
Same premise stripped of comedy - people forced by economic collapse to leave home and chase work, finding dignity and fellowship among strangers doing the same.
Frances McDormand plays an itinerant worker drifting between seasonal jobs after the 2008 crash, sleeping in a van and finding unlikely community among fellow economic castaways - the same story, decades on, in a different country.
But Meditative and quiet where Auf Wiedersehen Pet is loud and funny, with barely any conventional plot to hold onto.
People
Cast
Writing
- Franc RoddamCreator
Recommended by
Bread, Boys from the Blackstuff, The Likely Lads, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?