The program was created by film director Franc Roddam after he visited his home village in the northeast of England in the late 1970s, only to discover that many of the people he had grown up with were working as builders in Germany. He took the idea to La Frenais and Clement, who were particularly known for their working-class sitcom set in the northeast, The Likely Lads (1964–66), and its follow-up, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads (1973–74). The original aim was to make a two-hour film, but Central Television persuaded them to expand it into 13 hour-long episodes.

A cast of unknowns was gathered, many coming from the northeast region after producer Martin McKeand and his directors Roger Bamford and Baz Taylor went to Newcastle to review people from local bands and theater groups. Once recruited, the mixed group of actors practiced building crafts on set for a month before shooting began. Shooting took place over 18 months at Elstree Studios and on location in Frankfurt. The series was the first British drama to be shot abroad, and at the time this use of location video gave the program a visually distinctive and dynamic edge.

The series follows the exploits of the seven builders, who came from all over Britain to find work. They live in a squalid hut on the building site and have to brave rain and mud to get to the temporary ablutions hut. The camp mentality is ironically reminiscent of World War II prisoner-of-war films like The Great Escape (1963) and The Colditz Story (1955) as the characters squirm under German management, and much of the humor derives from the inevitable cultural misunderstandings that occur between the British and their hosts.

The humor is also derived from the relationships among a disparate group of people thrown together. Sharply observed with a witty script, the drama is also underscored by the regional differences between the characters. One of the most striking aspects of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is the use of language, especially working-class vernacular and regional dialects. The seven characters all conform to different types, such as Barry Taylor (Timothy Spall), the sensible but irritating bore from Birmingham, and Wayne Norris (Gary Holton), the Cockney “wide-boy” philandering his way through the young German women. Yet it is three “Geordies” who provide the lynchpin for the action (“Geordie” is a term for the working-class accent of the northeast of England and the people who live there). Dennis Patterson (Tim Healey) is the mature voice of reason; Neville Hope (Kevin Whately), whiny and homesick; and “Oz” Osbourne (Jimmy Nail), the large, loud, loutish oaf.

Although Auf Wiedersehen, Pet can now be regarded as a comedy drama it was, at the time and at heart, a serious drama. Transmitted in 1983, it reflected a period of growing unemployment and economic depression in areas such as the northeast of England. Described in the press as Boys from the Blackstuff (1982) with jobs, the series looked at what happened to those who left home to find work to feed their wives and families. The colloquialism of the title suggests this sequestration from home and community. The word “pet,” a Geordie endearment, is appended to the German phrase for “goodbye,” and thus alludes to the women left behind in Britain, and also perhaps in Germany. The lyricism of the language and regional affinity thus celebrates a sense of community, and thereby more powerfully evokes its loss.

Most of the cast members were propelled to success in their respective acting careers. Nail went on to take the lead role in Spender (1991–93) and Crocodile Shoes (1994). Whately went on to play in a number of dramas but will perhaps be best remembered for playing Sergeant Lewis, the sidekick to John Thaw, in Inspector Morse. Timothy Spall went on to a career in film and television, notably turning up in works by Stephen Poliakoff such as Shooting the Past (1999) and Perfect Strangers (2001), and in films by Mike Leigh such as Secrets and Lies (1996)

The program returned in two more incarnations. The second 13-part series follows the group as they work on a villa in Spain owned by a gangster played by Bill Paterson. The production was tragically marked by the premature death of Gary Holton in 1985 from a heroin overdose. Production was sufficiently advanced, however, that there was enough footage of Holton to ensure the completion of the series.

After a break of 16 years, the third series came about by chance and was aired by the BBC. Whately, Nail, and Healey had reprised their characters for a charity stage show (for which La Frenais and Clement had written scenes) and news reached Roddam, who held the rights to the series. Roddam lived next door to BBC 1 Controller Alan Yentob, and a deal was made over the garden fence.

In the new six-episode series, the old gang is reunited by Oz to help move the Middlesborough transporter bridge to Arizona. La Frenais and Clement cleverly show how the characters have fared over the years, and Wayne is replaced in the series by his fictional long-lost son, played by Noel Clarke. The comeback was a critical success and a ratings triumph for the BBC. In May 2002 discussion was under way regarding a fourth series.