Brit transforms Hamburg bar used in classic 80s TV show
AN Auf Wiedersehen, Pet fan has turned the pub from the classic TV show into a clothes shop.
Robert Forsythe, inset, from Belfast, grew up loving the smash hit 1980s comedy drama about UK building workers in Germany.
So he snapped up the chance to rent the Hamburg pub once used by Bomber, Oz and the gang – and has kept the bar and snooker table.
Hamburg-based Rob, 25, told the Daily Star Sunday: “I’m too young to have seen the series when it was first screened but my uncle was a huge fan and I grew up watching it on video.
“When it was repeated on UK Gold a couple of years ago I fell in love with it all over again. But the quality on screen was a bit grainy so I bought the DVD box set.
“It was only then when I watched the German secretary Dagmar, played by Brigitte Kahn, drive up to pick up Tim Healy’s character Dennis from the pub that I recognised the area.”
The series was set in Dusseldorf but many of the scenes were filmed in Hamburg, including the building workers’ favourite boozer the Halber Liter – the Half Litre.
Robert has rechristened the pub “Casual Couture” and stocks high-quality fashion and sports clothing brands such as Barbour, Hawkins & Joseph, Lyle & Scott, Fila and Adidas Originals. He says: “We have kept the interior unchanged so we still have a bar and display the clothing on the snooker table.
“We play music by classic British bands like Oasis, The Jam and The Specials. The shop is really popular with young football lads, so much so we’re now opening a second one in Dusseldorf.”
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet made TV stars of Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Kevin Whately and the late Gary Holton, who sang with the cult London rock band the Heavy Metal Kids.
It was an instant hit when it launched on ITV in 1983 and ran for three years. HIT: Auf Wiedersehen, Pet made stars of the cast, led by Tim Healy, front