If Oz from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was invariably a boozy, laugh-a-minute, Jack the Lad, it was certainly a more thoughtful, reflective version of the television Geordie brickie we met 35 years ago.
Fresh from the runaway success of the ITV show's first two series - broadcast in 1983/84 and 1986 respectively - Jimmy Nail, the actor who played the character, had been recruited to appear in a spin-off episode called Educating Oz.
It was 1987, and the country was in the midst of a major public health challenge in the shape of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The 30-minute programme, made specially for Tyne Tees, would focus on the difficult subject and hopefully educate people on the matter.
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Appearing alongside Nail would be his Auf Wiedersehen, Pet co-star Tim Healy who played Dennis Patterson in the show. Both would reprise their classic roles, discussing the looming AIDS problem while enjoying a pint at their local. None of the other Pet stars appeared.
Sitting upstairs at the Egypt Cottage pub, next door to the Tyne Tees studios, on City Road, Newcastle, Jimmy told The Journal on March 26, 1987: "It's aimed at youths and adolescents in particular. If it makes just one kid think twice, then it's worth it. It has certainly made me more aware of the implications.
"Filming this was a sobering couple of days, I can tell you. I'm just glad I'm not a teenager today, what with AIDS, unemployment and everything else."
Educating Oz would be broadcast on Tyne Tees, a couple of days later on a Saturday night at 10.45pm, just before the late-night movie. It would be the last time we'd see the characters of Oz and Dennis for around 15 years until a rebooted version of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet returned to our TV screens, this time on BBC1, in 2002.
But we'd be seeing and hearing plenty of Jimmy Nail in the meantime. He wrote and played the lead role in Spender, charting the exploits of an unorthodox Geordie police detective. Largely shot on location in the North East, the show’s three series were major TV successes between 1991 and 1993.
Two series of Crocodile Shoes followed in 1994 and 1996, while his movie appearances over the last three and a half decades have ranged from the 1985 comedy Morons From Outer Space to Evita in 1996 in which he starred alongside Madonna and Antonio Banderas.
Meanwhile, the former singer with infamous Newcastle pub band, The King Crabs, would also enjoy significant success in the music business. In 1985, Nail's cover of Rose Royce’s Love Don’t Live Here Anymore had been a big UK hit. In 1992, he returned to the charts with Ain’t No Doubt which reached number 1. Further 1990s hits included Crocodile Shoes - the title track of Nail's TV series - as well as Cowboy Dreams and Big River.
The star's last notable TV work was in his 2008 series Parents Of The Band; later, he was heavily involved in Sting's Last Ship project, before leaving in 2018; and has been an ongoing leading figure in the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund, which he co-founded in 1999.
Educating Oz, which appeared on Tyne Tees this week 35 years ago, is today largely forgotten - but you can watch the show on YouTube.
