Franc Roddam

The British builders in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983) need work; getting on with one another is another matter. Roddam's premise keeps them in company they would not necessarily have chosen, with earning a living more urgent than enjoying the trip. We warmed to these men because the comedy never forgets why they have had to leave home. The series gives them time to be difficult without making that the only thing worth noticing about them.

His BBC documentary work in the early 1970s preceded Quadrophenia (1979), which he directed and co-wrote. His debut feature used a young ensemble to portray 1960s mod culture, with more interest in failure than heroic achievement. The Lords of Discipline (1983) took him into a military academy story during his Hollywood years. But the premise of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet came from something closer: people he knew in Stockton-on-Tees had gone to Germany because there was no work at home.

In Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais do the writing, and the cast is our strongest reason to keep watching. Roddam deserves credit for putting ordinary working lives at the centre of a situation that can sustain both jokes and sympathy. Much of the pleasure comes from the daily business of men learning to tolerate one another, rather than any promise that travel will improve them. The jokes about women and foreigners are harder work, and affection for the ensemble does not make those jokes better.

Television formats took up more of his attention after the early 1990s; he had already created MasterChef (1990). A cooking competition is a long way from a comedy-drama about builders, but both depend on taking what people do seriously enough to make us care. The many international versions show how readily the cooking format travels, though reach alone tells us little about how good a programme is. Start with Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, where the need to earn a living gives even the bickering a purpose.