Auction item Going Going Gone to Wallsend Auf Wiedersehen Pet Fan
Auf Wiedersehen Pet 30th Anniversary
A Wallsend fan of an iconic TV series has pledged £1500 to own a unique piece of TV memorabilia.
Mark Pratt from Hadrian lodge in Wallsend attended the Auf Wiedersehen Pet convention “Brickies Banquet” at the Hilton NewcastleGateshead Hotel where he and hundreds of other fans dined with members of the cast, the writers and producers. The evening had a ‘construction theme’ and featured a potted ‘history of the series’ with live and filmed anecdotes from the cast and famous fans of the show.
One of the highlights of the evening was a charity auction hosted by Bertie Forster from North Shields.
Prizes included a river ride on a fast rigid inflatable boat donated by the Maritime Volunteer Service, golf at Close House with Tim Healy and Billy Mitchell, a special barrel of Auf Wiedersehen Pet beer from the Head of Steam and a number of signed TV scripts.
Actor Tim Spall who played Barry in the TV series personally donated one of the signed scripts which was won by fan Mark Pratt raising £1500 for Tim’s chosen charity Leukemia Research.
“I’ve been a life long fan of the show and to now own such a rare piece of TV memorabilia is fantastic,” he said. “ To think that this script has been used on the set and that Tim has spent hours learning his lines reading it is even better.”
The overall event was organised to raise much-needed funds for the Sunday for Sammy Trust.
Fans David Gardner from Hetton-Le-Hole and Lee Barratt from Blackburn who together run the official website, contacted ex -Lindisfarne drummer, Ray Laidlaw, the administrator of the Sunday for Sammy Trust ,with the idea of organising a charity fund raising fan convention on Tyneside to celebrate the milestone anniversary.
To ensure the success of the convention, Ray recruited the help of his Tyne Idols business partner, Paul Irwin who also has a wealth of knowledge about the North East’s entertainment culture.
The team was completed when Karen Goldfinch from Benton based events management company, Made to Treasure and Keith Newman from Morpeth Public Relations company, Highlights PR joined the team.
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Photo shows Bertie Forster with Mark Pratt and the script
Media requests– please contact Keith Newman Highlights PR on 07814 397951
