THE sun-and-swimming-pools Los Angeles lifestyle seem a long way away as writer Dick Clement sits in a bus parked on a disused industrial site in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge.

The rain is lashing down outside this makeshift rest room on the Middlesbrough set of the new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

After 15 years, Dennis, Neville, Oz and the rest of the building gang are returning in what promises to be one of the highlights of BBC1's New Year schedules. Clement and Whitley Bay-born Ian La Frenais are back as writers. The original cast of Tim Healy, Kevin Whately, Timothy Spall, Chris Fairbank and Pat Roach return too as the Pet lads try to sell the Transporter Bridge to the Americans. Filming in the North-East was followed by location work in Arizona.

"People seem to have great affection for the series," says Clement above the noise of the rain beating on the bus. "I was chary when a new series was first mooted. Then all the actors got together in London and there was enormous affection and respect for the show.

"Although they'd all gone on to do different things, there was a real sense of camaraderie and of being a team together. We saw that, and they needed a reassurance we wanted to write the series. They wouldn't have wanted to do it if it had been farmed out to someone else.

"If one of them had pulled out of the project, it would have been very difficult. It was this sense that everyone wanted to do it that made the new series happen."

Clement and La Frenais, who count The Likely Lads and Porridge among their other TV successes, have been long-time California exiles. But they've kept in touch with the Pet people, teaming up with Nail and Spall for the film Still Crazy three years ago.

Their US work includes polishing scripts for films such as war epic Pearl Harbor and The Rock, in which star Sean Connery insisted they buff up his dialogue before committing to the project. Such work only accounts for about ten per cent of their output but it's "always good fun and well renumerated".

They've recently delivered a script to a major studio destined for Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson, although the state of Hollywood means the odds of a screenplay reaching the screen are poor. "We had three films poised to be produced at the beginning of the year but none happened," explains Clement.

"With Auf Wiedersehen Pet, we've written six hours and it's actually being made. So that's very gratifying. Obviously, it's got to find a new audience because a whole different audience has grown up since the last series."

The germ of the idea for a Pet revival can be traced back to a charity show in Newcastle last year in aid of the late Sammy Johnson, a Geordie actor who appeared with Nail in Spender. Clement and La Frenais were asked to write a sketch involving Oz, Dennis and Neville for Nail, Healy and Whatley.

"All three said the response, the first time Jimmy Nail walked on stage as Oz, was so amazing and emotional that it made them realise there was an incredible affection for these characters," says Clement.

The writers had to decide what had befallen the building workers since they were last seen 15 years ago. All are discovered living in different parts of Britain and come together for a job. Their fortunes vary ("one is quite well off but you'll have to wait and see which one") and are affected by what happens during the six new episodes.

The pair wrote much of the original Pet in Hollywood. The second series was penned at a little round table in Clement's kitchen. That was written in longhand, the new series was produced on computer - still in the same house.

"Ian and I write together in the same room," explains Clement. "We toss ideas around and every line goes through a double filter process, so we both have to like the end result. We read it out loud ourselves, so we can hear the rhythm."

One of the moving forces behind the new Pet was Norton-born executive producer Franc Roddam, who created the original series. He set about reviving it after the rights reverted to him some years ago. ITV wasn't interested, so he took the idea to the BBC. Once the actors said "yes", it was all systems go.

"For me, the first series was a comment on the post-industrial age when skilled working class men lost their employment, went to Germany to work and lived in huts. I saw the comedic situations and the tragic side," he says.

"Now it's an electronic age, displacing many thousands of people from jobs. People don't know where they are supposed to fit in and what they have to do. There are all sorts of elements that need reflecting."

He was instrumental in bringing the actors back together. Jimmy Nail, thought by many to be the least likely to want to return, was the first to commit to the project after a chance meeting in the street with Roddam.

"One reason this series happened is these six actors have remained friends. You see on the set that there's no competition between them. They don't steal lines or close-ups like other actors. It's quite unusual," he says.

He's well aware that great things are expected of the new series. "It's event television," he says. "There's a lot to live up to. It's brave of the actors and writers to come back but no one wanted to do it if it was just a rehash of the old themes."

* Porridge is on BBC2, Christmas Eve, 10pm, and Christmas Day, 11.15pm.

Still Crazy is on BBC1, December 30, 10.35pm. The new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet will be shown on BBC1 next year.