The magnificent seven - the lads who make up the cast of Auf Wiedersehen Pet - will be back on our screens this Sunday, in a brand new series.

Clements: Geordie accents in LA

The years have been kinder to some of the gang than others.

Neville has his own business, Moxey is working as a kitchen porter and Oz has been changed for life by a spell in prison.

They're reunited for a grand project, which sees them heading off to Arizona.

Breakfast talked to the men behind Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. You can see their interview in full by clicking on the watch/listen box at the top right hand side of this story

La Frenais: "I pace and frown"

Writers Dick Clements and Ian La Frenais, are past masters at the art of reviving their characters - or rather, re-visiting them in later life.

They've already done it successfully with two of their previous series, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, and Porridge.

What has been tough, this time, is keeping up-to-date with what's happening in Britain: the pair have been living and writing in Los Angeles for several years.

Whatever Happened to The Likely Lads was also a revival

"When we were writing the scripts, we both got more and more of a Geordie accent, " says Dick Clements, "Which is really inconvenient in LA"

"It's more difficult writing about Britain from a distance," says his co-writer Ian La Frenais. "You start to miss everyday cultural references.

"When I pick up one of those magazines like Hello, I don't know anyone in there - or their kitchens."

The trick, according to the pair, is to concentrate getting the characters right - and do plenty of homework on life in Britain.

the gang's latest adventures will take them to Arizona

Clements and La Frenais have been writing together for four decades. They produced a string of classic shows including Porridge and The Likely Lads.

They always write together, rather than dividing scenes between them:

"He sits at the computer and I pace and frown," says La Frenais.

The advantage, they say, is that every joke is debated; every line of dialogue is filtered twice, so the results are more likely to work.