Jimmy Nail and aired in 2002, with audience figures of over 12 million. Another series saw the brickies holed up in Cuba, and the final two-hour instalment, set in Laos, broadcast over Christmas 2004 attracting over seven million viewers. After the first two series of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet", Nail found himself typecast before creating the detective series "Spender", which he co-wrote with Ian La Frenais. The show ran for three series from 1991 to 1993 and also produced a tele-film and a novel. This was followed in 1994 by "Crocodile Shoes", which he also created and starred as musician Jed Shepherd. In
Jimmy Nail was actively involved in the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund, established to help young talent in North East England. To aid this, he participated in the "Sunday for Sammy" benefit concerts, until workload forced him to resign from the board. Nail came out of retirement to act and sing in "The Last Ship", a musical by Sting about the shipbuilders of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the hometown of both Nail and Sting. Sting grew up in Wallsend, down the street from the shipyards. Nail worked in the shipyards and is the son of a shipyard foreman. The show opened in Chicago. On Broadway, when