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
Big River (Jimmy Nail song) Big River (Jimmy Nail song) "Big River" is a song written and performed by Jimmy Nail and released on the album "Big River". It was released as a single in 1995. In 2011, it was recorded by Joe McElderry for the DVD, "Big River Big Songs: The Tyne". McElderry also performed it for "Sunday for Sammy" in 2012. The big river referred to in the title is the River Tyne that runs through Nail's home town, Newcastle upon Tyne. The song is an elegy to the days when shipbuilding and industry in general were at their height in Newcastle and