During filming, a coach load of British soldiers from a nearby camp were hired to play the parts of the pub goers. Unfortunately the beer was real which led to drunken chaos, and a chase involving gun toting German police.
The building site, although set in Germany, was actually in Hertfordshire in Elstree studios. It is now the Albert Square set of EastEnders.
During filming, the production crew had to hire a coach load of prostitutes from Hamburg's red light district for the "brothel" scene. On arriving at the sets, the producers discovered that most of these were actually transvestites.
At the time, the episode was considered to contain some of the broadest Geordie dialect ever seen on British television, and a number of viewers wrote in to complain that they couldn't understand it.
Jimmy Nail had done a spell of manual work in Germany himself, before filming the series, so was able to act from personal experience. He won the part of Oz after auditioning for a walk-on part in the show.