Thirty years since Jimmy Nail's Crocodile Shoes was beamed into living rooms

As the mid-1990s loomed, Jimmy Nail had become a household name in UK entertainment.

The star, born in Benton, had risen to fame overnight a decade earlier with his authentic portrayal of Oz, a rough but likeable bricklayer in the ITV comedy drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - loved by thousands across the North-east.

The dawn of the new decade saw him create, write and star in Spender, a hit BBC series about a rogue Geordie police detective. He'd also dabbled in film work (he would later share screen space with Madonna in the 1996 movie musical, Evita), and even released a couple of singles that climbed high on the UK charts.

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In November 1994, BBC1 started airing Jimmy's latest creation, Crocodile Shoes - a seven-part drama series charting the journey of a Geordie factory worker turned country singer. The locales and characters of Tyneside lent authenticity to much of the action, while Nail himself penned and performed the original songs featured in the series.

Music was not unfamiliar territory for Nail. As a teenager, Jimmy Bradford (his real name) had been in the crowd when American rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix performed at Newcastle's iconic Club a'Gogo in 1967.

It was a transformative experience for the young man. Dressed in a frock and hobnail boots, he led his own band, the King Crabs, who amassed a considerable following in Newcastle's pubs, reports Chronicle Live.

"It was quite a rarity to see a guy in an R&B band in a frock," he quipped later.

Following his initial success in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - with many a scene filmed on Teesside as the loveable gang set about to try to dismantle the Transporter Bridge - he climbed to number three in the UK charts in 1985 with a cover of Rose Royce's Love Don't Live Here Any More.

In 1992, he topped the charts with Ain't No Doubt, a song he co-wrote.

Crocodile Shoes was produced by Big Boy Productions, Jimmy's own company, which had also been responsible for Spender. Nail took on multiple roles in the series, including starring, writing, directing and co-producing.

In the series, Nail portrays Jed Shepperd, a struggling labourer in a Newcastle engineering factory who writes country songs in his spare time. When the factory closes (the Chronicle created a special front page announcing the news for use in the show), Jed turns to music.

He is discovered by a record company executive and embarks on an adventure that takes him to Nashville, Tennessee, the heartland of country music. Scenes for the new £2 million series were filmed on location in Tyneside during the summer of 1994.

Parts of the action were captured in the Newcastle suburb of Walker. The interiors of two of Nail's former favourite pubs - the Ship in Benton and the Millstone in Gosforth - were recreated in two rooms at the Wincombelee Hotel on Mitchell Street.

A local housing estate served as the location for Jed's home. Other scenes were filmed much further afield, in Nashville and New York.

On Thursday, November 10, 1994, the first hour-long episode of Crocodile Shoes aired on BBC1 at 9:30pm, sandwiched between the News and Question Time. The series boasted a talented cast, including James Wilby, and local actors Sammy Johnson, Melanie Hill, and Mike Elliott.

Critics praised the show, with the Evening Chronicle hailing it as "the jewel in the crown of the BBC's autumn schedule". The series drew in an impressive eight million viewers each week.

Its success led to a sequel, Crocodile Shoes II, in 1996, as well as accompanying albums and singles that topped the charts. This marked another triumph for Jimmy Nail during a remarkably fruitful period in his career.

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