A BRIDGE made famous in the hit TV show Auf Wiedersehen Pet is getting a £500,000 facelift by a team of abseiling decorators.

Millions of people broke television viewing records when they tuned in to the last series of the show, which followed the escapades of Geordie brickies Oz, Dennis, Neville and friends.

Much of the filming took place around Middlesbrough, Teesside, and its famous blue Transporter Bridge landmark.

The storyline revolved around the bridge - one of only two of its kind in Britain - being dismantled piece-by-piece and shipped off to the US.

The local council was inundated with calls from bemused members of the public who thought the bridge was actually being pulled down.

Many even visited the bridge on the River Tees to get pictures as mementoes before it disappeared for good.

In fact, the bridge is going nowhere and a team of daring decorators has now begun a 16-week painting job on the near 100-year-old structure.

Every eight years, the bridge, a Grade II*-listed building, which carries cars and passengers across the Tees, is repainted blue.

When it was built in 1911, it only cost £87,000 to erect. Now it costs just over £500,000 to spruce it up to protect it from the harsh North-East climate.

A Middlesbrough Council spokesman: "The Transporter Bridge is a local landmark and is synonymous with Teesside.

"A team of decorators will be working flat-out for 16 weeks and the bridge will only be closed for three of those.

"It's a job which needs doing every eight years to keep the bridge looking good."