During the filming of the second series, Gary Holton's drug habit was becoming a cause for concern. Julia Tobin, who played Neville's wife, Brenda, recalled: "We would often have to film a scene more than ten times because Gary was so "out of it", he just couldn't remember his lines". It got so bad that Gary had to film his scenes in the morning because, according to Julia, he was either "high" or drunk by lunchtime. Gary's drug habit had also got him in trouble with the police and was charged at least once with possession. Gary sadly died of a heroin overdose in October 1985 while the filming of the second series was still taking place. He had filmed all his exterior scenes, but a member of the crew stood in for him in at least two interior scenes. The script was changed to explain his absence by stating that "Wayne" was out on the "pull" somewhere. The scene where Bomber carries "Wayne" out of the club by lifting him over his head was filmed the day after Gary's death. Tim Healey said, "We never really had time to mourn Gary's death because we were on a tight filming schedule. The cast were given two days off and straight back into it afterwards". Because filming was nearly complete when Gary died, the cast, crew and ITV decided to air the series in his memory. However, had Gary died earlier, then everyone was in agreement that they would have cancelled the show. The final episode of series two begins with Tim Healey voicing the tribute over a still picture of Gary: "Sadly, Gary Holton died shortly before we finished production of Auf Wiedersehen Pet. So the cast and crew would like to dedicate this last episode to Gary and "Wayne".
This is the last episode of Central TV's version of Auf Wiedersehn Pet. Soon after the second series ended, Tyne Tees Television produced an AIDS awareness show in the form of a mini episode. Tim Healy and Jimmy Nail reprised their roles in "Educating Oz", a 25-minute show.
A third season was originally planned soon after the second series completed, to be set in Moscow, seeing the lads rebuilding the British Embassy, but it was declared too expensive, and the other actors did not want to carry on without Gary Holton, so the third series did not go ahead until it was picked up by the BBC some 15 years later. The rebuilding of the British Embassy was later used as the premise of the fourth series.
The novelization of the second series ("Auf Wiedersehen, Pet 2" by Fred Taylor) ended abruptly with Oz winning the Spanish lottery. It went into no details about Barry's wedding and the impending customs chase. This was because the novel was based on an earlier version of the script. This is also apparent as the book covers some of the scenes that Gary Holton would have filmed had he been alive.
"Quo Vadis" is Latin for "where are you going?", which is appropriate given the storyline of this episode.