[anagahan]

just to add something...

since all these are considered as Narrative Tenses...you use the Past Simple to talk about short consecutive actions in the past
eg. I woke up at 7am, took a shower, got dressed and left.

Past Cont. in general is used to describe a longer continuous past action, which doesnt always have to be interrupted, though in most of the cases, it is
there is another usage for Past Continuous, when you want to say that two simultaneous actions were happening at the same time in the past, and both lasted

eg. While she was watching TV, he was reading a book

or when you want to say that something repeatedly happened in the past and was annoying/irritating etc, you can use the past continuous along with some adverbs of frequency

eg. She was always borrowing my clothes without asking


and here are a few examples for the Past Perfects

Past Perfect Simple:
eg. When I arrived, the movie had already started (two actions, "the start of the movie" & "my arrival") "The start of the movie", is the action which happens first, so thats why it is in Past Perfect, and "my arrival" is in Past Simple, since it happened second

Past Perfect Continuous:
eg. They were tired, since they had been travelling all day
First they travel..then they are tired