Minder (TV series)

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For other uses, see Minder (disambiguation).


Minder

Minder
Format Drama
Run time 60 to 90 minutes
Creator(s) Leon Griffiths
Starring Dennis Waterman
George Cole
Patrick Malahide
Gary Webster
Glynn Edwards
Channel ITV
Production company Euston Films
Air dates October 29, 1979 – March 10, 1994
No. of series 10
(book cover)
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(book cover)

Minder was a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by the prolific and effective Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television, and was shown on ITV. The show ran in ten series from October 29, 1979 to March 10, 1994, and starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, an honest and likeable bodyguard (minder in London slang), and George Cole as Arthur Daley, a well dressed but unscrupulous importer-exporter, wholesaler and used-car salesman.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Terry is a former professional boxer who has served time in prison (Wormwood Scrubs), having served a substantial term without acting as a "grass" against his co-accused. With few options for the future, Terry is employed as Arthur's minder on vague and ungenerous terms.

Arthur is a mid-level professional criminal of mature years, a minor confidence trickster who survives by his wiles and indomitable self-belief. He exploits everyone around him, especially Terry. He is always trying to make a buck and, as a consequence, often bites off much more than he can chew. Arthur thinks of himself as a Thatcherite "entrepreneur", but his tailored three-piece suits, cashmere coat and Jaguar motor car do not disguise his working class accent and origins. Arthur frequently tests Terry's patience to its limits with his dishonest and doomed schemes to make money ("nice little earners"), but then uses his superior cunning to convince Terry to stay with him. In the same way, Arthur manipulates his friends, such as Dave (the manager of Arthur's private, if downmarket, "Winchester Club)". Arthur frequently refers to his wife, who never appeared, as "'Er indoors".

The tone of the program in series 1 and 2 was unusual in that it mixed poignant drama and action sequences with offbeat comic moments. As the series progressed over 15 years, much more emphasis was placed upon the comedic aspects of the minder-principal relationship, and the show became more a comedy driven by a dramatic plot. Social satire played a strong part throughout the series, which was firmly grounded in the cinematic and social ethos of the 1970s. In the earlier series Terry would often succeed in seducing a 'dolly bird', resulting in at least one scene of female semi-nudity per episode, though as the series became more popular these instances were reduced.

Other features of the series were Arthur's constant and ambitious use of obscure Cockney rhyming slang, the derelict sites used as locations, and the episode titles, which contained references to well-known phrases and names (e.g. "Guess Who's Coming to Pinner"). Another strong character was Arthur's failed nemesis, the hapless policeman Detective Sergeant Albert "Charlie" Chisholm (Patrick Malahide), who was always close to detecting Arthur's crimes but was not quite clever enough to catch him.

As the show's title suggests, Terry was originally intended to be the lead character, but Arthur eventually overtook him in popularity. The original theme tune, I Could Be So Good For You, was written in 1979 by Patricia Waterman and Gerard Kenny and was sung by Dennis Waterman himself. The record reached No.3 in the UK charts and provided the boost for Waterman to tour as a singer for a while.

Waterman left the show in 1989 after seven series, and his character was replaced in 1991 by Ray Daley, Arthur's nephew, played by Gary Webster. The theme tune was replaced by an instrumental version of Waterman's song, credited to "Kenny".

Despite its huge eventual success, Minder was a slow burner. The first series, although critically acclaimed, did not attract large audiences, because it began transmission soon after the 1979 ITV strike, when the channel was initially struggling to recover its previous audience levels. Management at Thames were intent on scrapping the show but managing director Bryan Cowgill persuaded them to commission one further series and repeat the first. Both attracted huge audiences and a TV legend was born.

In the later years of the programme's run, some thought that it had overstayed its welcome, that Thames were using it as a cash cow to great effect, and that its audiences had declined (though there was more competition for viewers' time than when the programme had started). It was also claimed that the character of Terry was portrayed as unrealistically tough considering the fact that Waterman was 41 by the time he finished appearing in the series.

[edit] Episode guide

[edit] Season 1

  • Gunfight at the O.K. Laundrette
  • Bury my Half at Waltham Green
  • The Smaller They Are
  • A Tethered Goat
  • Bounty Hunter
  • Aces High - and Sometimes Very Low
  • The Bengal Tiger
  • Come in T-64, Your Time is Ticking Away
  • Monday Night Fever
  • The Dessert Song
  • You Gotta Have Friends

[edit] Season 2

  • National Pelmet
  • Whose Wife is it Anyway?
  • You Lose Some, You Win Some
  • Don't Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here
  • Not A Bad Lad, Dad
  • The Beer Hunter
  • A Nice Little Wine
  • All Mod Cons
  • Diamonds are a Girl's Worst Friend
  • The Old School Tie
  • All About Scoring - Innit?
  • Caught in the Act, Fact
  • A Lot of Bull and a Pat on the Back

[edit] Season 3

  • Dead Men Do Tell Tales
  • You Need Hands
  • Rembrandt doesn't live here anymore
  • Looking for Micky
  • Dreamhouse
  • Another Bride, Another Groom
  • The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs
  • The Son Also Rises
  • Why Pay Tax
  • Broken Arrow
  • Poetic Jusice Innit?
  • Back in Good Old England
  • In

[edit] Season 4

  • Rocky Eight and a Half
  • Senior Citizen Caine
  • High Drains Pilferer
  • Sorry Pal, Wrong Number
  • Car Lot Beggars
  • If Money be the Food of Love, Play on
  • A Star is Gorn
  • Willesden Suite
  • Windows
  • Get Daley
  • A Well Fashioned Fit Up

[edit] Season 5

  • Goodbye Sailor
  • What Makes Shamy Run?
  • A Number of Old Wives' Tales
  • The Second Time Around
  • Secondhand Rose
  • Ride to Scratchwood
  • Hypnotising Rita
  • The Balance of Power
  • Around the Corner

[edit] Season 6

  • Give Us This Day Arthur Daley's Bread
  • Life in the Fast Food Lane
  • Return of the Invincible Man
  • Arthur is dead, Long Live Arthur
  • From Fulham With Love
  • Waiting for Goddard
  • Minder on the Orient Express (1985 feature length special)

[edit] Season 7

  • An Officer and a Car Salesman (90-minute special)
  • It's a Sorry Lorry, Morrie
  • Day of Fines and Closures
  • Fatal Impression
  • The Last Video Show
  • Fiddler on the Hoof
  • The Wrong Goodbye

[edit] Season 8

  • The Loneliness of the Long Distance Entrepreneur
  • A Bouquet of Barbed Wine
  • Whatever Happened to Her Indoors?
  • Three Cons Make a Mountain
  • Guess Who's Coming to Pinner
  • The Last Temptation of Daley
  • A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in Shepherd's Bush
  • Him Indoors
  • The Greatest Show in Willesden
  • Too Many Crooks
  • The Odds Couple
  • The Coach That Came in from the Cold
  • The Cruel Canal

[edit] Season 9

  • I'll Never Forget What'sername
  • No Way to Treat a Daley
  • Uneasy Rider
  • Looking for Mr. Goodtime
  • Opportunity Knocks and Bruises
  • Gone with the Winchester
  • How to Succeed in Business Without Really Retiring
  • The Roof of All Evil
  • Last Orders at the Winchester
  • Cars and Pints and Pains
  • The Great Trilby
  • A Taste of Money
  • For a Few Dollars More

[edit] Season 10

  • A Fridge Too Far
  • Another Case of Van Blank
  • All Things Brighton Beautiful
  • One Flew over the Parents' Nest
  • The Immaculate Contraption
  • All Quiet on the West End Front
  • The Great Depression of 1994
  • On the Autofront
  • Bring Me the Head of Arthur Daley
  • The Long Good Thursday

[edit] Trivia

  • The show was largely responsible for putting the word minder, meaning personal bodyguard, into the UK popular lexicon.
  • The name Arthur Daley has become synonymous with a dishonest salesman or small time crook. [1]
  • the term 'Er Indoors meaning the wife, has also entered the popular lexicon, entirely due to Minder [2]
  • George Cole and Dennis Waterman released a christmas record in 1983 called What are we Gonna Get 'Er Indoors, it reached No.21 in the charts. The duo performed it on Top of the Pops on December 22, 1983.
  • In 2005 Arthur Daley came second in ITV's 50th anniversary poll to find its favourite TV characters. [3]
  • A character called Dennis Waterman appears as a character in David Walliams' and Matt Lucas' Little Britain. Dennis Waterman is portrayed as a tiny out of work actor obsessed with writing and singing the theme tune to whatever programme, film or play he is offered. The tune is often based on the Minder theme. Waterman himself eventually appeared live on stage with Walliams' parody character during the 'Little Britain Live' tour to sing the theme tune.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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