Minder on the Orient Express
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| Minder on the Orient Express | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Francis Megahy |
| Written by | Andrew Payne |
| Starring | Dennis Waterman, George Cole |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1985 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Minder |
| IMDb profile | |
Minder on the Orient Express is a comedy/thriller television film made in 1985 as a spin-off from the successful television series Minder.
When Nikki South inherits the contents of a bank strongbox left by her father, a former gangland boss, she realises that the contents form a clue to the number of a Swiss bank account used to stash her father's ill-gotten gains - an idea possibly derived form the money supposedly left in a secret account by Diana Dors.
She plans to travel to Switzerland with her boyfriend on the Orient Express to claim the contents. But others have their eyes on the potential windfall, especially several former associates of her father. They include a crooked former judge (Robert Beatty), a bent bank manager (Maurice Denham), a hitman (Adam Faith) and the widow of a former associate (Honor Blackman).
Nikki is waylaid and as the masked attackers try to wrest the clues, kept in an envelope, from her, she is rescued by Terry (Dennis Waterman), who happens to be passing. She later thanks him by presenting him with two return tickets for the Orient Express to Venice. He plans to take his current girlfriend with him.
Arthur (George Cole) is on the run. He's been a reluctant witness to a protection racket attack and Detective Sergeant Rycott (Peter Childs) is trying to serve a subpoena on him, thus far without success. Arthur persuades Terry's girlfriend that Terry is up to no good, and when she angrily dumps him, Arthur turns up at the railway station and brazenly persuades a furious Terry to take him along, thus evading the subpoena.
As they travel towards Folkestone, Nikki enlists Terry's help again, as the former associates try to get the envelope off her. They also discover that Arthur's other nemesis, Detective Sergeant Chisholm (Patrick Malahide), is also trevelling on the train, having been seconded to Interpol to observe the various 'faces'.
As the train travels through night-time France, matters eventually come to a head and a free-for-all scrap ensues. Even Chisholm joins in the fight, upholding the honour of the police in the face of an easy-going and slightly drunk French detective. Arthur and Terry are thrown off the train, to be joined by Nikki and Chisholm.
Nikki and Terry have almost completed the cracking of the code to the bank account number, but the final vital clue is lost. So there's no pot of gold for anyone and no trip to Switzerland.
