With only an episode or two until Dennis Waterman's tenure on Minder would end, the show's writers reached back to the early days of the show to fashion a fairly gritty episode.
We get a menacing strip club owner and his hired goons. We get a bag man memorably played by Michael Kitchen - who must get a bag of filthy money to some other random bad guy or end up encased in concrete. We get Arthur opening the newspaper to find the bank where he keeps his safe deposit box ful of dodgy dough has been hijacked. Terry getting asked to perform heroics on his behalf. And Carole Ashby as the eye candy with some tasty martial arts moves.
Of course, this is latter-day Minder, so Arthur and his antics are still centre stage. And he's given several funny lines.
I understand Waterman (RIP) wanted to leave the show because he felt the writers had run out of ideas. For Terry McCann, maybe. How many times could he grouse about doing Arthur's dirty work, sort out a couple of geezers with a punch, or pick up a bird. By this point it had been several seasons since the writers had made the slightest effort to round out Waterman's character. By now it was full-on the Arthur Daley Show.
Nevertheless, taken on its own merits, this show had the grit that made the first 2-3 seasons of Minder so compelling. And the comedic touches that made seasons 4-7 classic TV.
We get a menacing strip club owner and his hired goons. We get a bag man memorably played by Michael Kitchen - who must get a bag of filthy money to some other random bad guy or end up encased in concrete. We get Arthur opening the newspaper to find the bank where he keeps his safe deposit box ful of dodgy dough has been hijacked. Terry getting asked to perform heroics on his behalf. And Carole Ashby as the eye candy with some tasty martial arts moves.
Of course, this is latter-day Minder, so Arthur and his antics are still centre stage. And he's given several funny lines.
I understand Waterman (RIP) wanted to leave the show because he felt the writers had run out of ideas. For Terry McCann, maybe. How many times could he grouse about doing Arthur's dirty work, sort out a couple of geezers with a punch, or pick up a bird. By this point it had been several seasons since the writers had made the slightest effort to round out Waterman's character. By now it was full-on the Arthur Daley Show.
Nevertheless, taken on its own merits, this show had the grit that made the first 2-3 seasons of Minder so compelling. And the comedic touches that made seasons 4-7 classic TV.
