Hawkins - The Complete Minder

The Complete

by

Brian Hawkins

Most of the content of this eBook has appeared previously in The Phenomenon that was Minder, 2002, ISBN 962-86812-1-4 and The Complete Minder, 2014, ISBN 978-962-86812-2-8, both published by Inkstone Books in Hong Kong.

Minder 19792015

Copyright of the Minder television programme and its characters is protected by FremantleMedia Ltd. The concept of the Minder television programme was created by Leon Griffiths and the programme was produced by Euston Films Ltd for Thames Television Ltd and Central Television.

Neither the producers of the Minder television programme nor its copyright owners have contributed to the production of this book in any way. Except where quotations have been duly acknowledged, all views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not in any way intended to represent the views of the producers or copyright owners. Whilst all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the information contained herein is complete and accurate, no responsibility is accepted for errors, inaccuracies or omissions.

Photographs of Glynn Edwards and Nicholas Day were kindly provided by the artists. The author gratefully acknowledges the following for permission to use their copyright images: DC Thomson & Co. Ltd (front cover, Dennis Waterman, George Cole); Curtis Brown (Gary Webster), Jo Ryan (Patrick Malahide); and Brian Tarr (Michael Povey).

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the copyright owners prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Few readers of this book would be unaware that the word minder in an entertainment context is almost synonymous with the name George Cole. He was the well-loved actor who played the role of Arthur Daley in every episode of the original Minder series. Sadly, George passed away on 5 August 2015 at the age of ninety.

Many Minder fans who saw the print versions of this book have encouraged me to convert it into an eBook. It seems fitting, therefore, to honour their encouragement and to release it now in Georges memory as a celebration of his outstanding contribution to Minder and his extraordinary acting career over seven decades.

To the memory of

George Cole OBE

1925 - 2015

by Leon Griffiths

by Willis Hall

by Tony Hoare

by Jeremy Burnham

by Tony Hoare

by Paul Wheeler

by Tony Hoare

by Willis Hall

by Stanley Price

by Andrew Payne

by Paul Wheeler

by Jeremy Burnham

by Willis Hall

by Tony Hoare

by Tony Hoare

by Andrew Payne

by Dave Humphries

by Tony Hoare

by Andrew Payne

by Willis Hall

by Leon Griffiths

by Paul Wheeler

by Leon Griffiths

by George Day

by Tony Hoare

by Andrew Payne

by Leon Griffiths

by Leon Griffiths

by Leon Griffiths

by Andrew Payne

by Dave Humphries

by Leon Griffiths

by Trevor Preston

by Tony Hoare

by Tony Hoare

by Andrew Payne

by Geoff Case

by Andrew Payne

by Barry Purchese

by Andrew Payne

by Leon Griffiths

by Tony Hoare

by Geoffrey Case

by Tony Hoare

by Leon Griffiths

by Alan Janes

by David Yallop

by Tony Hoare

by Andrew Payne

by Alistair Beaton

by Leon Griffiths

by Tony Hoare

by Tony Hoare

by Leon Griffiths

by Andrew Payne

by Tony Hoare

by Tony Hoare

by David Yallop

by Anita Bronson

by Andrew Payne

by David Humphries

by David Yallop

by David A. Yallop

by Kevin Sperring and Bernard Dempsey

by David A. Yallop

by David A. Yallop

by David A. Yallop

by William Ivory

by David A. Yallop

by Iain Roy and Chris Kelly

by Kevin Sperring and Bernard Dempsey

by Tony Jordan

by Tony Jordan and Liane Aukin

by Kevin Clark

by Kevin Sperring and Bernard Dempsey

by William Ivory

by Tim Firth

by Geoff Rowley

by David A. Yallop

by Chris Kelly and Iain Roy

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by William Ivory

by William Ivory

by Gary Lawson and John Phelps

by David A. Yallop

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by William Ivory

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by William Ivory

by Tony Hoare

by Tony Hoare

by William Ivory

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by Arthur Ellis

by William Ivory

by Bernard Dempsey and Kevin Sperring

by Tony Hoare

The eBook you are now reading is an abbreviated digital version of a printed book I published in 2014 entitled The Complete Minder (ISBN 978-962-86812-2-8), which was itself a revision of my book The Phenomenon that was Minder (ISBN 962-86812-1-4) published in 2002. Both were published by Inkstone Books in Hong Kong.

Minder was the name of a British television series from Thames Television that first aired in 1979 and ended in 1994 after ten series. The series was about an ex-boxer and ex-convict named Terry McCann who is employed by a used car dealer in London named Arthur Daley who needs someone who is useful with his fists to protect him as he dips his fingers into countless money making schemes of doubtful legality which invariably fail. The term in London for a person in that line of personal protection was minder.

Through no fault of its own the television series turned up on television screens with practically no prior announcement and was not an immediate success. Indeed, the show was extremely fortunate to be given a second series. But as that second series developed into a third and continued into more, it became clear that much of its success was related to the political climate of the time: a climate fueled by austerity, low public morale, industrial unrest, strikes, redundancy and the call from the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to embrace entrepreneurism. For Arthur Daley, that call was right up his street making money at someone elses expense (or, at least, trying to and usually failing). Minder went from strength to strength and gave us a chance to laugh about the very things that were wrong in 1980s Britain. In a strange sort of unintended way the show became almost a satire of Thatcherism.

This book and its predecessors, sets out to examine how and why Minder achieved the popularity that it did and went on to become a television phenomenon. The print versions of this book give detailed cross-references to all the numerous actors, scriptwriters, and directors without whose dedicated efforts the phenomenon would not have been possible, together with cross-references to specific plots, situations, and characters. Such cross-references, however, do not lend themselves well to the eBook format and have been omitted from this version.

I am indebted to all the people who urged me to convert the print version of this book into an eBook. I hope it lives up to expectations. I must also reiterate my thanks to everyone who made this and the previous versions possible: Peter Gordon at Chameleon Press; Alan Sargent who did the original editing and layout; cast members George Cole, Glynn Edwards, Patrick Malahide, Nicholas Day, and Michael Povey for their contributions; copyright owners of the images; plus many others too numerous to thank individually.