Classic TV: Minder – S09 E02 – “No Way to Treat a Daley”
About this episode
Arthur starts using advertising balloons, but businessman Tony Pike sees himself as having cornered the market for balloons, and sends Warren, his minder, to kidnap Arthur. He takes him to an abandoned power station near the banks of the Thames for ‘a night on the marshes’ – a night of psychological torture followed by maiming by his thugs. Whilst Ray and Les (who’s also suffered at Pike’s hands), try to track down Arthur, the latter manages to establish a rapport with Warren. He allows Arthur to escape and when Ray arrives, he meets only Pike, whom he finds to be really a coward. Warren is now a changed man with a new outlook on life, thanks to Arthur’s philosophy. (The title spoofs the 1968 film No Way to Treat a Lady.)
Guest stars: Philip Martin Brown as Tony Pike, Desmond McNamara as Les, Richard Ridings as Warren
Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV (originally by Thames, then Central Independent Television in 1993 and 1994 after Thames lost its franchise). The original show ran for ten series between 29 October 1979 and 10 March 1994. The series was notable for using a range of leading British actors, as well as many up-and-coming performers before they hit the big time; at its peak it was one of ITV’s biggest ratings winners
The show starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, an honest and likeable bodyguard (minder in London slang) and George Cole as Arthur Daley, a socially ambitious, but highly unscrupulous importer-exporter, wholesaler, used-car salesman and purveyor of anything else from which there was money to be made, whether within the law or not.
The series is principally set in inner West London (Shepherd’s Bush/Ladbroke Grove/Fulham/Acton), and was largely responsible for putting the word minder, meaning personal bodyguard, into the UK popular lexicon. The characters often drank at the local members-only Winchester Club, where owner and barman Dave (Glynn Edwards) acted, often unwillingly, as a message service for Arthur, and turned a blind eye to his shady deals.
The Inquiring Mind 
Comments are closed.