Minder - The Complete Collection [DVD]

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The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Long-running comedy drama about the London criminal underworld, focusing on dodgy entrepreneur Arthur Daley and his 'minder', Terry. The series has a number of parallels with long-running BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses, with both being set in London and involving lovable dodgy dealers with endless get-rich-quick schemes that invariably backfire and get them into trouble (and both of whom tried to make out to be of a higher status than they really were), and both having a blend of comedy and drama.

With Arthur's dodgy schemes, the duo encounters undesirable underworld figures, many of whom Arthur deals with and many of whom turn nasty, leaving Terry to fight and outwit their way out of trouble. Running nearly on empty by then, it was still better than anything else on the small screen at the time. However, Arthur owns various businesses outright or is a part-owner as well as partner with Dave in the Winchester, and he also seems to own various rental properties.Absolutely brilliant box set, currently working through the Dennis Waterman years and every episode a gem.

However, as the comedy potential of Cole's dodgy-dealing character emerged, as well as the successful on-screen pairing of Waterman and Cole (which proved to be one of the series' most popular elements), the emphasis increasingly focused more on Arthur's exploits, and by a few series into the show's life, typical plots revolved more around Arthur's latest shady scams instead of some of the more "gritty" plots of Terry's minding jobs. The out of print Australian sets are the ones to give a serious fan - Uncut with commentary tracks and other interesting special features.Blending crime with cockney humour, the chemistry between the colourful characters, played brilliantly by George Cole and Dennis Waterman, was first rate, set against a backdrop of modern London. Although not seeming particularly bright on first sight, Jones often proved mildly sharper than his superior, and was quietly amused by Arthur's frequent humiliation of Chisholm, even occasionally going into the Winchester for a social drink, away from Chisholm's domination. The most entertaining, tightly scripted, inventively comic and sharply directed drama series of all time. When Terry finally tires of Arthur and escapes to Australia, Arthur takes his nephew Ray Daley (Gary Webster) under his wing, and so begins a whole new chapter of wheeling and dealing the Arthur Daley way!