Minder #1 ITV4

[Spottedlaurel]

 

Did anyone see it the other night? RW’s avatar reminded me. I used to watch it first time round (a long time ago), but did later ones get a bit pacier or were they always like this? Not saying I disliked it – far from it – but it did seem very slow compared to modern TV.

 

Plenty of top-notch motoring dross to be seen, as it all seemed to be shot on location. I didn’t notice much/any Japanese stuff, but plenty of the expected Ford, BL and European.

 

Hopefully they’re re-running the whole lot?

[MrRegieRitmo]

What channel, UKTV Gold?

[jjp666]

Minder #1 ITV4 I think the clue was in the title!!

[MrRegieRitmo]

Indeed it was - whoops! And after I went through the body of the post with a fine tooth comb making sure I hadn't missed it as well!

[Mr H Sceptre]

Minder=THE BEST TV SHOW EVER. Fact.

[r.welfare]

The first episode - "Gunfight at the OK Laundrette" I think it is - is a bit slow and not really indicative of the rest of the shows. The first couple of series were a bit more gritty and violent, later on in the 80s it became a bit more comedic with much more emphasis on Arthur rather than Terry. It was meant to be a Dennis Waterman vehicle, and he didn't even want George Cole to start with, favouring Denholm Elliot to play Arthur. Still top notch though, and for some reason that bloke from Emmerdale Farm works on Arthur's car lot! There's a hell of a lot of prime tat on Arthur's lot in the opening titles, too - aside from the Mk2 Capri (drool...) and RS-arched Escort Mk2 Harrier, there's a Fiat 132 and EL-style Audi 100. And who can forget Arthur's yellow S3 XJ6 from the mid-run series - I seem to recall reading somewhere that for the first model year (1980) XJ6s only came in yellow, red, white or dark blue due to that awful thermoplastic acrylic paint which was a bitch to match if you had a scrape...

[Electric Leyland]

On again tonight, 9pm ITV4. "Bury My Half at Waltham Green", episode 2 of 109. Terry looks after an ex-convict who is targeted by old partners wanting a share of money stolen during a bank heist. Wonder how many they intend to show? As HS said, best programme ever made.

[Spottedlaurel]

Excellent, no forum activity for me then from 9-10pm. If someone sees me on here, tell me to bugger off and watch telly instead.

[Spottedlaurel]

So, have we all been watching it then? After the odd showing of 1985 Christmas Special "Minder on the Orient Express" last week, back to normal again tonight.After the slow pace of the first one they've definitely picked up. Lots of choice motors in tonight's too - plenty of tatty Cortinas, Anglias etc, FE Victor, Maxi, a few Japanese things like a Mk1 Accord hatch, and a Chrysler 180/2-litre!

[bigstraight6]

Minder is essential viewing, the best television we have ever produced in this green and septic Isle The episode titles, with the parody on classic film titles was the work of genius, with greats such as 'Fiddler on the hoof', 'High drains pilferer', 'Days of fines and closures', 'From Fulham with love', just to name a few, all National treasures

[Vince70]

 

[gadgetgricey]

Jesus, Didn't even realise this forum was running in 2007.

Minder is an epic show though.

 

[HillmanImp]

5 hours ago, gadgetgricey said:

Jesus, Didn't even realise this forum was running in 2007.

Minder is an epic show though.

 

I didn't realise I'd been watching repeats of Minder nearly every day for nearly 12 years......

[inconsistant]

I had no idea itv4 was that old. I'd have said 5 years tops.

[Jerzy Woking]

I did read somewhere that the RS Escort was going to be Terry's car in the series, but someone (production staff/writers?) though it too flash, hence Terry greeting the Capri.

[bigstraight6]

There are some great shite motors featured throughout Minder, my favourite being in the episode ‘Come in T64 your time is ticking away’ from series series one when Terry is forced to do some mini cabbing in a decrepit A60 Farina..

[Spottedlaurel]

Blimey, I remember starting this thread.

During the intervening years Trigger uploaded some fantastic screengrabs onto Flickr, happily they're still there:

 

[Peter C]

On 10/1/2007 at 1:03 PM, Spottedlaurel said:

Excellent, no forum activity for me then from 9-10pm. If someone sees me on here, tell me to bugger off and watch telly instead.

Couldn’t do that now, Love Island is on.

[jon928se]

All of series one, well episodes 1-11 at least,  is on the ITV4 website to watch again - along with random episodes from series 10. ITV seems to add and remove series / episodes randomly.

https://www.itv.com/hub/minder/29175

For those with 3rd world broadband like me in Australia, try out 

https://www.videoyoutubedownloader.com/

The free version enables you to download from ITV albeit at low resolution (HD wasn't invented when it was shot so this doesn't matter) and playback later so you can watch without buffering.

 

 

 

[Royale80]

Minder followed by the Sweeney-TV heaven!!

[martc]

4 hours ago, Stevebrookman said:

Minder followed by the Sweeney-TV heaven!!

And The Professionals is also a regular feature - although they do seem to be on a loop of approx 20 seemingly randomly selected programmes.

All 3 are rammed to the rafters with gunnel and chod.

[Bradders59]

George Coles portrayal of the Arthur Daley character was nothing short of acting genius. Fact.

The arches on the MK2 Escrot weren't RS but Zakspeed arches. Possibly fact.

[JeeExEll]

Links to a couple of old TV threads, some folks may not have seen them before -

https://autoshite.com/topic/9830-all-right-tinkerbell-youre-nicked/

https://autoshite.com/topic/10378-the-professionals-screenshot-thread/

[JeeExEll]

On 6/28/2019 at 8:06 PM, bigstraight6 said:

There are some great shite motors featured throughout Minder, my favourite being in the episode ‘Come in T64 your time is ticking away’ from series series one when Terry is forced to do some mini cabbing in a decrepit A60 Farina..

Loads more pics here ↓

http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=78657

[Jerzy Woking]

[MiniMort]

Haven't seen Minder in years but I remember seeing an episode in which Arthur bought and imported a light blue Trabant. 

[Braddon81]

The Escort was actually a 1300 sport modified by Ford in Boreham for Euston TV for Terry Mcann to drive in the show. It wore a genuine Ford Rs wide Body kit and as someone has stated above - at the last gasp it was swapped for the Capri as it was deemed to flash for Terry to drive. Both the Capri and the Escort were subsequently sold off as a pair and ended up down in South Wales and sold by the Baglan Car sales in Port Talbot. My mates Sisters boyfriend at the time ended up buying the Escort - he worked at the Swansea Ford axle plant at the time and stuck an Rs2000 lump in it and used to thrash it around Llandow. It used to be a regular site around Swansea in the late 80s. It did start to look quite dog eared by that time as most 10year old Escorts did by that stage. He then sold it from when it just dissappeared-although there are rumours it still exists lurking in a barn down in West Wales. 

[HillmanImp]

On 6/30/2019 at 10:47 AM, MiniMort said:

Haven't seen Minder in years but I remember seeing an episode in which Arthur bought and imported a light blue Trabant. 

Didn't he get conned into buying a 'classic low volume European car' by some people he'd ripped off as opposed to buying and importing it? 

[MiniMort]

On 7/1/2019 at 4:22 PM, HillmanImp said:

Didn't he get conned into buying a 'classic low volume European car' by some people he'd ripped off as opposed to buying and importing it? 

Probably, in all fairness I can just remember him buying a Trabant and filled in the gap from there