I'm currently going through the old series of Minder, usually at about 01:00 to 03:00 when everyone else has gone to bed and I can't sleep.
Quite enjoyable and certainly not deep.
Politically correct they ain't!
One example, they were commenting that Attenborough would be comfortable in a particular part of London and it is edgy which ever Attenborough they are referring to.
RIP
Last edited by: zippy on Sun 8 May 22 at 17:35
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We were at the Talking Pictures day out in St Albans today. Two of the actresses on stage were introduced with clips of their careers. Both had appeared in Minder, so we saw them with Dennis on screen this morning.
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The Sweeney was everything to me when I wa a youth. Re-visits in the last forty plus years has never made it stale. Brilliant characters including Dennis Waterman's still first class viewing.
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I tried watching a few episodes recently but I found it horribly dated. Very much of its time. Have fond memories of the show so for me best to leave it in the past.
Guess TV has moved on a lot and we have been spoiled by the likes of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”
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Not a brilliant actor it has to be said, nor a brilliant singer, His time was The Sweeney, and Minder to a degree, not much of any note since.
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Totally agree about BBad and BCSaul......but whilst out in Spain recently, after early doors beer y vino then home to cook, a few of us watched several episodes of Minder over the course of March.
Easy viewing. Not something I’d settle down to watch in the normal course of events, but the old cars piqued our interest more than the plot lines.
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I haven't watched the 2 programmes you mention, but I find most drama I watch from the last few years to be horribly drawn out.
Programmes like the Sweeney at least got on with it.
Maybe it's to do with reducing the cost per hour of programming. Make a 2 hour programme and stretch it to 6 45 minute episodes. There seem to be a lot of scenes of people just not doing very much except gurn at each other. 'Acting' I suppose.
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Both The Sweeney and Minder were good in their day, but have not aged well at all. I always found Waterman a bit wooden as an actor, no more than a foil to John Thaw and George Cole.
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I'm a big fan of Minder, particularly the early ones. I lived and latterly worked in North Kensington for 7 years around 1970, so I was familiar with some of the locations. The appeal to me is that Arthur was really funny, but exploited Terry so shamelessly that you always want Arthur to get his come-uppance. For that reason a favourite episode is "Goodbye Sailor" where Arthur ends up knee-deep in mud somewhere off the South Coast.
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Loved the first Sweeny film and the ending where John Thaw's (a really good actor imho) face is frozen at the end and turned black and white hit a note with me.
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George Cole... saw him in operetta, which I wasn't expecting to enjoy, as the modern major general. Amazing, very funny, can't recall the plot but I remember him well.
Seems it was between 17 Ma 1982 and 8 Jan 1983 (www.thisistheatre.com/londonshows/piratesofpenzance.html#1982 ) @ the Drury Lane Theatre.
1982 sounds a long time ago now
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>> 1982 sounds a long time ago now
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It is. We are nearer 2052 than 1982!
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>>We are nearer 2052 than 1982!
By which time I'll receive a telegram from King Charlie, if ... ?
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A real shame. Minder was the tv highlight of my week as a young lad. My best mate and next-door neighbour had walkie-talkies and when it finished, we used to talk about the episode.
It's on every day on ITV4 and I often have it on while I'm working. I love a bit of Cockney banter, especially with the Arthur Daley rants. I was too young for Sweeney and even though it's repeated from time to time, I just can't get into it.
Course Minder is badly dated. I just switch off my I'm-a-modern-man filter and enjoy it for what it is.
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Both Minder and Sweeney were essential viewing at the time. Today they both seem dated and simplistic - although I have rather more time for Minder.
At the time I preferred Minder over Only Fools and Horses - both wheeler/dealers from a similar era. Arthur aspiring middle class, Del Boy unremittingly from a lower social order???
These days I empathise more with Del - his behaviour is underpinned by positivity and sympathy for others - Arthur is simply driven by selfish self interest, an unpleasant trait!!
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There were similarities. "The world's your lobster" sounds like Del but was actually Arthur.
In Minder, Terry wasn't just the straight man, he was the title character, the protagonist, the voice of reason and doer of good deeds. Arthur was a supporting character actor who drew on and updated his old Flash Harry role and became loved in his own right as a comic villain because he was so well cast and scripted.
Terry wasn't that different to George Carter in character. Dependable, resourceful and loyal. Dennis was probably a bit typecast.
All caricatures of course, and both essential viewing for me once.
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Dennis Waterman has Left the Stage - zippy
