An excellent companion to the series.

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Product Description

With an audience of countless millions in more than 80 countries around the world, the Thames Television series Minder was one of Britain's top television programmes of the 1980s. The show ran for 15 years and 108 episodes, and is still gaining new fans as it is released on video and DVD.

Conceived by veteran script-writer Leon Griffiths as a crime show with a sprinkling of humour, the razor-sharp scripts, crisp direction and on-screen chemistry between George Cole as Arthur Daley and Dennis Waterman as Terry (who was later replaced by Gary Webster) saw the humour gradually overtake the crime. With the added appeal to the female audience of Dennis Waterman as the minder, the programme became a feel-good icon, and turned such expressions as "a nice little earner" and "'er indoors" into national catch-phrases.

What made the programme tick? Who were the people involved? Who played whom in a particular episode? The answers are all here in Brian Hawkins' entertaining and comprehensive look at The Phenomenon that was Minder.

Praise for The Phenomenon that was Minder:
"The only guide to Minder you'll ever need."
--George Cole ("Arthur Daley")
"Hugely entertaining and informative -- the essential Minder companion."
--Patrick Malahide ("Sergeant Chisholm")

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72666 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Brian Hawkins is a medical scientist now living in Hong Kong. Of Cockney origin himself, his fascination with rhyming slang piqued his interest in Minder. As he studied the programme in more detail he found very little reference material, and so he wrote this book to chronicle this important chapter of British television history.

Excerpted from The Phenomenon That Was Minder by Brian Hawkins. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prelude to a phenomenon

Autumn 1979 was not a glorious time in Great Britain. Unemployment and inflation were reaching record levels. Public morale was low. The new Conservative government under Mrs Margaret Thatcher had recently unveiled a highly unpopular budget. The country was still reeling from the effects of months of industrial strikes that had brought down the Labour government and led to the 'Winter of Discontent'. One such industrial dispute at London's Thames Television came to an end on 24 October after blacking out the entire Independent Television network for close to eleven weeks.

Against this dismal background, Thames Television introduced its new action series for the autumn season on Monday 29 October -- a programme with the intriguing title Minder. The show was already weeks overdue, the new season's line-up traditionally being unveiled in early to mid-September.

At that time, nobody could possibly have imagined the eventual success that Minder would enjoy. Today, probably due in large part to the series, the term 'minder' is generally understood to mean a bodyguard or assistant. In 1979, this usage was much less familiar, and the idea that such a relationship could sustain a television series for over 100 episodes would have seemed highly improbable. But by the time the programme ended in 1994 it could account for 10 seasons, 104 52-minute episodes, a 60-minute Christmas special, a Christmas compilation of excerpts, two feature films and two different characters playing the minder. The programme became a major hit not only on British television but was also sold to over 70 countries around the world, making it one of Britain's top TV exports. At the peak of its success, in 1985, nearly 18 million people a week in Britain were watching the show.

But in Autumn 1979, Minder was unashamedly intended as a vehicle for its leading actor, Dennis Waterman, to capitalise on his popularity in an earlier Thames Television series The Sweeney, that had recently come to an end.