Dreamhouse

I watched Minder obsessively from the very first episode, only giving up when Dennis Waterman left. And this has always been my favourite episode. I remember first watching it when it was shown on ITV in February 1982 - 40 years ago almost to the day - and it has always stuck with me. The plot is ludicrous - but somehow almost believable, given what we know about the lifestyles of rock and pop stars.

On top of that, it was one of my first experiences of the phenomenal acting talent of Richard Griffiths, who later went on to create the memorable role of Uncle Monty in 1987's 'Withnail and I' - a cult film to end them all.

This is 1980s TV at its funniest and best. And George Cole, of course - as ever - is on absolutely top form.

Happy memories.

Now I have fond memories of 'Minder' as much as anybody, but after 20+ years it's amazing how much fudging the producers managed to get away with. The plot of this episode, such as it is, degenerates into complete nonsense, and as so often happened, some of the guest artists seemed to get scenery munchies.

Arthur's in danger of being seduced by the merry widow of an old mate - who's 'invested' 3 grand with him - and Terry's hired out to babysit the mansion of an unseen sixties pop sensation who still does Vegas, apparently. Throw in the neurotic brother (totally overplayed by an unstable-accented Richard Griffiths) of the said pop star whose presence is never really explained, and the popstar's agent played (ineptly) for laughs, and you have a sort of proto-Lovejoy-caper-sitcom episode, and a not very good one.

The strength of Minder was the characterisations by Cole and Waterman (and Malahide and Edwards), and this is one of the lighter episodes which allow them to clown around a bit. Good luck to them, Dennis Waterman even shares a bath with Emma Williams; but it's best not to expect any storyline - it coasts along till the end and then you realise that the production team had no more idea of what was going on than you will. Don't try to convince people that Minder was 'classic' by showing them this.

I've watched every episode of Minder many times, but this episode has always been a favorite. It won't mean as much to anyone who hasn't had the Arthur/Terry relationship intricacies cemented by watching the previous episodes, but what is especially endearing to this episode is the guest appearances and side plots.

Roger Sloman, Richard Griffiths, and Wanda Ventham are all wonderful and convincing, while the sub-plots of Arthur's love life and his hopelessly-incompetent business dealings are true-to-form and entertaining. The interaction between Waterman and Griffiths is something special and enjoyable. The series is renown for portraying Terry's suffering at the hands of Arthur's business dealings, but this episode excels because it allows Terry a brief moment of enjoyment and escape ... before a return to his usual tightrope walk between victim and hero.

Yes, the ending is a little muddled, but as for many Minder episodes, the journey is greater than the destination. This episode's journey shows a cast entirely comfortable in their roles, and is a destination in itself.

This isn't a Minder episode. This is third-rate Harold Pinter being workshopped in the sticks.

The setup is McCann is hired to babysit a faded singing star's mansion. He's barely checked in when he discovers the phone is disconnected, the milk is sour, and there's no food in the fridge.

Then he finds the star's fat, drunken brother in the house.

What ensues is a bunch of blabbering in the drawing room. So, so boring. They just talk about things happening, but nothing actually happens.

The star's agent is so broadly over-played I consider him the worst character in the history of Minder.

The better part of the episode is Arthur Daley's interactions with a super-hot blonde widow and some fat, sloppy con man. But it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

It was hard to continue watching, to be honest.

Terry watches over the dreamhouse mansion of a 1960s rock star Frankie Farrow. He is playing in Las Vegas so he needs a house minder.

However Terry has to make do with Frankie's troublesome brother who even pushes a piano into a swimming pool.

Meanwhile Terry discovers that Frankie is bankrupt, the house is rented and he is actually playing some working mens club up north.

This is a silly plotless episode with some over the top acting from Richard Griffiths and Roger Sloman.

Arthur seems to be flirting with a newly widowed lady whose two grown up sons seem to not to be too pleased.

There are a host of familiar faces but it fails to work as an overtly comic episode as the writing is not much cop. Well that's life.