Dreamhouse

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.

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 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.

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.

Terry gets to look after the flash home of a ageing singer and finds his drunken brother squatting on the premises.

There is bit of a spat to begin with but gradually Terry starts to bond with the large squatter who essentially steals the whole episode.

There is a lot of laughs in this episode especially around the dream house story but we also have a sideline story involving Arthur and a amusement ride scam in which Arthur gets a loan off a wealthy window with designs on him.

The story is light hearted and played for laughs and offered a nice respite from the many gritty storylines throughout series 3.

Great supporting performance from the actor playing the rotund brother in fact so good he's another character that could and should have appeared again in some way like Scotch Harry , Des or Maurice Michaelson.