As a lifetime fan of the Dennis Waterman era of Minder way over here in Canada, I never knew there was a Gary Webster era of the show. I guess CBC didn't show it. Or I was busy doing other things.
So watching these Webster episodes for the first time, after binge-watching the Waterman episodes, is quite revealing.
This episode sees Arthur Daley being told by his doctor to lay off the booze and smokes. Naturally, that makes Daley squirrelly. Meanwhile, a Scottish building contractor he stiffed on some paint is violently unhappy. Daley thinks he's at risk of being murdered. Ray Daley has his work cut out protecting Uncle Arthur. And the Ol' Bill is skeptical.
That's the plot. It's not complicated. But the underlying sense of dread is real. George Cole might be playing his withdrawl symptoms for fairly broad laughs, but that's not how it plays to the viewer. Maybe it's the soundtrack, which is unusually foreboding for Minder. I wonder if they brought in another musical director for this episode.
All in all, it's a throwback to Series 1. It's a genuinely gritty episode. Not too many laugh lines, if any. The minder gets into a punchup. And the Ol' Bill are, if not exactly corrupt, at least marginally incompetent.
The biggest diffrence is that the Terry McCann character - with the exception of very few episodes - was always unhappy with the treatment he received from Arthur and seemed always to be on the verge of packing it in. The writers went in the opposite direction with Ray Daley. As DS Morley says, ''he's the only person on the manor who thinks Arthur Daley is a reputable person." And in Act 3, Ray reminds the Scottish nemesis not to ''mess with a Daley."
That ultimately makes the Webster Minder more of a - excuse the expression - family-friendly reboot of the Waterman shows. The street-wise ex-con, ex-boxer, the earthy swearing and full-frontal nudity replaced by a savvy but somewhat naive college boy who has genuine affection for Arthur.