Dennis Waterman left Minder after a very strong Series 7, feeling the stories had grown stale. Having binge-watched Series 1-7 over the past 90 days or so, I suggest the writers had stopped trying with the Terry McCann character, but the stories were still highly entertaining, albeit leaning heavily on George Cole's comedic gifts at the expense of Waterman's grit.
So how to re-launch a massive hit show minus the actor and character it was originally written for?
The producers deliver a 29-minute (!) cold opening that starts with Arthur holding court - Don Corleone-style - at a family wedding. Right away we think, oh, he's putting us all on. And there are plenty of laughs.
However, it turns out the Daley character has rediscovered some of his original cunning and grown a heretofore unseen backbone. When rival mobsters try to run a protection racket on the estate, Arthur turns to Terry, only to find McCann has married and moved to Australia.
At the same time, he gets stuck with his nephew Ray as what you might call an office temp. Run some errands. Do some driving. That sorta thing.
But when the rival heavies show up to turn over a fresh-look Winchester Club - now co-owned by Daley and Dave (Glyn Edwards sporting a shorter haircut) - all looks lost until Ray slowly removes his boxy David-Byrne-like sport coat, unbuttons the top collar on his paisley silk shirt, and takes care of business.
"I don't think you've met my new Minder, have ya? Ray Daley. He's family."
Cue a re-worked Minder theme.
As someone who watched the Series 1-7 Waterman era on latenight Canadian television in high school/university and considers it the greatest show ever aired, by gawd I actually cheered out loud.
S8E1 also introduces us to DS Morley (Nicholas Day) and DC Park (Stephen Tompkinson) who come across as highly competent, serious coppers who figure prominently in the B-plot involving cars imported from France.
I have no idea whether three series of the Gary Webster era will hold up, but now I'm excited to watch.