Background
Minder was devised as a vehicle for Dennis Waterman after his success in The Sweeney, with George Cole's wheeler-dealer character being almost a secondary character, with the plot concept of Arthur assigning Terry a new "minding" job each episode. A number of early episodes focus solely on the character of Terry in such assignments, with Arthur as a result dropping into background for much of some plots. However, as the full comedy potential of Cole's dodgy-dealing character emerged, as well as the successful on-screen pairing of Waterman and Cole (which proved to be one of the series most popular elements), the emphasis increasingly focused more on Arthur's exploits, and by a few series into the show's life, typical plots revolved more around Arthur's latest shady scam instead of some of the more "gritty" plots of Terry's minding jobs witnessed in early episodes.
Despite its eventual success, Minder was a slow burner, not helped by being delayed by a nine-week technicians' strike which effectively blacked out the ITV network. In the light of initially poor viewing figures, management at Thames were intent on scrapping the show but managing director Bryan Cowgill persuaded them to commission one further series and repeat the first. Both attracted much larger audiences and by series 3, the show had become a major hit, and at its peak was often cited as the jewel in ITV's Drama crown.
Read more about this topic: Minder (TV series)
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