The Minder Podcast

Welcome to Episode 45 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org.

You may not realise but Jonathan Kydd appeared in three Minder episodes, just a few short appearances in Broken Arrow and Minder on the Orient Express no less. The largest part however and the one you will certainly remember him for is A Number of Old Wives Tales. Now this is a true Minder classic.

It’s a unique episode, written by Tony Hoare, directed by Francis Megahy and based around the exploits of Confident Clive – played by Patrick Mower – who is a serial bigamist. It’s one of the most amusing Minder episodes in some ways but there is also an air of tension given Clive’s tendency to upset both the women and their families with his addiction.

It was a great cast for the episode including Gary Holton, Sue Holderness, Kate Williams, Kenneth Waller and Vivienne Ritchie. Not to mention an episode which also includes Ray Winstone, Patrick Malahide and Meic Povey.

Jonathan Kydd features as one of two brothers and is responsible for the great tension built up from himself and Gary Holton. He tells us some gems about working on the show.

There are also some revelations from inside the business, how people change when fame gets to their heads, but also how some remain gentlemen despite their immense fame. And who would have thought that Confident Clive was a nice guy in real life?

My interview with Jonathan is a little different to the norm in that Jonathan’s answers have been recorded following me sending questions through email. We were going to originally speak as normal over Zoom but when he told me he had just had a third child, a few voice jobs and was directing a radio drama I thought it better to go this way so that nothing got cancelled.

So I read the questions or prompts and Jonathan answers. It’s different but was well worth it to feature such a tremendous character. Thanks Jonathan!

Join us for episode 45 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org and a few words with “van driver”, “Ernie” and “Len” from Minder. Oh yes!

www.theminderpodcast.com

www.jonathankydd.com

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me or commented on the Diana Malin episode. It seems the general consensus was you all feel Diana is just Debbie when she is older which just goes back to something I regularly marvel at – how good the casting was when it came to Minder which is also why we still love the characters.

As promised, albeit a little later than intended, here is abonus interview with Diana. She had told me that she wanted to follow up as she had something she wanted to tell me. I was of course intrigued and we had another 20 minute conversation; our fourth altogether. So you too can hear what Diana had to say.

We cover kissing Dennis Waterman, cuddly big Micky, trainingat drama school, why she stopped acting, loving London, her current health situation and the real Patrick Malahide plus a special message to you the fans of Debbie and Minder.

Do remember the new Minder podcast website. Head over totheminderpodcast.co.uk.

if you want to email it is [email protected].

And don’t forget to visit minder.org, the best Minder site out there, of course.

Yes we finally got there. After several texts and a few previous phone calls between us we finally managed to set up the interview proper.

By the time we start we are quite familiar so if it sounds like we’re straight into it here that’s because we had hours and texts aplenty before recording this.

Occasionally you will hear the perils of a slightly dodgy phone line as it was not done using the usual online call but via Diana’s mobile which suited her best. We will have a bonus part to follow as Diana remembered a few things she wanted to tell me so look out for that at a later date. The line that time was more clear.

For now we have the main discussion and let me be the first to remind you that this is the only interview Diana has done since the 1980s so we are talking a major exclusive here. It’s not your normal interview but we cover as many bases as I could.

Topics include:  

Diana’s career background before becoming an actress

The casting process for Minder

How similar is she to Debbie?

Being recognised as Debbie and fan mail from the time

Her theatre work and working as a clown!

What work she did in a pub, which is not what you think  

41 years of Buddhism

The future of Debbie – how did she turn out?

We also discuss what it was like working with George and Dennis as well as John Labanowski who played Micky in Looking For Micky, and good old Chisholm. Cheerful Charlie? You might be surprised.

My immense thanks to Diana for all the time she has given me over the past few months, it’s been quite a saga putting this together but of course it was worth it. There is also a bonus part to follow which will come soon.

Join us for episode 43 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org and a cosy chat with Debbie Mitchell.

Don't forget our new website is now up and running, visit www.theminderpodcast.co.uk.

Cheers!

This one comes fairly timely to me as I recently wrote anarticle on the subject and I thought it fitting that, as the person in question relates to a Minder episode, I should put together the connections for this first one of 2026. So episode 42 is The Lady and the Minder.

This relates to the final episode of series 2, Caught in the Act, Fact. Series 2 as I have mentioned before is my favourite overall and this was always an episode that intrigued me – it’s certainly one of the more unusual episodes. It’s more subtly amusing than straight out funny, in fact it has a pretty dark overtone as you will see.

We cover the original episode itself and then in the second part we examine the real life story which this episode relates to.

It's all here, a terrific bird (well, two actually), the real life postal office robbery mentioned and the real life Lady who Lady Margaret Thompson was based on. We'll even go into the locations used as these bring up many intriguing thoughts.

The new Minder Podcast website should be up next month. For more on the real life story take a look at my website, where you can also contact me.

https://ghostwriterandauthor.com/new/

Episode 41 – A Minder Miscellany

Featuring Mark Farmer, Mike Grady, Christopher Sprague, Kim Taylforth, Sarah London, Diana Malin

This show is going to be a catch up with all of the people Ihave been speaking with or emailing as well as some updates and further information – it really is a Minder miscellany.

Most of the following comes from email or phone conversations I’ve had with people who did not end up doing a full interview with me but told me some very interesting titbits after – in some cases – I pushed them a little.

This will be the last show of this year. I intend to come back in February of next year with the next episode as well as the new website.

However I will be working on a couple of shows to go into next year. I’ve already completed one interview and have a very interesting update for you with a very special guestbut more about that in this show.

Enjoy!

Contact me via [email protected].

On April 22nd, 2025 it was exactly one hundred years since the birth of George Edward Cole, a man who would go on to provide some of the most iconic and memorable television of all time. To mark the occasion I decided to put together a brief overview of George Cole’s career and achievements with the second part of this episode dedicated to his Minder appearances. As such we will feature an Arthur Daley Top Ten.

Though he passed on ten years ago, we are still talking about him as if these wonderful TV moments were only a few years ago. I have spoken of films made more than 70 years ago and they are still amazing to watch. I think that will always be the case and so, in his work and the memories he gave to people, George Cole lives on.

Following on from our top ten birds episode it struck me that – given I included Rula Lenska in the list (spoiler alert!) I should have mentioned another Minder related shorter episode she appeared in.

It was called Number and I refer to it as the secret Minder episode as it might be one you did not know about or haven’t seen before. It is also not an official episode by any means. It was included, as far as I know, only on the 2006 Australian DVD box set as an extra bonus episode.

Rula looks fantastic in this and she seems to be playing science teacher to both Terry and Dave. So it’s worth watching just for that and also because it acts just like a typical Minder episode in all of the background build up and character formation. But then it turns into a weird science, maths meets gambling education lesson before finishing off in typical Minder style.

The episode is in turns, brilliant, terrible and fascinating. It is a lost classic, a real cult item of interest. So we will start with the audio version of the original episode. By all means try and find it online to watch but it is not often available.

On this version, the only one I have, I have also tidied the audio as much as possible. It’s not the best quality but will give you a real sense of the episode and is definitely a Minder curiosity. A great piece of history. Is it an official Minder episode? I suppose you would have to say technically yes but there are lots of ways it could be viewed otherwise as I will discuss.

Trust me – My word is my Premium Bond.

In this episode we feature the Top Ten birds of Minder. Yes I received several emails which thanked me for avoiding being politically correct in the coverage of Whose Wife is it Anyway? so this one will also probably please most of you who are a little fed up of being told what you can and can’t say.

According to the statistics I have a 3% female audience as well, which surprises me. So given there are some birds amongst you I trust you, nor your male counterparts, will not be offended by terms such as Bristols, crumpet, bint or my favourite, bird bandit.

We will look at the very best crumpet appearing on the show in the form of a top ten and also talk about a few honourable mentions as well as a few ladies who perhaps could and should have appeared on the show. It’s all about the birds on this episode. There was always a bird on Minder, as Sarah Berger told me, bird of the week! In some cases of course we had recurring characters and actresses which gave the show a nice flow.

Every now and then Penny played by Gennie Nevinson would turn up, or Diana Malin’s character of Debbie.

Minder became synonymous with women who were either easily romanced by Terry though perhaps romance is stretching it a bit, or who were hard to get. There were less of these of course. Poor Dennis Waterman having to cosy up to a new bird every week.

We have the Top Ten Birds of Minder as well as several honorable mentions. I also ponder upon a few suggestions of ladies who could and should have been in Minder.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for your patience in awaiting some new material on the show.

This one is a great joy to bring you, although the circumstances are a little unusual. We feature an interview with Mike Holoway, who played Zac Zolar in A Star is Gorn, episode 7 from series 4 of Minder.

Mike has actually been in the news recently after he suffered an unprovoked attack in London which left him severely injured and near blind in one eye. It’s an unpleasant story but Mike has survived and hopes to eventually be able to rescue the sight in his eye.

For now he is trying to make the best of things and needs some assistance financially as he is currently unable to work. Mike tells me all about what happened there but was well aware that what you all wanted to hear about was his appearance in Minder and he tells some great anecdotes about the filming for the episode as well as other work with George Cole and Mel Smith. Then there is Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Flintlock, the band he was in as a youngster. You will want to listen to the whole interview. He was great to talk to.

The song used in A Star is Gorn, Take Me Home, is of course the song used for the theme tune to this show so it is always there as it were. Strangely though, despite Holoway’s musical background he did not play or sing on the song at all, it was actually credited to pseudonym names for the band The Pretty Things.

There is plenty in our interview about filming of the episode, including the fact Mike played the pop star singer as well as anybody, he was living much of the life after all.

You always wonder how much people can recall, especially if it they were only in just the one episode but Mike remembered and shared some great details and was an immense professional, a true joy to interview. Plus, he was in an another TV appearance alongside Mel Smith, aka Cyril Ash, a Terry’s Chocolate advert!

In this episode, we look at the classic episode Whose Wife Is It Anyway? from Series 2.

This is, as you will know if you listen to the Top Ten episodes show, my favourite all time episode of Minder. I know it is for some of you too or at the very least, an episode you like a lot. I’ve wanted to do this one for a while and have been building up titbits here and there ready to get down and look into it all at some point. As we featured location manager Dave Shanks last episode, I wanted to follow up with this one.

And so I have put together as much as I can find regarding

This show is in three sections. Episode description, writing inspiration and finally we will cover the unusual material which links to the episode, including insight into the location used and why this was used, as well as lots of trivia relating to the episode.

You may be wondering why the reference to Steptoe and Son so go ahead and listen in to find out all of the writing inspirations for Tony Hoare, as long as you’ve got nothing against irons.

Visit The Minder Podcast site for photos and more info.

Censors be damned!