The Minder Podcast

This time we feature an exclusive interview with Kevork Malikyan, the

From his very first role on screen in 1968’s Portrait of a Lady, Kevork has starred alongside acting greats, in that series he appeared with Edward Fox and Kathleen Byron.

Here we are mainly concerned with Aces High and Sometimes Very Low with also a shorter appearance in The Immaculate Contraption

This might be one of the most recollections of any guest so far,

All sorts of interesting information comes up in this episode.

Were the actors playing cards for real?

How similar was Anthony Valentine to Maurice Michaelson?

Why was Dennis Waterman so lovely and yet very mean and hard?

And then there is the time during The Professionals where Kevork fell out of the back of the van. We also talk about the varied types of

This time we feature an exclusive interview with a very well known

Maureen appeared in episode 10 of series 4, the wonderful Get Daley – and as you can see above she was the star guest of this episode. Get Daley is a great episode full of fantastic one liners and a couple of

There is also a lot of inside information on working with Dennis Waterman, with Rula Lenska on set, and spending the day with George Cole and his wife Penny Morrell. Not to mention the experiences of being a working class actress.

And then there is the fabulous Euston Films series Widows. In fact Maureen is still best remembered today by many as Linda Pirelli.

The first series was directed by Minder legend Ian Toynton so we talk about him a lot. Ian directed nine episodes of Minder and was also Associate Producer.

There is also a lot of info on what went on behind the scenes between series one and two of Widows and the change from Ian Toynton to

Then there is the philosophy of Brian Cox. Meeting Christopher

Finally, which actors were “supremely professional and lovely” on the set of Minder? The answer may surprise you.

Welcome to episode 23 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org.

For our two-year anniversary of the show it’s time to honour one of the best characters in Minder history.

This episode is something a little different, part tribute and part

As you might imagine piecing together a history of Diana Malin is

I did speak to a few people who knew her but they can only describe

In the episode we go through all of Diana’s appearances in the show as well as her other acting (and beautician!) work.

You are in for a few surprises when it comes to the real Diana Malin.

And speaking of the real Diana Malin – where is she today?

In looking into both her history and her present there are several

Full disclosure: one story in particular is a little unpleasant. And

One clue as to where Diana is came in 2014 and as promised in the episode, the photo is on website for the show.

So who is the real Diana Malin and where is she today?

Over to Debbie Does London for all the clues you’ll ever need.

May 8th is of course the one year anniversary of Dennis

Waterman’s passing. If you haven’t already done so you might want to

listen to the ⁠tribute⁠ to Dennis released in June last year.

In this episode we are going to look back at Dennis’ 2000 autobiography, Reminder, specifically the chapter on Minder.

The book, written with Dennis’ manager Deke Arlon’s wife Jill was, as

I mentioned in the tribute episode, a little disappointing at the time

of release. It seemed to have too many contributions from others for an

autobiography and it was very light on the Minder material.

However, I reread the book at the beginning of the year and enjoyed

it much more than previously. Perhaps with having more context myself it

just made a little more sense.

By and large the contributions from others do help the story Dennis

tries to tell though often the book is at its best when the subject

takes over and reveals his own experiences.

What disappointed me initially was the fact there were only

recollections from a few episodes and very little from behind the

scenes. This is still quite disappointing but it’s still a useful

overview of the show and how it came to be made.

In this episode I read the Minder chapter in full so if you don’t

have the book you can hear some of the inside take on the show. Some of

this material follows on well from the ⁠Leon Griffiths tribute⁠ also.

If you do have the book then perhaps this might be a nice reminder

for you. I am also aware there is an audio version of the book read by

Dennis himself. I have not heard it in full but as far as I know there

is quite a bit of material missing. I think this might be the inclusions

from others so if anyone has the audio version let me know.

But this is definitely the full Minder chapter coming up with just a very small amount of editing.

The material is copyright Arrow Books, 2000.

I also want to address the way Dennis seemed to have an aversion to

talking about Minder for so long. He obviously knew he had to cover it

in his book and seemed to begrudgingly do so. For many years I have

wondered just what he had against the show. After all it seemed to

underline his already magnificent career.

Everyone loved the show, what’s not to like? He even went on to reinvent himself with

New Tricks and have yet another golden series loved by the public. So why did he want

to move on so much from Minder – what exactly was it that he didn’t want to relive?

After reading the book in full the answer to me was obvious and it

had nothing to do with Minder. When the chapter finishes I cover the

reason for Dennis’ negative opinion on the show. It’s just my opinion of

course but it makes much more sense than Dennis having an aversion to

the show continuing past its best.

So, in tribute to Dennis Waterman once again and in honour of some

fascinating insight into Minder, here is Revisiting Reminder.

In this show we feature an interview with the wonderful Carole Ashby who

We get into some of the background to the episode including some very

memorable scenes with Carole. Once she enters the episode she features

There is also a famous fight scene in the episode which for

Then there is her Scandinavian approach for the part of

Carole has several other interesting connections both in

We get into all this and much more on this episode 21 of the

This is a special episode, paying tribute to Leon Griffiths, the creator of Minder, as well as revealing the origins of the programme. As such we will feature a reading from Jonathan of the Minder fans site and there are also contributions from Andrew Payne so if you want to know  about the beginnings of the show, or learn more about Leon Griffiths then keep listening.

So who was Leon Griffiths? Information on him is hard to find but through persistent research and the information already known I have tried to build a picture of the man. Luckily some interviews survive and so we’ll use his own words too.

We feature many of his early works which featured none other than Glynn Edwards and John Thaw.

Altogether Griffiths gained 33 screenwriting credits, though of course in certain cases, such as Minder, he wrote multiple episodes under one credit.

By the time the final Minder series ended in 1994 the show could account for ten series, 105 52-minute episodes, a Christmas compilation of excerpts and two feature films. Despite its shaky beginnings, the programme became a huge hit. In 1985, at the peak of its success, nearly 18 million people a week in Britain were watching the show. It wasn’t  just successful on British television but also overseas where it sold to over 70 countries around the world, making it one of Britain’s top TV exports.

Here we pay tribute to the man who created the show and reveal the origins of Minder.

Welcome to episode 19 of the Minder Podcast in association with minder.org. Happy New Year to one and all.

We are back with a fun episode to start the new season and that is a top ten episodes list of the Dennis Waterman years.

That is not to take away from the Gary Webster era and we will cover that in a later episode.

Dennis appeared in 73 episodes of Minder so it has to be split and  there is no question his was the classic era. There were so many  episodes to choose from in fact that it made it very difficult to narrow  down to ten.

There are maybe just a couple of episodes from the Dennis Waterman era that I am not as keen on which means there are roughly 70 episodes to choose from.

But these ten are my personal favourites that I love even more than the rest.

We will mention the series and episode number as well as the director and writer of the episode and of course any important guests.

There is a brief summary of the episode and then anything standout about the episode.

I’ve been thinking about this for over a year so I can finally say I am happy with the list. I think.

Let me know your favourites, especially your top three and why and whether you think I missed a classic. I’m sure I did.

In this episode we feature a terrific interview with George Cole from 2008. BBC’s Mark Lawson does a great job at covering everything of interest in a magnificent career and, in particular, there is plenty of talk about Minder.

This was not something George spoke of in much depth elsewhere so this is a great interview for posterity.

I’ve also selected some of the greatest Arthur Daley moments, although you could easily quote almost anywhere in any episode and find solid gold.

This episode closes out 2022 for The Minder Podcast. We will return in the New Year with episode 19.

In this show we feature an interview with the one and only Karl Howman, who as well as playing Jacko in Brush Strokes and other popular series of the 80s and 90s, also appeared in All About Scoring Innit? from series 2 and broadcast towards the end of 1980.

One of the best episodes, it was a delight to receive insights from Danny Varrow himself. We do indeed talk mostly about the episode, and there are also many references to The Sweeney, which Karl also appeared in, in 1976.

A lot is spoken about the Sweeney and Minder film crews as well as Euston Films. Karl also reveals what he thought about the writers of the era, particularly Willis Hall who wrote the episode we’re talking about. Then there was working with Martin Campbell, director of the episode.

We also talk about the drinking and smoking culture of the time versus today.

A few times the sound unfortunately was lost during a technical hitch but I think you’ll follow the gist. One particular part that needs reaffirming is at the beginning where Karl cuts out for a second, he was actually referring to the passing of Dennis. You can tell he was genuinely upset about the loss.

At the end of the interview is a segment where we refer to several emails from listeners so stick with us until the end.

Over to Danny Varrow.

In this show we feature part two of an interview with Brian Croucher, who played Big John in Monday Night Fever from the very first Minder series.

Far from being a bit part actor, Brian has appeared in 124 film or television productions and played a huge variety of parts.

I found Brian to be a very funny, thoughtful and insightful interviewee and he gave me a lot of time. In fact, the two interviews are a shortened version of our talk where we also went into some more personal information and had a chat that stopped being an interview of any sort for quite a while. Brian was good for a number of topics.

In the show we find out the reason for Brian’s hazy memory when it comes to his Minder episode and there are plenty of links to Minder thanks to Brian’s other work.

We speak of a great variety of actors including Peter Blake, Johnny Shannon, Alfred Burke, Stephen Grief, Stanley Meadows, Michael Medwin - not to mention Honor Blackman - and if you want to hear about romantic advice from Peter Childs, aka DC Rycott, this is the show to listen to.

It’s inevitable then that we cover The XYY Man and we mustn’t forget some of Brian’s current work. Also covered is a period where Brian drove a taxi, which is a funny link to the Alfred Burke episode Come in T-64, Your Time is Ticking Away, where he and Arthur are partners at Candy Cabs.

There are some great stories here, including some choice language from David Niven, and Brian himself. Who would have thought that Brian Croucher would direct a séance?

So, Euston we still have a problem. Over to Brian Croucher.