Hands down the best comedy drama series of them all, Minder still feels fresh and funny 25 years after it ended, unlike many of the sitcoms which appear like museum relics today. Minder had the advantage of being an hour in length, and i prefer its more leisurely pace and subtle humour over the sitcom's all out grab for laughs, and thankfully there's no laughter-track telling us what's "funny".
George Cole's Arthur Daley is up there with the very best comedy creations, a scoundrel so good he would have graced any Shakespeare play or Dickens novel; his hired muscle Terry McCann, although having done time is an innocent by comparison and Arthur is always dropping him in it.
The supporting cast is top draw especially Arthur's nemesis Inspector Chisholm and Dave the barman, and Minder's location work offers a fascinating glimpse of a London that no longer really exists.
Minder ran for 10 series (we can forget Channel 5's feeble reboot) but i think the show peaked in its earlier, grittier days and the later (series 7 onwards) episodes were nowhere near as good. At its best very few tv comedies could hold a candle to it.
