Minder: The Complete Collection

The scripting and the acting in this series is wonderful. Congratulations to the writers, producers and, of course to actors George Cole as crooked car salesman and 'entrepreneur' Arthur Daley and to Dennis Waterman as his long-suffering 'Minder', Terry McCann.An absolute classic !!!

To those of us of a certain vintage this series makes compelling viewing focusing on a "dodgy dealer" (Arthur Daley played by George Cole) who "ducks and dives" through life in London, and, who is frequently bailed out by his Minder (Dennis Waterman). It is compelling viewing and filled with humour as well as the occasional fight etc. No one will ever imitate George Cole's dry sense of humour which resonates throughout the series. Another aspect of the series is also that it rekindles a sense of nostalgia about London in the 1980s and 90s plus very effectively stereotypes police officers of that era too. The geographical centre of the plot is a London drinking club called "The Winchester Club" which, again, echoes the culture of the era.When this set proclaims to be the "Complete Collection" of Minder, this does, in strict terms, require some qualification - there are three Minder "eras" - Series 1-7 ran from 1979 to 1989 and featured Dennis Waterman; then in 1989 filming finished on the final episode featuring Dennis Waterman as the "Minder". The second series then returned in 1991 with Gary Webster, as Arthur Daley's nephew playing the Minder role. This boxed set features both these two series - and, in my view even for a purist, it's worth buying as it costs less than a pound more (at the time of writing this review) than the boxed set featuring the Dennis Waterman episodes only. This DVD set does not include the "comeback" episodes aired by Channel 5 in 2009 featuring Shane Ritchie and Lex Shrapnel - this was not a hit and was pulled by Channel 5. To give you a sense of scale, the highest rated episode of Minder was broadcast in 1984 and viewed by 16.4 million people, by March 2009, the Channel 5 "comeback series" could only pull in 1.34 million viewers.The set comes well presented and, although I note some comments about the technical quality of the disc transfer, the visual and audio quality does not in any way detract from the fact that the discs are certainly highly watchable. To be honest, there'd be something wrong about seeing Arthur Daley in 21st Century high definition!There is evidence to suggest that there's plenty of appeal left in the series - my 17 year old niece and her friends love these discs! I think it's a compelling box set that you'll be dipping into for many hours to come, and, a bargain at this Amazon price - buy it. Recommended.

Minder is the archetypical show that brought pleasure to so many all those years ago. George Cole was perfection as the lovable rogue Arthur with excellent support from Waterman, the policemen and of course behind the bar, Dave. The show still makes me laugh even after all this time. Even though the series lost a bit of it's lustre due to cutting down on the fights and sex it still kept going strong. Gary Webster more than held his own, though it has to be admitted that the scripts weren't in the same class as the Waterman years. Great value on this box set I promise. Almost as if Arthur had sold it himself! So let's all raise a large VAT to 1 of the best series ever created. The best episodes to go to first are Series 4- a well fashioned fit-up, Get Daley!, A number of old wives' tales from season 5, what makes Shamy run?, The balance of power(season 5 also). But they're only some of the wonderful episodes. Really it's hard to pick out one outstanding one- they all are. There's not really 1 that fails to delight in some way. The dialogue is less sharp as the Gary Webster years(1991-94) come into play, but the final season of Dennis Waterman had noticably lost some, if not all of it's usual spark. That's not a slight against Webster either I might add. Really if you watch any episode in the first 6 seasons you can't go far wrong. The best Gary Webster one is probably the 1st one of his- season 8,disc 1. Chisholm and Rycott appear sporadically in the Waterman years, with wonderful comic effect. Glynn Edwards as Dave was a joy to behold. THere were wonderful guest appearances over the years-but too many to mention here. Buy it now and keep reading my reviews!

As described

This series is not the complete collection. The episode A Little Bit of Give and Take at the end of Series 6 is not in the box set. Also, Network did something stupid. The episode The Cruel Canal from Series 8, they never put that episode with Series 8 itself, they put that episode at the end of the last disc with the bonus stuff.I remember when Carlton released Minder and I bought Series 1 on it's own and I found out two episodes at the end of Series 1 were not there and in their places, The Cruel Canal replaced one of the missing episodes at the end of Series 1 when The Cruel Canal is the last episode in Series 8 and the Christmas feature called Minder - An Officer And A Car Salesman from Series 6 replaced the other missing episode from Series 1.

I lived in London from 1981 until 1994 and fell madly in love with Minder. It was so refreshing to see TV that seemed, (to a native New Yorker), like real London street life. Unlike the junk I was used to seeing on US TV, such as street scenes of New York with no garbage, graffiti or anything that I was used to seeing walking down the streets of Manhattan. The old US TV was so predictable, in that, they always got the bad guy and/or they lived happily ever after and all that rubbish. I saw Minder as an outsider looking in, & I liked what I saw. The two main Characters are just perfect together. The writing was sharp and crisp. And of course, absolutely hilarious. All the sub-characters added interesting depth to the show. As I occasionally went into a Pub in the East End, sometimes I would expect to see Arthur standing by the Public Bar foot rail offering me a good deal on "a nice 'lil Rolex". Know wha' I mean? I was over the moon to see the complete series in a single box set. This set brings back great memories of London in the 80's for me. I look forward to many a night watching and laughing myself silly over this superb piece of London telly. Good on ya, for releasing this awesome slice of English Television. Cheers!

Better than any rubbish on tv today.

excellent quality DVDs

Seller was kind enough to call me to make sure I would need a region free/zone free DVD player. They play perfectly.

Watched the series when I was a lot younger, now able to understand the plot better. Brillant .

On time and the dvd's seem to function well

Love the old school London life