2 out of 2 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

superb.........................

williamsgwynfa from , 30th April, 2009

My husband and I loved this series, which is inspired by the '80s series of the same name. Minder is set in London's criminal underworld and stars Shane Richie as Archie Daley and Les Shrapnel as his 'Minder' Jamie Cartwright. Archie Daley (Arthur's nephew) is very much a Del Boy style wheeler-dealer, with a slighty shady approach when it comes to money. Jamie is a former boxer who did time for GBH (and is determined that he's never going back to prison). He is a black cab driver when he meets Archie. jamie has a habit of giving large portions of his wages to those he thinks Archie has ripped off. Archie and Jamie's relationship develops through the series, going from employer and employee, to becoming very good friends who are willing to go to great lengths for each other. The weakness to this relationship (which gets them both into trouble) is that Archie can manipulate situations and not listen to Jamie's warnings. Also Jamie can not seem to say no to Archie's crazy plans and has to save Archie from himself a lot of the time. The episodes are: Better the Devil You Know - Businessman Archie Daley (nephew of Arthur), is being leaned on by the deeply unpleasant Gold brothers, a pair of property developers, to bribe single mother Petra Bennett whose pub stands in the way of their planned local redevelopment scheme. Councillor Conway,a bent politician, also stands to gain by the scheme. Archie meets Jamie, a young taxi driver down on his luck and tries to rope him in to the plan. Jamie, however, has scruples and persuades Archie to concoct an elaborate scheme which will expose the villains to D.I. Murray. In Vino Veritas - Archie agrees to provide the wine for the wedding of Roxy, the daughter of his old school friend Maurice. Maurice fears that Neil, the groom, might stand Roxy up so Jamie is employed to follow him and discovers him in conversation with Teddy B, a notorious loan shark. Things do not look good, especially when Neil fails to turn up for his own wedding. Archie and Jamie track him down and find that he is not in debt. Teddy B is his father whom he wanted to keep away from the wedding. The Art of the Matter - Whilst buying furniture from hard up pensioners Anita and Brian Richardson, Archie discovers a piece of graffiti on the bedroom wallpaper which he has found to be the work of Banksy, who was once the Richardsons' lodger. He displays it at a tatty art exhibition of his own where a glamorous gallery employee tells him it is worth a fortune and exhibits it for him. Unfortunately the Richardsons come clean to Archie, explaining that it is one of many forgeries perfected by Brian and given to a middle man whom they only know as 'Picasso' who sold them on for them. When things got uncomfortable, thanks to the endeavours of fraud officer Inspector Willoughby, Picasso disappeared. Willoughby now believes he knows the identity of 'Picasso' - Archie Daley. Jamie must retrieve the false Banksy from the gallery before the deception is discovered. A Matter of Life and Debt - Archie attends the will reading for a former business associate, Harry Grant, who owed him several thousand pounds. Almost all of Harry's money is to be left to his beloved cats, annoying his ex-wife Liz, son Hugo and young Irish widow Maria. Archie believes that Harry hid some stolen diamonds before he died but none of the interested parties claim to know of their whereabouts. A visit to sham medium Vlad the Impostor gives Archie a clue that the diamonds were 'worn by girls.' Harry referred to his cats as his girls and the one he loved most died recently and was buried in a graveyard. Maria recalls that Harry may have buried the cat in a diamond-studded collar, so everyone rushes to be the first to get to the cat's last resting place. Thank Your Lucky Stars - Archie is invited to play poker with millionaire Felix Cornell after arranging the security for a charity fashion show given by Felix's trophy wife Eve. Inevitably he loses and must hand over a Porsche he is 'minding' for a thuggish friend, due to arrive in London in a few days. He passes Jamie, a good card player, off as Mr. De Lisle for a return game at the Cornells' mansion. The game begins badly but certain revelations lead to Eve saving the day for Archie and Jamie. Till Debt Do Us Part - Archie needs cash to stop Delilah,his estranged wife, from exposing his dodgy dealings and hits upon the perfect revenge plan. Jamie, a former boxing champion, will train wannabe Ryan Doyle to beat up-and-coming fighter Carlo Rocks, Delilah's toy-boy, in the boxing ring and Archie will bet on the victory. Delilah gets Ryan out of the way and it is down to Jamie to replace him in the ring, though he is horrified to learn that Archie expects him to lose. Ultimately Archie must ask Delilah for a favour to keep his young minder on board. Well worth watching !!

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