The Terry McCann Years: 1979-1989
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When the
series began it focused on Arthur Daley's over worked and under paid
Minder, Terry McCann played by Dennis Waterman.
Throughout the series we are informed more about the
background of Terry. We learn that he was a top class boxer in his
category and had also served a short prison sentence.
Dennis Waterman had previously risen to fame in another hit series of the
70s 'The Sweeney', also starring the late John Thaw. As Terry McCann in Minder, Dennis
kept much of the hard man role he had perfected as Detective Sgt George
Carter in The Sweeney. Interestingly, 'Minder' was not the first time that George Cole and
Dennis Waterman had been cast together - read on! |
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is always thought
of as the forerunner to Minder, particularly as they were both made by Euston
Films.
Similar locations were also
used throughout the filming of both series. The colour picture on the left is
taken from the series four episode of The Sweeney called "Messenger Of The
Gods". The black and white picture on the right appears at the end of every
episode of Minder. Notice any similarity?
More information can be found on our Locations
page.
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George Cole
actually appeared in an episode
of The Sweeney called 'Tomorrow Man' in 1976 .
For further information regarding The
Sweeney video releases
visit our shop!
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Fright
Even before 'Tomorrow Man', George Cole and Dennis Waterman had
previously been cast together in the 1971 thriller Fright starring
Susan George, Ian Banner, Honor Blackman and Roger Lloyd Pack. The film
is set on the story of a teenage babysitter Amanda (Susan George) who
arrives at the Lloyd home to babysit their young son for the evening.
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Click for details |
Mrs
Lloyd (played by Honor Blackman) is hiding a shocking secret that could
cost Amanda her life. George Cole plays her husband Mr Lloyd and Dennis
plays the role of Amanda's boyfriend.
This is the first time the two actors appeared together on screen!
Interestingly neither George or Dennis was aware that they had both
appeared in the film until several years after starting Minder.
This title is available
to buy on Region 1 DVD only - for more details
visit our shop! |
Terry & Arthur
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The original series of Minder had a very memorable
opening sequence, where Terry is considering whether or not to accept a white Ford Capri from Arthur's
car lot. Although Terry does agree to take the car, the actual Capri is
rarely seen in the series itself. Several Capri's are though, including
the last ever mention of Terry in 1991, when Arthur visits Terry's flat
to find he has left for Australia. More details about the cars below. For worldwide Ford Capri links about
the car you always promised yourself, click here.
The final Dennis Waterman series, series 7, showed
slight changes in the opening titles with black and white shots of Terry,
Arthur and Dave the barman (played by Glyn Edwards) socialising at their
favourite hang out, the Winchester Club.
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Opening Titles
Keep an eye open during this opening sequence
for the window of the Ford Escort in the car lot - notice anything strange
happening? The final Dennis Waterman series kicked off with a
90 minute Christmas special, "An Officer and A Car Salesman", with the
show having been off the air for almost three years.
The final series re-introduced
Terry with him having served "18 moons in the shovel" (a prison sentence)
as a result of some dodgy videos that Arthur had left in his flat. This led to
an excellent final Dennis series.
More information on the original theme tune:
I
Could Be So Good For You from The Terry McCann Years,
sung by Dennis
Waterman on EMI records is found on The Minder Songs
page.
If you are
looking for the song on CD, why not
visit our shop!
Throughout his time as Arthur's Minder, Terry got himself into all sorts of scrapes. Fans of the show will know the
earlier series featured far more stereotypical Terry punch up scenes than the
later episodes.
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Arthur himself went through his own fair share of motors
while Terry was in the series.
His original Jaguar XJ6 is shown here (in
a clip shown as part of the end titles), though he could also be seen about
town Mercedes in 1982, a dodgy old Ford Granada and a newer (V registration)
version of the XJ6 from 1985 onwards.
You can find
more details about the cars driven by Arthur and Terry on this site by visiting
Arthur's Car Lot and Terry's Capri Page (see the left hand menu).
The end
sequence of the Terry McCann Years were always
the same, featuring specially shot photographs, never actually seen in
any episode. They showed Terry and Arthur at various locations throughout
London.
More information can be found on our Locations
page.
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Oh My Gawd! It's
Plod!
Chisolm at the Winchester Club
Visit www.patrickmalahide.com
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Melish was often picked on by Rycott
in his
dream to nick Arthur Daley.
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The series developed well over the years, due to good
storylines, casting and the relationship that developed between Arthur
and Terry and their local 'law', DS Chisolm and DS Rycott, played wonderfully
by Patrick Malahide and Peter Childs. Both before and since leaving the series
Patrick Malahide has appeared in numerous TV roles including
notable appearances as a police officers in The Professionals and alongside
Dennis Waterman in the action movie of the TV series Sweeney 2 from 1978.
With Chisolm gone, Jones was the guvnor
in the final series.
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Both of these officers had their hapless sidekicks
DC Taff Jones and DC Melish. DC Jones was played by Michael Povey who has
since appeared on S4C's Pobol Y Cwm soap opera and
made rather a surprise appearance in BBC's Crimewatch UK in April 1998, posing
as none other than a bogus Welsh Detective!
In the final series Dennis Waterman series, DC Jones,
became DS Jones with Chisolm having moved on to become Chief Security officer
for a Security firm in the christmas special "An Officer and a Car Salesman".
Michael Troughton who played DC Melish has appeared in a number of UK TV
shows which has included playing Alan B'Stard's assistant Piers Fletcher-Dervish
in comedy series "The New Statesman". This meant promotion to Sergeant
for Taff Jones whose rivalry continued with DS Rycott.
Exclusive to minder.org, Meic Povey agreed to be interviewed for
this site, you can read the whole interview
here.
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Tube Mice
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In 1988, towards the end of Dennis Waterman
appearing in Minder, George Cole and Dennis Waterman provided some of the voices
for a children's cartoon series called "Tube Mice".
Created by TSW (Television South West), this was shown briefly between 1988 and 1990 on CITV (Children's ITV) and featured the adventures of mice who lived in Oxford Circus underground station. George Cole provided the voice of Vernon, while Dennis Waterman was his sidekick Toaster. Vernon and Toaster were similar in many ways to Arthur and Terry, though whereas George Cole's voice of Vernon is clearly Arthur Daley-like, Toaster's voice is hardly recognisable as Dennis Waterman. Each episode was about five minutes long and although two videos were released at the time, they have long since been deleted.
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After Minder...
Dennis Waterman left the series in 1989 after
filming series 7. He was reported to be reluctant about leaving the series
though felt the character of Terry McCann had done pretty much everything he
could do and wanted more out of the character. Interviews at the time suggested
he thought the show had become too focused on Arthur's character and that the
show had become "The Arthur Daley Comedy Hour". That said, George Cole and
Dennis Waterman have remained good friends until this day.
After Minder in 1989 Dennis
set about producing the film "Cold Justice" that starred himself and Roger Daltery,
based in America. This film is one of the few times Dennis has starred in
anything produced stateside. Unfortunately the film was not as successful as he
would have hoped.
Since 1989 Dennis Waterman has appeared in a
number of different roles both in films, TV and pantomime.
On television, Dennis appeared alongside Jan Francis and Leslie Ash as the
character Thomas Gynn (a character similar to parts of Terry McCann) in the
series "Stay Lucky" and with the late Joan Sims as the character Tony Carpenter
in the BBC1 sit-com "On The Up". During the 1990s Dennis played ex-SAS man John
Neil in the excellent "Circles of Deceit".
Since 2000, he has starred in
the comedy Arthur's Dyke (2001), Murder In Mind (2002), Canterbury Tales (2003)
and Back In Business (2007).
New Tricks
In 2004 he was back on British prime time TV in the
drama series
New Tricks
as former Detective Inspector Gerry Standing. The series four episode "Powerhouse"
filmed in 2007 saw Dennis starring alongside his former Minder co-star George
Cole once again!
Click
here
to see the IMDB entry for Dennis Waterman.
This page was
created by jno as an informative guide to the former
British TV series 'Minder'.
This page is optimised for viewing at 1024x768
resolution using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
'Minder' - Created By Leon Griffiths - (C) Leon Griffiths/Thames Television
1979.
Last updated :
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