Before
Capaldi Winter, I’d seen some British
television from the 80s and 90s (classic Who
stuff, various series with Fry & Laurie, the odd miniseries here and
there,) but nothing like the large cross-section I’ve had lately. Accustomed as I am to BBC heavyweights like Sherlock, State of Play, and the expanded Whoniverse, it’s interesting to
take a peek at all these old series.
Minder, evidently, was quite the property in its
day, running for 10 seasons between ’79 and ’94. It starred Dennis Waterman (who showed up previously
on the blog as the lead in Stay Lucky)
as Terry, an affable hired hand doing jobs for the small-time
crook-of-all-trades Arthur. “Life in the
Fast Food Lane” finds Arthur beginning a new venture: selling car phones that may or may not be of
questionable origin and quality.
Arthur’s
acquisition of the phones includes Ozzie, an ex-British-Telecom technician
played by PC. Ozzie is immediately
deemed a useless waste of space by his new employer – in fact, when Arthur is
making his initial deal for the phones, he asks to be assisted by anyone
else. Ozzie, however, knows his way
around telephones and grifting, and
he proves to be a valuable asset.
This is
a pretty lightweight role, but it’s a lot of fun. Par for the course for a lot of the early PC
roles I’ve seen so far, Ozzie is energetic, upbeat, and a bit of an
oddball. Our first shot of him in the
episode is his leg sticking out the window of a parked car, a bright pink sock
visible between his shoes and his trouser cuff.
He takes a laidback approach to his criminal activities, unconcerned
when the police start sniffing around.
Perhaps most unforgivable for Arthur, he doesn’t shy away from technical
lingo and makes it clear that he considers himself smarter than Arthur.
This
episode also features a short appearance by Benjamin Whitrow, who we just saw
in Tom Jones and is still best known for
his great Mr. Bennet in the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice.
Accent Watch
Incredibly
Scottish, with a little Scottish slang to boot.
Recommend?
In
General
– Not necessarily. Enjoyable, but
nothing all that special.
PC-wise – Possibly. Ozzie is a fun character, and it always
amuses me to see PC as a scrawny 20-something.
Warnings
A
little swearing, some drinking and smoking, a handful of sexual references, and
miscellaneous criminal behavior.
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