Coasting

Conceived as a replacement to Minder when Dennis Waterman left, and produced by Minder's former executive producer Verity Lambert (of Doctor Who fame), this is an exceptionally well put together series. Brilliantly written, with some genuinely moving story lines, it was actually well ahead of Minder of this period in terms of script quality, and on a par in production quality. It was helped no end by some very engaging leads, particularly James Purefoy, who had his TV debut here, and Sandy Hendrickse (The Office) as the love interest.

It also benefited from its Blackpool locations, which made it stand out from the crowd.

Sadly there was only one season of this excellent comedy drama, and it has never been repeated on terrestrial TV. It did get a repeat on satellite channel Granada Plus in the 1990s, but this can be ignored as it was heavily edited. In fact, in episode 3, they actually edited out a key scene which made the denouement meaningless!

I hope this can be repeated or released on DVD (but not the Granada Plus version!!!).