Looking for Micky

Looking for Micky looks a lot like the earlier shows. With the return of Terry's on/off stripper girlfriend Debbie. There is more flesh on display.

However there is more emphasis on Arthur Daley. Terry does not even get involved in a fight.

'Mad' Micky Dixon has escaped from prison and staying with Debbie. Getting involved in too many fights in prison, his sentence kept getting extended. Micky wants a definite release date and plans a publicity campaign.

Terry knew Micky back in his boxing days. Arthur spots an opportunity to make money from the newspapers.

However Chisholm is looking for Micky as a well as a nasty villain called Freddie Baker who used to hire Micky to beat people up.

Terry needs to keep Micky safe while Arthur tries not to get his hands bitten off by the sharks in Fleet St.

Micky is rather dim and naive. Although everyone talks about how hard he can be. Freddie Baker though really comes as a nasty villain and Terry is warned not to upset him.

Surprisingly a lot of comedy comes from Chisholm. He really starts to step out more as a character. A young Bill Nighy plays a slimy journalist. Arthur is no match for him.

Arthur is flogging dogtooth sports jackets and then stumbles into a chance to sell a story to Fleet Street. It's an old boxer named Mickey who escaped prison work detail and is holed up in the flat of Terry's sometime GF Debbie, .

Meanwhile, Mickey's old boxing manager - a funereal chap named Freedie - wants in on the action for reasons that just aren't clear.

The Fleet Street reporter is none other than Bill Nighy, who is young enough and sporting a feathered middle part that is reminiscent of Steve Winwood.

It was fun to see those jackets keep popping up on another character from scene to scene. Chisholm even shows up to notice in a funny way. One of the better punchlines in the Minder series.

The series Minder had many elements that made it unique but it's key premise was about the various London villains and their interactions between Terry and Arthur.

This one involves and escaped prisoner on the run and also an old pal of Terry who hides away in his girlfriends flat whilst the police hunt for him.

Obviously Arthur sees an 'earner' and tries to get the London press involved. It all doesn't go to plan obviously but we see great scenes of London back streets and pubs which all made Minder great.

They both get on the wrong side of a very frightening London gangster by the name of Freddie Baker , as scary as they have ever been in Minder.

Menace oozes out of this man and a kneecapping and instant violence is without doubt on the cards for anyone that crosses him.

Some of the actors who played villains in this series played their parts very tongue in cheek but the actor who plays Freddie does not which adds to the menace.

An excellent plot and superb performances from all the cast especially John Moffat as

A villain that should have reappeared again , one of the very best episodes of the Minder series.

There is a lot of enjoyable detail in this episode. It's a cameo of a time and place: London in the 1980's. The society and economy of Britain under the government of Prime Minister Thatcher. When prosperity was no longer to be gained through honest toil in traditional industries but rather in the media, celebrity culture and being an entrepreneur.

It's in this context that our lovable rogue Arthur Daley operates. Here he interacts with the British press, when it was still based in Fleet Street. In particular, he tries to take advantage of a new, brash, popular, national newspaper, the Daily Star. It did, and does still, exist. The front page story about an escaped prisoner was just the sort of thing that the paper favoured.

There is also gentle mockery of Britain's serious, high-minded, liberal newspaper, The Guardian. A rare sighting of another famous London newspaper, the Evening Standard, during that brief period when it was titled the New Standard. And finally, one fictional paper called the "Echo".

Reference is made to Ronald Biggs, a notorious, British train robber from the 1960's who became a criminal celebrity, being fêted by, among others, the Sex Pistols.

Dabbling in this dubious but popular world, Arthur comes into contact with some seriously nasty criminals. He's way out his depth and at first doesn't realise the danger he's in.

One of the other dubious characters is a rather sleazy newspaper man named Oates. He is played by Bill Nighy, here in his thirties, but who later went onto be one of Britain's best-loved actors, famed for his portrayal of characters on the big and small screens and indeed on the radio as well. Most of them, in fact, seemed like a development of the character he played here. He really just went from being a young roué to an old roué. He's only just retired, after his most acclaimed final major rôle (contrasting with his usual ones), in "Living" (2022).

There's a sweet cameo by Vanda Godsell, playing gangster's mum, Queenie, looking no older than when she played the saucy, middle-aged barmaid with a heart of gold in the much overlooked 1960 film "Hell Is A City" which showed the dangerous criminal underworld of Manchester.

Dennis Waterman's character, Terry, has never been more sympathetic than in this episode, when he squares up recklessly to the ruthless villains.

There's still plenty of humour, even if it's rather dark, and a running gag about some jackets that Arthur is trying to flog. I don't think I've ever found an episode of Minder more satisfying.