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Post by jno on Feb 16, 2015 19:52:20 GMT
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Post by Arch Stanton on Jul 6, 2015 9:49:03 GMT
Aces High But Sometimes Very Low.
A professional gambler seeks out Arthur after he is mugged and his winnings stolen, as he returns from the casino. The reason is so that he can ask Arthur to loan out 'his' Terry to him, for a bit of back up during a possibly shady, Greek run poker game, that he intends to clean up at. And well, he doesn't want to get turned over again does he?
So Terry agrees and together they attend the game, only for Michaelson (the gambler) to get ripped off in the crooked game..!
Furious that he has been cheated, Michaelson vows his return and promptly ends up selling his flash wheels to Arthur for a stake in the next game. Only this time he knows the score, and intends to get even...
I really enjoyed this episode, and consider it one of the best so far!
The cast is by and large excellent with Valentine (Callan) delivering a very assured performance as the skillful gambler; the faces in the gambling den really doing a very good job, as sweat runs off em in buckets, at the heightening stakes and tension.
Roy Ward Baker returns to direct and does a terrific job of putting the audience on the edge of their seats during the cards, and I was genuinely riveted by the final hand.
Other names worthy of a mention being the lovely Marina Sirtis, who plays a Greek barmaid in this, and who would go on to star in amongst other things, Star Trek The Next Generation, and of course Death Wish 3!!
There's some nice stunt work to be had in the final ten minutes, in which a load of parking meters get smashed during a car chase.
And also interesting to note is that when Anthony Valentine asks the name of the barman (Glynn Edwards), Arthur has to ask Terry what his name is?? Almost implying that they haven't been going in The Winchester very long! Certainly not so long that Arthur is on first name terms with Dave yet - contrary to what earlier episodes have shown us. . . And not that it stops Arthur from trying to sell him a Lotus Eclat later in the episode..!
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Post by glazbury on Jul 6, 2015 15:10:13 GMT
Nice summary Arch Stanton.  I hadn't noticed Arthur not knowing Dave's name before! Also, can't believe I've only just recently noticed that actor Dimitri Andreas (Zardinidis) has a small part in one of my favourite films - 'Layer Cake' as Angelo in the Stoke Park scenes! |
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Post by Arch Stanton on Jul 6, 2015 16:04:07 GMT
Thanks..
I didn't know that either (about Andreas). Although I have seen Layer Cake.. twice.
The bit with Arthur not knowing Dave's name, is right at the beginning of the episode when Anthony Valentine meets them in The Winchester.
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Post by swainy on Jul 7, 2015 13:14:53 GMT
I've got to say, about Arthur not knowing Dave's name. To me it comes across as if Arthur checks to see who is behind the bar before replying to Maurice's question of what's the blokes name behind the bar.
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Post by Arch Stanton on Jul 7, 2015 14:11:26 GMT
I've got to say, about Arthur not knowing Dave's name. To me it comes across as if Arthur checks to see who is behind the bar before replying to Maurice's question of what's the blokes name behind the bar. Maybe... But nonetheless he asks Terry. Terry answers with Dave's name and then Arthur sort of responds in a kind of 'of course', sort of way! I wonder if Cole had had a lapse in concentration and it was ad-libbed?? You could be right though Swainy. |
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Post by jno on Jul 7, 2015 14:13:37 GMT
I've got to say, about Arthur not knowing Dave's name. To me it comes across as if Arthur checks to see who is behind the bar before replying to Maurice's question of what's the blokes name behind the bar. I have to agree with this. It comes across to me as if Arthur can't be bothered to answer the question as he has his head concentrated very much on his game of cards and this is very much like "leave me be and ask the polite one over there". I can't imagine for a minute that Arthur doesn't actually know Dave's name. It is a 'blip' moment though, but certain Arthur knows who Dave is. I am glad we are finally discussing this one - it is a great episode of Minder, where Terry really is minding again. This is of course the first time we meet Maurice. I am not sure if this is also the first time we also see Arthur do a little gesture with his hand as he sends Terry off to the bar at the start in order to discuss "a bit of business" with Maurice. As Terry and Maurice first go to the table and are introduced, the face on the right (Andy, who always sits there - bodyguard) played by Andy Pantelidou looks very similar to the moustached heavy in 'A Tethered Goat' - if it's not him they might be related. Although I really like this one, the disappointing thing is the lack of Arthur's screen time - he is on top form but due to the necessary long scenes at the card games Arthur's second appearance doesn't come until almost 24 minutes into the episode. This is very much Maurice and Terry and Maurice in particular really does get a lot of screen time. Anthony Valentine does a top job though. I have always like the scenes where Arthur gets his book out when Maurice tries to sell him the Lotus - watch carefully as in the background we see the blue double decker bus which is probably the Euston mobile canteen. The weird thing for me in this one is the bloke who asks Terry the time before they go to the second card game - firstly, this is probably the most pointless scene ever in series 1 and where is Terry being collected from anyway? If Maurice is so skint why take a taxi? Couldn't Terry drive him? Also, why does Terry leave half his drink before returning to the club? Does he feel so sorry for Maurice he can't finish his light ale? Top lines from Arthur despite him hardly being in it... "I wanted 'am!" "Obviously you were gonna get bunged a bit more" "Couple a watches?"  Light Ale count: 2(a) Dave mentions "Whatever happened to light ale?" at the start as Maurice asks for a lager. (b) Terry asks "What's Greek for light ale?" at the card game. A great episode this one - no real bird other than Stella at the club, a little punch up at the end, lots of crooks and double dealing going on, a very well thought out piece of writing but too little of Arthur (albeit necessary for the story) means 8/10 from me. |
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Post by dscarter1975 on Jul 9, 2015 8:25:21 GMT
I think this is my favourite episode from series 1. Quite tense yet also funny at the same time and the action at the end is enjoyable.
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myinspiration
Winchester Regular
Now dipping back in and watching any episode I fancy - in any order!! Naughty!
Posts: 41 
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Post by myinspiration on Aug 28, 2015 17:55:52 GMT
Brilliant episode, and one that picks up the theme of the different cultures in London, a theme of earlier series.
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Post by daz on Sept 14, 2015 20:07:42 GMT
I watched this last night and thought it was an excellent episode. Anthony Valentine steals the episode for me, great acting and think I will go purchase Raffles. One of the Greek card players was in the Profs episode Blind run, I think.
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Post by barrythebook on Sept 14, 2015 20:51:35 GMT
One of the Greek card players was in the Profs episode Blind run, I think.
Yes, the card player 'Chris', was in that episode. He played the 'fake Sheik'. Also had a regular role in 'Mind Your Language' if memory serves.
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Post by jno on Sept 15, 2015 2:37:13 GMT
I watched this last night and thought it was an excellent episode. Anthony Valentine steals the episode for me, great acting and think I will go purchase Raffles. One of the Greek card players was in the Profs episode Blind run, I think. I have 'Raffles' and personally I think it is superb. A lot of stuff Anthony Valentine has been in has been really great including for me: 'Callan', 'Killer Exposed', 'The Knock' and 'Hammer House Of Horror' to name just a few. Raffles is sort of 'Downton Abbey gets turned over' - all set at the turn of the last century, he's a bit like Robin Hood The Burglar - I really liked it and there it is a dedicated thread in 'Not Minder' here: linkWhat is great is that because Raffles is set in the past, it's a true period piece and hasn't dated at all i.e. you would never really think it was filmed in the 70s. If you do buy Raffles, be careful as one of the releases doesn't include the pilot episode (the one I have grr) and another one does so check them out thoroughly. This is one series that is well overdue for a rewatch. |
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Post by daz on Sept 15, 2015 7:11:08 GMT
I watched this last night and thought it was an excellent episode. Anthony Valentine steals the episode for me, great acting and think I will go purchase Raffles. One of the Greek card players was in the Profs episode Blind run, I think. I have 'Raffles' and personally I think it is superb. A lot of stuff Anthony Valentine has been in has been really great including for me: 'Callan', 'Killer Exposed', 'The Knock' and 'Hammer House Of Horror' to name just a few. Raffles is sort of 'Downton Abbey gets turned over' - all set at the turn of the last century, he's a bit like Robin Hood The Burglar - I really liked it and there it is a dedicated thread in 'Not Minder' here: linkWhat is great is that because Raffles is set in the past, it's a true period piece and hasn't dated at all i.e. you would never really think it was filmed in the 70s. If you do buy Raffles, be careful as one of the releases doesn't include the pilot episode (the one I have grr) and another one does so check them out thoroughly. This is one series that is well overdue for a rewatch. I have to thank Granada Plus for getting me into Raffles. Anthony Valentine is a superb actor and adds something to whatever he appears in, Raffles though is a timeless bit of TV. |
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Post by pr1 on Feb 16, 2016 18:34:05 GMT
George Cole certainly makes the most of his time in this episode. He is great in all the scenes involving the selling of Maurice's car.
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Post by Zimbo on Sept 15, 2016 9:23:02 GMT
It's hard going for someone who isn't interested in poker. However, I understand how it fits into the series and all the performances are excellent.
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Post by pr1 on Jun 25, 2017 20:17:48 GMT
Watched this for the second time today. I still enjoyed it a great deal. What stood out this time are the scenes with Arthur and the Lotus. I love how when Arthur is with Maurice he talks the car down and how it's lost much of its value but when he's trying to sell it to Dave all the negatives are now positives and instead of the car being worth less than £5000 it's suddenly worth £7000 and the perfect investment for someone like Dave. Arthur has a surplus of nerve in those scenes and they are amusing.
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Post by glazbury on Jun 25, 2017 23:30:21 GMT
Watched this for the second time today. I still enjoyed it a great deal. What stood out this time are the scenes with Arthur and the Lotus. I love how when Arthur is with Maurice he talks the car down and how it's lost much of its value but when he's trying to sell it to Dave all the negatives are now positives and instead of the car being worth less than £5000 it's suddenly worth £7000 and the perfect investment for someone like Dave. Arthur has a surplus of nerve in those scenes and they are amusing. They are great scenes with Arthur and the Lotus: Arthur: "You see the trouble with this, it's a specialist motor. Price-wise they just fall out of bed!" Arthur: "The book is confidential. For the trade only. I can't flash the book around!"  |
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Post by pr1 on Jun 25, 2017 23:34:49 GMT
Watched this for the second time today. I still enjoyed it a great deal. What stood out this time are the scenes with Arthur and the Lotus. I love how when Arthur is with Maurice he talks the car down and how it's lost much of its value but when he's trying to sell it to Dave all the negatives are now positives and instead of the car being worth less than £5000 it's suddenly worth £7000 and the perfect investment for someone like Dave. Arthur has a surplus of nerve in those scenes and they are amusing. They are great scenes with Arthur and the Lotus: Arthur: "You see the trouble with this, it's a specialist motor. Price-wise they just fall out of bed!" Arthur: "The book is confidential. For the trade only. I can't flash the book around!" And then Dave uses the line about how the value falls out of bed and Arthur denies it! |
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Post by westldner on Oct 19, 2017 16:10:28 GMT
I found it interesting that Arthur was there to help the card player. A saleman as mature as the character, would he have taken his car in real life because he really needed the money knowing what he was going to do with it while putting his minder to look out for him? Makes me wonder. I would say it's a great episode because it gave loads of chances to represent the car because it was a sports car. I've never seen anything in film like that.
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Post by barrythebook on Oct 20, 2017 18:19:43 GMT
I found it interesting that Arthur was there to help the card player. A saleman as mature as the character, would he have taken his car in real life because he really needed the money knowing what he was going to do with it while putting his minder to look out for him? Makes me wonder. I would say it's a great episode because it gave loads of chances to represent the car because it was a sports car. I've never seen anything in film like that. I think the car was used to show how successful Maurice had been in the past. All part of building up his character i'd say. |
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Post by daz on Dec 30, 2017 12:09:22 GMT
Watched this on ITV4 yesterday afternoon, such a superb episode. Anthony Valentine is easily one of my favourite actors to have appeared in Minder.
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Post by barrythebook on Dec 30, 2017 18:29:29 GMT
I saw it too.
The Greek gambling club is perfect imo.
Exactly the kind of place I can imagine doing business in the shadier side of London life.
Sparse and no-frills, it's simply there to serve its purpose.
Guys can get away from their family life for a drink, chat and a bit of a punt - brilliant.
I wonder if this was a genuine location or a set invented for the episode?
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Post by billymedhurst on Dec 31, 2017 17:25:05 GMT
Fantastic ep.
I have to admit; I've never been a huge fan of Valentine; but he is brilliant in this.
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Post by mario65 on Jan 5, 2018 18:12:36 GMT
The club atmosphere is absolutely bang-on! Harringey in North London used to have loads back in the 70's. During school days, me and my mates used to go to one of these clubs for a quick (few) games of pool during our lunch break. One day turned out to be very different though. We noticed the door and curtains were closed but we could see the owner just behind the curtain so we banged on the door for him to let us in. He was usually a friendly bloke but that day he told us to eff off!! Being pretty daft, we kept banging on the door and eventually, he let us in but told us to be silent, play 1 game of pool then eff off! I'll never forget him locking the door behind us.
We soon found out that a major card game was going on. We started playing our game of pool but you could cut the atmosphere with a knife and It didn't feel good at all! It felt like it could get dangerous at the drop of a hat. My mates kept quietly asking me what was going on and being Greek I was able to tell them. It wasn't pretty. This one old bloke just kept losing. He was sweating buckets and couldn't keep his leg from shaking. Poor bloke eventually gave up one of his homes in Southgate and his daughters Merc. We just couldn't believe what we were seeing. Another guy had lost about 300 quid but didn't seem that bothered. Never seen anything like it since but the old guy's crying at the end was terrible. What was meant to be our 1 game of pool went on for over two hours because we were too scared to tell the owner to unlock the door in case he went mad again. Well, that was about 1977 and Harringey looks very different now.
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Post by thewoodster on Feb 7, 2018 17:45:31 GMT
Good episode, Valentine plays a good part. An enjoyable episode.
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Post by Toecutter on Jan 12, 2019 16:59:40 GMT
A fave episode only really let down by the the way Terry struggles with the driver but they still manage to slalom through all those oil drums and what appear to be the visible wires attached to the parking meters, presumably to make sure they don't end up through the windscreen at the occupants
Valentine's performance was bang on
Dimitri Andreas was also in Waiting for Goddard and shopkeeper in Bouquet of barbed wine
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Post by leaveitoutjohn on Jan 12, 2019 22:20:37 GMT
I wonder if Norman Gibbons (Clive Hornby) was intended to be a regular character?He was also in the Bengal Tiger episode
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Post by swainy on Jan 13, 2019 7:11:09 GMT
Possibly, both of the episodes he appeared in were written by Leon Griffiths and with Leon being out of action for series 2 they might have been the reason that he never returned.
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Post by jno on Jan 13, 2019 7:57:28 GMT
I agree with swainy, it had to have been on the cards.
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Post by leaveitoutjohn on Jan 13, 2019 8:45:13 GMT
Or it could have been that Clive Hornby started in Emmerdale at that time
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