Minder on the Orient Express

Terry earns the holiday of a lifetime the hard way, by saving Nikki, the daughter of dead gangster Jack South, from a beating at the hands of hired thugs. The grateful family ships him and his girlfriend Annie off on the Orient Express, two tickets and romantic intentions, the lot. The train is the show's idea of luxury: wood panelling, starched linen and a passenger list you wouldn't want to sit near. And then Arthur Daley cons his way aboard, dodging a court appearance, and the romance is quietly strangled at birth.

The train turns out to be full of people who want Nikki's inheritance. There's a Mafia hitman on board and a gun-toting Interpol officer, with a whole carriage of sinister passengers circling her legacy, which means Terry spends the trip doing what he always does: keeping a headstrong young woman alive while a cheerful disaster of an employer makes everything harder. It's hard to think of a more crowded way to spend a romantic holiday. To add to the fun, Detective Sergeant Chisholm turns up, long-suffering as ever, because nowhere on earth is safe from Arthur's old acquaintances.

It's a Christmas treat with the dial turned up. Dennis Waterman and George Cole do their thing, Glynn Edwards pops up as Dave, Peter Childs as Rycott, and Patrick Malahide returns as Chisholm. The guest list is a delight: Ralph Bates as François LeBlanc, Robert Beatty as The Judge, Honor Blackman as Helen Spender, James Coombes as Mark Graves and Maurice Denham as Meredith Gascoyne.

Andrew Payne and Leon Griffiths wrote it, Francis Megahy directed.

The whole thing is Minder's idea of a continental caper: dodgy dealings and glamorous passengers, with a minder who can't get five minutes of peace. You wouldn't want to holiday with them, but watching from the armchair, it's a pleasure, and few specials of the era spent their money this cheerfully.