National Pelmet

Arthur has a horse to mind, which means Terry has a horse to mind. Pelmet is due to run in a big race, and Arthur has convinced somebody that guarding him is a proper job for a minder, so the pair of them head for the seaside. Terry is not hard to convince once he meets Jocelyn, the attractive female jockey with the horse's welfare at heart. The horse, the jockey, the trip: it all looks straightforward, which should be the first warning.

But nothing with Arthur is ever just a job. The owner and the trainer have their own plans for Pelmet, and those plans involve conning the bookies and leaving Arthur and Terry out in the cold. Meanwhile Rita, the stable girl, takes a shine to the minder, and her ex-husband turns out to be part of the very scam that is being run under their noses. So the holiday atmosphere curdles into something more complicated: a crooked race, a pair of fall guys, and Terry slowly working out that the pretty jockey may be the only honest person at the track. The stable yards are full of people with reasons to lie, and nobody is saying who really owns the horse's future.

Willis Hall and Leon Griffiths wrote it, Martin Campbell directed. Dennis Waterman and George Cole lead, with Liza Goddard as Jocelyn and Jane Carr as Rita. Ken Hutchison, Jim Norton, Robert Swann, Jeremy Young, Bill Kerry and Raymond Young complete the running order.

The seaside setting suits Minder well, all tea rooms and salt air with larceny humming underneath. Terry does the decent thing and Arthur works out how to charge for it, and the race itself resolves the whole mess with the right kind of finish. It is a good day out with sharp edges. Arthur certainly would call it that, assuming the trip still has a claim on his expenses.