Fatal Impression

An Irish fence dies owing Arthur two thousand pounds, and Arthur wants his money. Terry is not interested. He has his own problems: an old flame, Sylvie, has turned up at his door with her son, having walked out on an abusive husband. The two stories run side by side, and it says a lot about Arthur that his half is the simpler one. The dead man was a so-called reformed gambler, which in Arthur's ledger means nothing about his debts was reformed at all.

But Arthur's pursuit of the debt takes him through the dead man's circle. Billy Connolly, the comedian, turns up as Tick Tack, an appearance that guarantees a certain amount of attention, and Dick Sullivan is Larchlap Riley, whose name alone earns his fee. Valerie Lilley is Devla, David Adair is Dermot, and Pamela Cundell is the Woman Mourner, watching Arthur chase money around a funeral with an expression that says more than any line of dialogue.

Terry's story is quieter and heavier. Kim Thomson's Sylvie is a woman making a hard choice, and Terry, for once, has no wisecrack ready. The son is with her and the husband is behind them, and the door Terry is standing in belongs to a man who usually has an answer for everything. Steven Law's Detective keeps the edges of the story in view. There is no joke to defuse this one, and the episode knows it.

Anita Bronson and Leon Griffiths wrote it, and Terry Green directed. Dennis Waterman is Terry, George Cole is Arthur, and Glynn Edwards is Dave.

Arthur haggling over a dead man's debt while Terry stands in a doorway trying to work out what to say to an old girlfriend is about as Minder as it gets. Neither man gets what he wants, which is also pretty standard.