The Greatest Show in Willesden

Arthur decides the British Volunteer needs a bit of class, which in his world means booking a retired ventriloquist. Professor Pickford and Mystic Micky, the act he and Monty Hinchcliffe hire, go down well with the punters, and karaoke is brought in for the younger crowd. For one night, Willesden is a showbusiness town. He has booked the whole thing on a nod and a promise, which is how he books everything.

Then Tommy Pickford's heart trouble makes it clear he cannot carry the act night after night, and the karaoke machine, rented from Mrs Gabadini and her intimidating sons, vanishes from Arthur's van. Arthur would rather confess to almost anything than tell Mrs Gabadini the machine is gone, so Ray goes to work. He finds the machine with Barry, a dodgy club owner who stole it in the first place, and does a deal. The machine is sold back to the Gabadinis, which makes everyone a victim and nobody a thief, except Barry, who gets paid twice.

John Cater is the ailing ventriloquist, Harry Landis is Monty, Pauline Letts is Mrs Gabadini, and Steven O'Donnell is Barry. Emma Cunningham, Mark Duffy and Dennis Quilligan fill out the company, with Glynn Edwards in his usual place. Kevin McNally, Bernard Dempsey and Leon Griffiths wrote it; Derek Banham directed.

It is a warm, small episode, the kind Minder did when it wanted to prove that Arthur could make a mess without leaving the parish. The karaoke machine ends up exactly where it started, Arthur has survived another brush with the Gabadini family, and somewhere a ventriloquist's dummy is resting up for the encore. It is the kind of episode you put on when you want Minder to feel like an old friend.

And the punchline is the show itself. Arthur wanted to bring a little entertainment to Willesden, and for one evening he manages it, even if the entertainment turns out to be his own disaster.