Minder

- Season 9

(1993)

The Winchester is about to take part in a quiz against a rival pub and Arthur picks Marty 'Brains' Goldblum, a man with an encyclopaedic general knowledge, for the home team. Unfortunately Marty is an escaped prisoner and, after suffering a turn, gives himself up. Can the unlikely pairing of Ray and Detective Constable Field win the quiz and satisfy Daley family honour?

Arthur buys a hot air balloon with a view to going into aerial advertising. Unfortunately this arouses the anger of psychotic business rival Tony Pike who, under the guise of taking Arthur out for a drink, abducts him and, with his henchman Warren, takes him to a disused power station. However by the time Ray locates the site, Arthur has disappeared, being more persuasive at talking his way out of trouble than Ray had thought.

When Arthur starts a courier service, the Daley Post, it is a predictable disaster, since his penny-pinching has bought radio equipment that does not work. He then finds himself being used by the Warnock brothers to innocently do their illegal work for them. The crazed boyfriend of a model whose nude photos went missing in Daley's care does not help and it is left to Ray to turn the tables on the Warnocks and save the day.

At a fund-raising function Arthur is offered the chance to buy a cheap Daimler from Goodtime Motors but, whilst trying to locate its elusive premises, gets arrested for kerb crawling, with a gross of red light bulbs in his boot. With evidence against him mounting and his intention of self-representation in court, his only hope is that Ray can track down the Goodtime garage as well as explaining why Arthur is making regular visits to disreputable addresses in Soho.

To make room for sixty Russian telescopes in his lock-up Arthur swaps his out of date old tat for a fruit machine from Alexei Nolan's funfair. However he has helped himself to one that he was not meant to have, as it contains the proceeds of the 1988 Dublin mint robbery, which Alexei was laundering. But nobody told Detective Sergeant Morley, who uses it at a charity event which soon hosts a showdown between cops and robbers.

When recently released jailbird Toby 'Jug' Johnson makes revelations to Arthur about apparent betrayals by Dave when they were all younger and Dave seems to be having secret meetings which exclude him, Arthur opens his own club in competition to the Winchester out of spite, helped by Toby. However Ray is mistrustful of the ex-con and with good cause as Arthur will learn a painful lesson before he is eventually reconciled with Dave.

After Ray has criticized Arthur's running of the company as out of date and former business rival 'Hapless' has extolled the joys of retirement, Arthur decides to pack it in and hand Daley Enterprises over to his nephew for good. But, too mean to afford a cruise and getting bored with his life of leisure, he cannot stop himself from interfering in the business - which comes in useful when Ray is sold stolen goods and needs to get rid of them.

Arthur buys a job lot of satellite dishes with instructions in German, so he enlists the aid of ex-television repair man Logie to fit them. After fitting the first one at the wrong house they are hired by volatile Italian businessman 'Fingers' Rosetti whose offers are not to be refused. Matters are complicated by Fingers' daughter asking Ray to play Cupid when her father dislikes her boyfriend and by Logie's fear of heights.

Arthur hires incompetent decorator Heart Attack to do up the Winchester for its twenty-fifth birthday but Heart Attack does more damage than good and the club faces closure until expensive repairs are made. To get the cash Ray organizes a charity football match versus the police but just before kick-off Heart Attack turns up with thousands of pounds stolen from oily rival landlord and professional nark Vic. Surrounded by the police Arthur concocts a plan to plough the money into the Winchester charity auction fund without Sregeant Morley cottoning on.

Unable to sell his motors, Arthur turns to car hire, but comes to police attention when a bogus customer leaves a stolen Cortina at the lot and drives off in the Daley Daimler. Eager but clumsy assistant Winston only adds to Arthur's troubles, but at least he can claim the reward when Ray's new girlfriend turns out to be part of a gang of local burglars. His Daimler returned, Arthur decides to put the experience behind him and go back to selling.

Desperate for a stroke of luck, Arthur is approached by Australian private investigator Bill McCabe who tells him that he is the possible heir of Joshua Daley, who died intestate in Woolomoroo. After - eventually - proving kinship and, thanks to Ray, avoiding a fraud charge which would have negated his eligibility, Arthur flies off with Ray to claim his fortune Down Under.

Ray and a jet-lagged Arthur are met from the plane in Sydney by Bill McCabe, unaware that there are five other likely candidates for the inheritance as well as a bogus claimant, a professional criminal called Rod who has been groomed by the shady Reid. Reid employs dirty tricks to nobble Arthur, which are thwarted by Bill and lawyer Susan Hamilton but a legitimate heir is eventually found - and it is not Arthur. To make things worse the Daleys discover that their flight tickets were one-way and they are now marooned in Sydney.

Broke and marooned in Sydney, the Daleys book into a cheap back packers' hostel. Ray gets bar work and Arthur falls in with street trader Derek Collins, an Antipodean version of himself, and actually does well until he catches the attention of Detective Sergeant Davis, who gives him forty-eight hours to leave Australia. Reid also causes more trouble, imagining Arthur to be a drug dealer and giving him a mere twenty-four hours to leave town. Fortunately by this time the Daleys have made enough money for a stand-by flight home and return to England.