Minder (1979)

To sell a consignment of mopeds to The Pizza Man (an unseen character), Arthur gets involved in complicated money-juggling. He has pawned his wife’s jewellery to fund the purchase, but instead uses the cash to buy a lorry-load of fridge-freezers at a knockdown price.

To take advantage of new rules concerning duty-free alcohol, Arthur, Ray and Dave take a van to Calais, planning to stock up on cheap booze. Whilst Ray and Dave go to a hypermarket, Arthur has a meet with Henry/Henri, a former mate, and gets unwittingly drawn into breaking into a liquor warehouse.

Businessman Sydney Myers has himself transported in a packing case to Arthur’s lockup. He had paid a skinhead to murder him after learning that he had terminal cancer, but when the diagnosis was proved false, he has tried to keep clear of the potential murderer.

Whilst his parents are on holiday in Spain, Ray, driving Bert’s taxi, picks up Susie, an attractive girl who claims to be on the run from a violent husband. Arthur, scenting a ‘nice little earner’, installs her in Bert and Doreen’s house.

An nun buys an Austin Allegro from Arthur’s car lot, despite Arthur knowing it’s clapped out and overpriced. Then things start going wrong with his attempts to supply equipment to Bjorn, the manager at Jorgensen’s new stress reduction clinic. He’s convinced that divine retribution is to blame and sends Ray to the convent with instructions to put the car in good order – whatever the cost.

Arthur takes over a booth at a Business Expo, and sets up as a provider of services to busy executives – West End theatre visits, casinos, hard-to-get tickets for booked out shows etc. The initial attempt is a disaster, but another one goes fairly well with satisfied customers. This arouses the ire of another whose ideas he’s pinched. Ray is drawn into a fight with a hyperactive casino owner and also tries unsuccessfully to romance the Expo manageress. This arouses the jealousy of his current girlfriend, a jazz singer.

Ray’s Uncle Brian is suffering from what appears to be deep depression and won’t talk to anyone about it. Arthur seeks advice from a successful businessman who suffers similarly but has managed to live with it. Meanwhile, he sells a car to a punter, a retired Detective Inspector, who also suffers from depression since being dismissed for corruption. The man returns to the Winchester, on which site the house he was born in once stood, locks himself in the toilet and refuses to come out.

A price war has erupted and the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ between Daley Motors and the former owner of a nearby car dealership is violated after moneylender Don Gedley takes over. Arthur attempts to increase business by radio advertising, but can only afford to use amateur announcers on a local pirate radio station. Grant Gedley, a thrusting young executive determined to prove himself to his father, tries to sabotage Arthur by setting him up with police on hit-and-run charges. Anxious to keep the peace and equally anxious to keep his son out of trouble, Don proposes that Arthur pleads guilty to all charges, in return for paying his fine. But Grant won’t cooperate and violence is the result.

Violent bank robber Charlie Knowles, a life prisoner, has decided to get even with his former partners who all received lighter sentences. Phelan, his former quartermaster and ‘outside man’ sets them all up and they get extra jail time. Arthur, who sold him the getaway car that broke down and allowed police to arrest them, is set up on dangerous driving charges and cops a sentence of 100 hours community service. Despite the evidence, DS Rogerson isn’t convinced of Arthur’s guilt and Ray helps him to expose the set-up. It emerges that Phelan, who originally ‘cooperated’ with police, also double-crossed Knowles. Phelan is arrested, but Knowles dies in prison.

Café owner Luigi is opening a mafia-themed restaurant, the ‘Cosa Noshtra’ with Arthur’s financial backing. On the evening before the grand opening, ‘Cranky Frankie’ Connor escapes from prison and holds Arthur at gunpoint in his lockup. He demands to see Rosie, his wife, whom he suspects of having an affair with Luigi. Luigi’s wife Carla also has her suspicions.

When his van breaks down, Arthur resorts to canals to transport a cargo of ‘hot’ video players to fence 'Tony Two-Tone'. He rents a narrow boat and he and Ray proceed to get the goods from Greenford to Limehouse via the Grand Union Canal. As they near their destination, the boat gets stuck under a low bridge. Then they ram at full speed into the jetty and the goods are lost in the river. In the meantime, Arthur is being dogged by Big Dai who thinks that Arthur has nicked his precious collection of boxing videos.