Name two people that have been on Minder and guest villains on Columbo.
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I Know billy connoley was one don't Know Other
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MovieChat Forums > Minder (1979) Discussion > Name two people that have been on Minder...
Is it just me or did Arthur have a slightly Posher Accent in the early Episodes
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Yeah your right it is Ian Mcshane Remember now
shareAlso Honor Blackman. She was a guest villain in the Columbo episode where Columbo comes to London... and of course teaches outrageously stereotyped, pompous, ineffectual limey coppers from Scotland Yard how to solve crimes!
Honor Blackman went on to be a guest star in Minder On the Orient Express. So there we have it - a grand total of three actors who guested in both Minder and Columbo.
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good spot on that Ian McShane one...
I only had Billy Connelly and Honour Blackman down.
Next question...
Who has been on Minder and Happy days?
Suzi quattro
shareCorrect...
I bet you watch the itv4 repeats aswell
Okay, I've got a couple for you...
1: Patrick Malahide went on to play the lead in The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, but which eleven Minder guest actors were (or would later go on to be) also the leading stars of popular television detective shows?
2: Which Minder guest actor has the distinction of having returned to play the highest number of different characters during the show's run between 1979-1994?
2 Rula Lenska??
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Okay, QUESTION ONE: Minder guest actors who were or went on to be the leading stars of detective shows... The list has now reached twenty actors, but I keep remembering more detective stars and having to add them to the ever growing number.
1: Michael Kitchen. He was Maltese Tony in the episode 'Fiddler on the Hoof'. Of course, Kitchen is now best known as the star of Foyle's War.
2: Mark McManus. The star of Taggart. He played a guest villain in 'An Officer and a Car Salesman'.
3: George Baker. He played thuggish guest villains in two Minder episodes. He would go on to be the star of Ruth Rendell Mysteries as Chief Inspector Wexford.
4: Patrick Mower. Star of detective shows Special Branch and Target. Guested on Minder in the episode 'A Number of Old Wives' Tales'.
5: George Sewell. Co-lead of Special Branch. He also parodied his tough detective persona with a regular role in the Jasper Carrot spoof cop sitcom The Detectives. Sewell guested in the Minder episode 'Rembrandt Doesn't Live Here Anymore'.
6: David Calder. Guest villain in the episode 'High Plains Pilferer'. Calder went on to star in the detective show/sci-fi fusion experiment that was Star Cops. A show memorably described by its creator Chris Boucher as being like "Bergerac in space".
7: Richard Griffiths. Guest actor in the episode 'Dream House'. Went on to star as ex-copper turned sleuth chef Crabbe in Pie In The Sky.
8: Stratford Johns. Star of Z Cars (and its several spin-offs), playing gruff copper Barlow all the way from Chief Inspector to Chief Superintendent. He put in a guest appearance in Series Ten of Minder in 1994 playing a violent old jail lag.
9: Brian Blessed. Shot to fame as tough copper PC 'Fancy' Smith in Z Cars. Played a bent copper in the Minder episode 'The Last Video Show'.
10: Kenneth Cope. Played two shifty crook characters in Minder in 1979 and 1994. Star of the cult 60s' detective show/telefantasy classic Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
11: Stephen Tompkinson. Detective Constable Park in Minder Series Eight. Now playing the lead role in DCI Banks on ITV.
12: Derek Martin. Played two Minder guest villains. He starred as bent copper DI Pyle in the memorable police corruption drama series Law and Order in 1978. Martin was also the co-lead in the BBC's The Chinese Detective from 1980-82, opposite David Yip's titular sleuth.
13: Robbie Coltrane. Guested in the episode 'What Makes Shamy Run?' as a camp hair dresser. Coltrane of course went on to star in Cracker on ITV.
14: Warren Clarke. Guested as a bent copper in the episode 'Another Bride, Another Groom'. Went on to star in the BBC's Dalziel and Pascoe.
15: Jimmy Nail. Played a tough but noble and heroic gypsy in the episode 'The Car Lot Baggers'. Nail went on to play the lead as Tyneside detective Spender for the BBC.
16: Ray Winstone. Played Arthur Daley's rather dippy car mechanic Arnie in several episodes. Winstone went on to play multiple coppers (often bent, violent ones) in his career, most notably the lead role in the ITV detective show Vincent.
17: Ian Hogg. Guested in the episode 'Another Bride, Another Groom'. Went on to play the lead role of Detective Sergeant Rockliffe in the BBC's 1988 detective show Rockliffe's Folly.
18: Tony Anholt. Played a sleazy lothario (very typecast!) in the episode 'Windows'. Anholt was one of the three lead stars of the 1972-73 glossy ITC detective show The Protectors. He played hunky lothario French detective Paul Buchet, complete with silk cravat and other sexy schmutter.
19: Robert Beatty. The only American actor on the list. Guested in 'Minder On the Orient Express'. Star of the classic detective show Dial 999.
20: Kim Thomson. The only actress on the list. Thomson guested in the Minder episode 'Fatal Impression' as battered wife sylvie. She played the female lead as professional academic turned detective Samantha Valentine in the surreal, oddball late night BBC detective show Virtual Murder in 1992.
As a side note to this list, not only did Minder regular Patrick Malahide play the lead in The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, but Minder guest villain Simon Wiiliams ('An Officer and a Car Salesman') also played the role of Inspector Alleyn in the original pilot episode for that show. I've not included Simon Williams in the main list because he didn't go on to play a leading detective in a series, merely the one-off lead in a largely forgotten pilot episode.
QUESTION TWO: The Minder guest actor who played the highest number of different characters on the show is Euston Films' favourite, George Sweeney. He played four characters between 1979-1994, although his IMDB page erroneously only lists him as having played three.
George Sweeney is such a familiar face in Euston Films productions (everything from a looney ex-soldier in The Sweeney, to a murderous coach driver in Jack the Ripper), that he becomes one of those reliable character actors who you see popping up all the time on afternoon telly repeats. In casting terms, George Sweeney is to Minder what Robert Culp was to Columbo - a pair of comfy, familiar, much loved slippers that you return to time and time again... What would Columbo be without Robert Culp repeatedly returning to play another slimy villain? What would Minder be without George Sweeney returning to play another impish cockney geezer type?
well done.
shareThank you! I've just updated the Minder guest star/leading detective list, and finally remembered an actress I could add to it! The detective genre is so ridiculously top heavy with blokes. The list is simply dripping with testosterone.
shareRight, here's a eleven more, including two theatrical knights and one more female:
Michael Gambon. Guests in the Minder episode 'Guess Who's Coming to Pinner' and also played the lead in Maigret (1992-93).
Philip Glenister. Guests in the Minder episode 'Whatever Happened to Her Indoors?' and also played the co-lead in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes (2006-2010). Both character are called Hunt and have the initial 'G' incidentally!
Derek Jacobi. Guests in the Minder episode 'The Bounty Hunter' and also played the historical god-bothering detective in Cadfael (1994-1998).
Jonny Lee Miller. Guests in the Minder episode 'Three Cons Make a Mountain' and also played Sherlock Holmes in Elementary (current at the time of writing).
Chris Ellison. Guests in the Minder episode 'The Son Also Rises' and also played the spin-off detective Burnside(2000), as well as playing the same character for years in The Bill.
Nigel Le Vaillant. Guests in the Minder episode 'The Second Time Around' and also played special-police-doctor-surgeon-thingy lead in Dangerfield(1995-whenever Nigel Havers took over).
Don Henderson. Guests in the Minder episode 'Fiddler on the Hoof' and also played the spin-off detective Bulman(1985-87), as well as playing the same character for years in The XYY Man and Strangers.
Brian Cox. Guests in the Minder episode 'In' and also played the short-lived eponymous Russian detective in Grushko (1994).
Iain Cuthbertson. Guests in the Minder episode 'The Wrong Goodbye' and also played everyone's favourite Procurator Fiscal in Sutherland's Law (1973-76).
Clive Swift. Guests in the Minder episode 'An Officer and a Car Salesman' and also played the punnily-named Inspector Waugh in Waugh on Crime (1970-71).
- and one more lady -
Susan Fleetwood. Guests in the Minder episode 'Senior Citizen Caine' and also played one-half of a private detective duo in the second series (replacing Barbara Flynn, who left after the first) in Chandler and Co(1995).
I take it we're not counting Raffles, because then you could have Anthony Valentine, or any of the leads in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
As you mention Stratford Johns, does Simon Rouse qualify? He was in The Bill for two decades, although by definition there is no leading part in that series. I think he should.
Ace, sterling work there! Don't think Anthony Valentine as Raffles quite qualifies - gentlemen diamond thieves don't really count as 'detectives', although Raffles had many of the same mental attributes as fictional sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes. He was the anti-matter Holmes, the 'opposite side of the fence'.
Simon Rouse?? Hmmmm. He did two decades on The Bill, but as a regular supporting player. John Salthouse was the original lead as detective Galloway, so he would definitely have counted if he'd turned up on Minder. Chris Ellison defintely counts, because Burnside was absolutely central to the show and - as you point out - got his own spin-off detective show.
Great job on finding eleven more, including another actress.
Thank you.
I can't help feeling there must be even more, if one were to study every episode cast list.
Okay, two more actresses to complete the list.
Gina McKee. Guests in the Minder Series Eight episode 'Guess Who's Coming To Pinner?' as a ruthless, duplicitous young police officer. McKee went on to play the central role of Helen Barlow in the undercover detective drama series By Any Means for the BBC in 2013.
Samantha Janus. Guests in the Minder Series Ten episode 'All Quiet on the West End Front'. Janus played the lead role of DC Isobel de Pauli in the ITV detective series Liverpool 1 from 1998-1999. She starred opposite her future husband, actor Mark Womack.
I think that's it for the list. I honestly can't think of any other actors. I make that a grand total of thirty-three Minder guest actors who are/were leading stars of detective shows. That has got to be some kind of record in terms of major detective drama connections leading to and from one (albeit long running) television series.
Two more for you:
David Harewood. Guests in the Minder episode 'Too Many Crooks' as Vinny's Minder and played Sergeant, later DI, Joe Robinson, part of the main team in every series (although not every episode) of The Vice (1999-2003). Should've noticed that before, as it is an obvious one.
Bernard Horsfall. Guests in the Minder episode 'Poetic Justice, Innit' as Mr Russel QC and played gentleman sleuth Albert Campion (three decades before the Peter Davison series) in Dancers in Mourning (1959). That one is a tad more obscure.
Brilliant. That, I think, is a wrap... although somebody else could theoretically turn up.
By the way, can anybody name the Minder guest actress who later went on to be one of George Clooney's leading ladies?
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