A Little Bit Of Give & Take

Episode Overview

Available as part of the ‘Double Take’ video pack for schools only. First released in 2006 on the series 6 Umbrella DVD box set in Australia.

While former antique dealer Charlie Barker is in prison, his son Shaun Barker shows up looking for temporary accommodation with his aunt and uncle. When he is turned down by his cousin Tim, Shaun turns to Arthur as his father had told him to look Arthur up if all else fails. As Arthur is about to leave for two weeks holiday in Jesolo, Arthur has no option but to lump Shaun on to Terry. After Terry takes Shaun to a party, Shaun realises his cousin Tim and one of his mates are into taking drugs and seems to be playing with the idea of doing it himself. When Terry brings some antiques back to his flat for Arthur, where Shaun is now staying, Shaun informs Terry that he has seen them before. Terry quickly reaches the conclusion that the antiques are stolen and are fuelling Tim’s drug habit. After he has returned from his holiday, Terry calls Arthur at the Winchester to inform him that he might want to think twice about who he does business with.

Cast

Glynn Edwards as Dave, Christopher Routh as Shaun, Adam Armstrong as Tim, Lee Martin Gotch as Lee, Elaine Lourdan as Sharon, Martin Tempest as Darren

Facts

This is a public information film, intended to be shown in schools to warn them of the dangers of drugs. As this was not intended to be shown on television, it is never counted as part of the 108 episodes of Minder or considered part of the series. Due to the availability of George Cole and Dennis Waterman for this episode, they are only seen together very briefly in one shot where Arthur dumps Shaun on to Terry. For this one-off production, Terry’s flat location is different and Arthur’s yellow Daimler and Terry’s Capri are not the standard cars featured in the series – a fact confirmed by actor Chris Routh when he was interviewed by minder.org about this episode in 2004. Chris Menaul, who directed this episode had previously directed #2.8 A Nice Little Wine.

During the episode, Arthur mentions to Dave that he is off for two weeks in Jesolo ‘oyster of the Adriatic’, – a very similar line that featured in ‘Minder On The Orient Express’ when Honor Blackman’s character refers to Venice as the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’. This is the second of two times that we see Arthur wearing a cream coloured hat, previously seen in #6.7 Minder On The Orient Express. Former child actor Leigh Gotch, who plays one of the youngsters ‘Lee’ in this episode told minder.org in 2012 that he had no idea when filming this episode that it was indeed intended as an episode of ‘Minder’ and that he was only aware that this was intended to be an anti-drugs film. Following the release of this video to schools, a book evaluating the effectiveness of this episode and the ‘Double Take’ video package it was part of, was released in 1988.

Double Take

Elaine Lourdan would later appear again as a different character Trish in #9.3 Uneasy Rider.

Bloopers: Two big spelling bloopers in the opening titles of this one-off episode – Glynn Edwards’ name is misspelt with one “n” instead of two and ‘Lee Martin Gotch As Lee’ is another misspelling, his real name having always been spelt ‘Leigh Martin Gotch’.