Minder (TV Series) The Beer Hunter (1980) User Reviews

Classic Minder!

[canndyman · 8/10 · 27 November 2019]

This has always been one of my favorite Minder episodes, and watching it again recently was such a treat.

Georgina Hale excels here in a devilishly memorable and hilarious role as an aging 'high-class' prostitute. She somehow ends up spending the night in bed with the drunken 'Yorkie' (who else could it be but Brian Glover), an old friend from Arthur's army days - who seems to have not only lost his memory (and Arthur), but his trousers as well!

The whole episode is packed with humor, great set-pieces and a bewildering sense of mystery - will Terry and Arthur ever find Yorkie again, will Yorkie remember the name of his hotel, and will his wife be happily reunited with him by the time she reaches London on her National Express coach.

One hilarious scene has Arthur literally running away with the ball on a school rugby field - and another has Terry in a mistaken-identity scene with a sulky chef in what appears to be the world's most unhygienic hotel kitchen.

There's much to enjoy here and, as with all the earlier episodes, the humor comes from the 'grit' as it were, and doesn't feel as forced as perhaps it does in the later stories. Strangely too, there's a barmaid behind the bar of The Winchester - but no Dave!

All in all though a very enjoyable and memorable episode that showcases Minder at its very best.

The Beer Hunter

[colinprunty-1 · 9/10 · 7 February 2021]

Light hearted episode from series 2 played mostly for laughs throughout. Arthur goes on a weekend bender with an old madcap army pal Yorky played by Brian Glover . It all ends messily and involves him and Terry trying to track down his pal who has gone missing me with his dragon of a wife on the way down to London. Brilliant comedy scenes throughout this one and some classic one liners and nice to see the better side of Arthur trying to help his pal out. No punch ups of any note just two good friends Arthur and Terry spending a Saturday trying to find his pal . The opening and end scenes sum up just how good an actor George Cole was and it is worth the high score just for those.

Atypical but magnificent early Minder

[jimpayne1967 · 10/10 · 17 August 2015]

Minder started out as a vehicle for Dennis Waterman post-The Sweeney in the very late 70s and in its first two series it remained very much about the character played by Waterman the heart-of-gold Minder Terry McCann. George Cole's Arthur was as devious and money-grabbing as he always was but as well as being very much the second lead Cole's character was often far less lovable than he became- unlike the corny pop song of 1982 underneath the early Arthur Daley was not 'all right' at all. The show usually ended up with a punch up - Mary Whitehouse got her knickers in a twist about the level of violence in such a popular show- and Terry even had a couple of steady-ish girlfriends. In this middle of season 2 episode there is though no violence to speak of and instead of the sly, street humour that we had already come to love this episode about a former army mate of Arthur's who is a drunken bookie from Rotherham- played by the peerless Brian Glover- ending up in bed with a 'part- time model' played by the wonderful Georgina Hale- is often laugh out loud funny. The twist in the tale is that the bookie's wife is heading down the M1 to be reunited with her husband and Terry and Arthur have no idea that the bookie has ended up with said 'model' whilst 'Rotherham's Roddy Llewellyn' has no idea where he is or where he was staying. The two 'heroes' make a journey across London to try and find Glover which brings them into contact with some strange characters- including a racist, sexist chef in a filthy hotel kitchen whose scene has now been all but excised alas as well as a one armed minicab driver- before Terry finally tracks down Glover hiding in a Wendy House sans trousers. This sounds farcical but because it is played dead straight it avoids - as some of the later episodes did not- being uncomfortably stuck between drama and comedy. Unlike most of the episodes that had preceded it there is no Dave, Chisholm or Rycott and although these characters were usually a welcome addition they are not missed because the two main characters and the two guests are all in top form. One scene in which Hale - trying sarcastically to help Glover find the hotel where his spare trousers are- reads from the Yellow Pages is particularly good but even better are the scenes in the car where Terry and Arthur discuss a Crossword, Frank Sinatra and the 60s show The Fugitive and which are as good as Travolta and Samuel L Jackson discussing McDonalds in Europe. It and they are that good. After this episode Minder reverted to being a humorous drama with added punch ups for a couple more series before it mutated into ITV's occasionally slightly inferior version of Only Fools and Horses. The seeds of the show's gentle decline may well have been sowed in this episode. But as a one off this is close to perfection with the late, great Cole being , as he always was, unforgettable

My Favourite Minder Episode.

[Hotwok2013 · 16 December 2017]

"The Beer Hunter" is a wonderfully entertaining episode of "Minder". Brian Glover guest stars as Arthur Daley's ex-army pal come down from Rotherham in Yorkshire for a weekend break in London. Arthur calls him "Yorkie" & on his first night down south he & Arthur get drunk & minder Terry has to drive them both home. After Terry drops Arthur off he takes Yorkie back to his hotel. The night-porter is reluctant to take the drunken Yorkie into the hotel but Terry insists that he is booked in. The following morning Arthur phones Terry to tell him to drive Yorkie around London to see the sights. "You know, Buckingham Palace, Soho sex shops & clock the Horseguards", he tells Terry. Terry is still tired from the previous night, doesn't like Yorkie anyway & is not interested. "I got an idea, why don't you send the Horseguards round to clock him", he replies. Arthur persuades Terry to take him but when he arrives back at his hotel to pick up Yorkie he is not there. It turns out the drunken Yorkie has ended up in the bed of a prostitute named Renee wonderfully played by Georgina Hale. When Yorkie wakes up in the morning in her bed he can't remember how he got there or if he "did the business" with the "prozzy". "No you didn't", she tells him. "You weren't capable dear & less of the prozzy if you don't mind. I am a part-time mod-el!". Terry reports to Arthur that his pal has disappeared & the rest of this very funny & entertaining episode involves Terry & Arthur trying to track down his whereabouts. Towards the end Yorkie's wife also comes down from Rotherham to meet him & they end up back in another public bar. Yorkie's wife fancies herself a singer & gets up on stage to sing the old music hall song "Daisy Dotes". When Terry hears her sing he tells Arthur, "She's worse than he is!". If you have never seen this episode of Minder & get the chance to see it, DON'T MISS IT. ITS GREAT!!!.

The Beer Hunter

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 19 November 2019]

The Beer Hunter is a great title but the episode is a bit of a let down despite some wonderful lines from Willis Hall.

Arthur has gone on a boozy night out from an old army buddy Yorkie (Brian Glover) down from Rotherham. I assume they both did National Service rather than volunteer in 1949. Terry is the designated driver for the night.

It is just that the next morning when Terry is supposed to take Yorkie to see the sights of London, Yorkie is nowhere to be found. The hotel has not seen him, the night porter is not that man Terry left Yorkie with.

While Arthur and Terry go round London looking for him. We see Yorkie waking up with a tart called Renee and seeing his trousers being collected by the bin men. Yorkie had chucked them out of the window after some further intake of liquid refreshments and it certainly was not Tetley tea.

Renee is played by Georgina Hale who steals her scenes as the posh prostitute who takes clients while her husband is away.

The fun in this episode is the little scenes. We nearly see 'er indoors' when Arthur is on the phone to Terry from his bedroom and she certainly is not pleased from the sounds of it. Later Arthur disrupts a school rugby match as he tries to talk to the referee who was also the moonlighting night porter.

This is a more comedic episode shorn of the violence and a bad guy. Yorkie is the kind of guy who probably protected Arthur in the army while the latter got involved in all sorts of scams. However despite the comedy, there is little drama and substance.

The Beer Filler

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 3/10 · 21 June 2023]

Having produced a baker's dozen of gritty, funny episodes in Series 1, you can really see the writers straining in Series 2 to pen compelling stories. As is often the case in the second season of any show, they resort to back stories for the lead characters.

Last time out, Terry was the focus. He had a young boy dropped on his porch, with a note that suggested the lad was his biological son arising from a week of fun a decade ago. That was actually a very affecting episode, the strongest so far in Series 2.

This time out it's a bit of back story for Arthur, who has an old army buddy come to town for a wedding. Night before the nuptials, Arthur and his buddy get completely blotto, after which the buddy has trouble remaining in his hotel room.

What ensues is a dull episode where Terry and Arthur have to track down the buddy. Decent set piece where Arthur gets to run on to a rugby pitch, steal the ball, and run one for touch. But that's thin gruel.

By the time they retrieve the buddy and get him to the reception in yet another smoke-filled pub, the episode mercifully ends pretty much in the middle of a song by some talentless fat broad.

Worst Episode in the entire run of Minder thus far. Strained my patience to the limit.