Episode 22 – Revisiting Reminder (Dennis Waterman Autobiography)

The Minder Podcast

May 8th is of course the one year anniversary of Dennis

Waterman’s passing. If you haven’t already done so you might want to

listen to the ⁠tribute⁠ to Dennis released in June last year.

In this episode we are going to look back at Dennis’ 2000 autobiography, Reminder, specifically the chapter on Minder.

The book, written with Dennis’ manager Deke Arlon’s wife Jill was, as

I mentioned in the tribute episode, a little disappointing at the time

of release. It seemed to have too many contributions from others for an

autobiography and it was very light on the Minder material.

However, I reread the book at the beginning of the year and enjoyed

it much more than previously. Perhaps with having more context myself it

just made a little more sense.

By and large the contributions from others do help the story Dennis

tries to tell though often the book is at its best when the subject

takes over and reveals his own experiences.

What disappointed me initially was the fact there were only

recollections from a few episodes and very little from behind the

scenes. This is still quite disappointing but it’s still a useful

overview of the show and how it came to be made.

In this episode I read the Minder chapter in full so if you don’t

have the book you can hear some of the inside take on the show. Some of

this material follows on well from the ⁠Leon Griffiths tribute⁠ also.

If you do have the book then perhaps this might be a nice reminder

for you. I am also aware there is an audio version of the book read by

Dennis himself. I have not heard it in full but as far as I know there

is quite a bit of material missing. I think this might be the inclusions

from others so if anyone has the audio version let me know.

But this is definitely the full Minder chapter coming up with just a very small amount of editing.

The material is copyright Arrow Books, 2000.

I also want to address the way Dennis seemed to have an aversion to

talking about Minder for so long. He obviously knew he had to cover it

in his book and seemed to begrudgingly do so. For many years I have

wondered just what he had against the show. After all it seemed to

underline his already magnificent career.

Everyone loved the show, what’s not to like? He even went on to reinvent himself with

New Tricks and have yet another golden series loved by the public. So why did he want

to move on so much from Minder – what exactly was it that he didn’t want to relive?

After reading the book in full the answer to me was obvious and it

had nothing to do with Minder. When the chapter finishes I cover the

reason for Dennis’ negative opinion on the show. It’s just my opinion of

course but it makes much more sense than Dennis having an aversion to

the show continuing past its best.

So, in tribute to Dennis Waterman once again and in honour of some

fascinating insight into Minder, here is Revisiting Reminder.