LATEST EPISODES
EPISODE 45 – JONATHAN KYDD INTERVIEW
Welcome to Episode 45 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org.
You may not realise but Jonathan Kydd appeared in three Minder episodes, just a few short appearances in Broken Arrow and Minder on the Orient Express no less. The largest part however and the one you will certainly remember him for is A Number of Old Wives Tales. Now this is a true Minder classic.
It’s a unique episode, written by Tony Hoare, directed by Francis Megahy and based around the exploits of Confident Clive – played by Patrick Mower – who is a serial bigamist. It’s one of the most amusing Minder episodes in some ways but there is also an air of tension given Clive’s tendency to upset both the women and their families with his addiction.
It was a great cast for the episode including Gary Holton, Sue Holderness, Kate Williams, Kenneth Waller and Vivienne Ritchie. Not to mention an episode which also includes Ray Winstone, Patrick Malahide and Meic Povey.
Jonathan Kydd features as one of two brothers and is responsible for the great tension built up from himself and Gary Holton. He tells us some gems about working on the show.
There are also some revelations from inside the business, how people change when fame gets to their heads, but also how some remain gentlemen despite their immense fame. And who would have thought that Confident Clive was a nice guy in real life? As I mention in this episode, I came across a great photo featuring Patrick Mower. Remember the Barratt helicopter days?
My interview with Jonathan is a little different to the norm in that Jonathan’s answers have been recorded following me sending questions through email. We were going to originally speak as normal over Zoom but when he told me he had just had a third child, a few voice jobs and was directing a radio drama I thought it better to go this way so that nothing got cancelled.
So I read the questions or prompts and Jonathan answers. It’s different but was well worth it to feature such a tremendous character. Thanks Jonathan!
Join us for episode 45 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org and a few words with “van driver”, “Ernie” and “Len” from Minder. Oh yes!
Download the show here.
Also available via Spotify and Listen Notes.
EPISODE 44 – DIANA MALIN BONUS INTERVIEW
Welcome to Episode 44 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org
Thank you to everyone who wrote to me or commented on the Diana Malin episode. It seems the general consensus was you all feel Diana is just Debbie when she is older which just goes back to something I regularly marvel at – how good the casting was when it came to Minder which is also why we still love the characters.
As promised, albeit a little later than intended, here is a bonus interview with Diana. She had told me that she wanted to follow up as she had something she wanted to tell me. I was of course intrigued and we had another 20 minute conversation; our fourth altogether. So you too can hear what Diana had to say.
We cover kissing Dennis Waterman, cuddly big Micky, training at drama school, why she stopped acting, loving London, her current health situation and the real Patrick Malahide plus a special message to you the fans of Debbie and Minder.
Download the show here.
Also available via Spotify and Listen Notes.
EPISODE 43 – DIANA MALIN INTERVIEW
Yes we finally got there. After several texts and a few previous phone calls between us we finally managed to set up the interview proper. By the time we start we are quite familiar so if it sounds like we’re straight into it here that’s because we had hours and texts aplenty before recording this.
Occasionally you will hear the perils of a slightly dodgy phone line as it was not done using the usual online call but via Diana’s mobile which suited her best. We will have a bonus part to follow as Diana remembered a few things she wanted to tell me so look out for that at a later date. The line that time was more clear.
For now we have the main discussion and let me be the first to remind you that this is the only interview Diana has done since the 1980s so we are talking a major exclusive here. It’s not your normal interview but we cover as many bases as I could.
Topics include:
Diana’s career background before becoming an actress
The casting process for Minder
How similar is she to Debbie?
Being recognised as Debbie and fan mail from the time
Her theatre work and working as a clown!
What work she did in a pub, which is not what you think
41 years of Buddhism
The future of Debbie – how did she turn out?
We also discuss what it was like working with George and Dennis as well as John Labanowski who played Micky in Looking For Micky, and good old Chisholm. Cheerful Charlie? You might be surprised.
My immense thanks to Diana for all the time she has given me over the past few months, it’s been quite a saga putting this together but of course it was worth it. There is also a bonus part to follow which will come soon.
Join us for episode 43 of The Minder Podcast in association with minder.org and a cosy chat with Debbie Mitchell.
Download the show here.
Also available via Spotify and Listen Notes.
EPISODE 42 – THE LADY AND THE MINDER
This one comes fairly timely to me as I recently wrote an article on the subject and I thought it fitting that, as the person in question relates to a Minder episode, I should put together the connections for this first one of 2026. So episode 42 is The Lady and the Minder.
This relates to the final episode of series 2, Caught in the Act, Fact. Series 2 as I have mentioned before is my favourite overall and this was always an episode that intrigued me – it’s certainly one of the more unusual episodes. It’s more subtly amusing than straight out funny, in fact it has a pretty dark overtone as you will see.
We cover the original episode itself and then in the second part we examine the real life story which this episode relates to.
It’s all here, a terrific bird (well, two actually), the real life postal office robbery mentioned and the real life Lady who Lady Margaret Thompson was based on. We’ll even go into the locations used as these bring up many intriguing thoughts.
Download the show here.
Also available via Spotify and Listen Notes.