Letter from John Grimsey:  Minder

 

 

6/27/06
 

Dear Diana,

 

I found your 'James Booth' tribute site very interesting and informative. A fitting tribute to a great actor.

 

I'm a massive fan of 'Minder' and James actually appeared in two episodes of the series. His first appearance was an episode called 'Give Us This Day, Arthur Daley's Bread' which I believe was first aired on 4th September 1985. James guest starred as Godfrey, a down on his luck, likeable rogue whom Arthur employs to do a spot of landscape gardening. Godfrey and his boys use it as a chance to burgle the neighbours. 

In 'Gone With The Winchester' James plays an old school friend of Arthur's, Toby 'Jug' Johnson, who has just been released from prison. Although on the face of it, Toby is also a likeable rogue, he turns out to have a more sinister side to him. I've attached a couple of screen shots from this episode.  As usual, he was excellent.  Without doubt, one of my favourite characters from the entire series.

    This photo comes from the beginning of the episode.  The character Toby has just been released from prison.

    Toby is sitting in a barber's chair with a cup of whiskey, waiting to get his hair cut.  The barber (seen in the background) is an old friend of Toby's.

 

 

    Just after his haircut, Toby meets up with all of his old mates at The Winchester Club, Arthur Daley's favourite place to drink.

 

 

 

The next two screen shots come from the same reunion scene and one shows James hugging "Dave," a regular character from Minder.  Dave was played by Glynn Edwards, who as I'm sure you know was in Zulu with James.

 

 

    Toby is reminiscing over the mistakes he's made.  The venue is Loftus Road football ground.

 

         Toby is shown with Arthur Daley (George Cole) just before Toby disappears with all of the money.

 

Hope this is of interest to you.

 

John Grimsey