According to the Times obit, he over heard the famous
"the world's your lobster son"
line in a restaurant and promptly gave the guy who said it £25 for the copyright.
I think that's pretty classy.
RIP George Cole Page 2
Quote: Rood Eye @ 7th August 2015, 7:29 PM BSTGeorge Cole was the perfect 'Arthur Daley' but, sadly, Alastair Sim didn't approve of the role. He didn't think it befitted an actor of George's quality.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 7th August 2015, 7:59 PM BSTDon't know where you got that info from as Alastair Sim died 3 years before Minder started.
Sorry. I sit corrected.
I was thinking of an interview with GC in which he imagined AS looking down upon him playing Arthur and bemoaning the fact that all his good work (on George) had gone to waste.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 7th August 2015, 10:22 PM BSTSorry. I sit corrected.
I was thinking of an interview with GC in which he imagined AS looking down upon him playing Arthur and bemoaning the fact that all his good work (on George) had gone to waste.
Now you come to mention it, I have a vague recollection of seeing that. I think it may have been in a doc. on Minder?
Quote: Aaron @ 6th August 2015, 3:37 PM BSTPerhaps the last genuine legend of British film and television. Will be much missed.
Well, there are still Leslie Phillips and Geoffrey Bayldon. And Angela Lansbury. Still, George Cole, eh. Can't imagine Minder would have been such a success had Arthur Daley been played by Denholm Elliot.
Has anyone read George Cole's autobiography? It seems to have received generally poor reviews.
Quote: Kenneth @ 13th July 2016, 7:45 AM BSTWell, there are still Leslie Phillips and Geoffrey Bayldon. And Angela Lansbury. Still, George Cole, eh. Can't imagine Minder would have been such a success had Arthur Daley been played by Denholm Elliot.
Has anyone read George Cole's autobiography? It seems to have received generally poor reviews.
Angela Lansbury? In the same breath as Leslie Phillips? I don't think so.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 13th July 2016, 9:07 AM BSTAngela Lansbury? In the same breath as Leslie Phillips? I don't think so.
Why is it in the obituary column?
Quote: Kenneth @ 13th July 2016, 7:45 AM BSTHas anyone read George Cole's autobiography? It seems to have received generally poor reviews.
Just found and perused. A pleasant read. Straight up and bereft of bitterness and grudges*. Apart from when he mentions that Rex Harrison was nasty to him on Cleopatra. And then mentions that Terry-Thomas shared his opinion that Rex was "snooty".
Yes, a long CV at the end, but that's fine.
Yes, he's a private person and doesn't dwell on scandal or misery or sensation.
He talks a bit about his 1964 film One Way Pendulum -- a pre-Python Pythonesque bit of absurdism starring Eric Sykes. Perhaps worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVgNC0l_XMs
Quote: Rood Eye @ 7th August 2015, 10:22 PM BSTI was thinking of an interview with GC in which he imagined AS looking down upon him playing Arthur and bemoaning the fact that all his good work (on George) had gone to waste.
Yes, he mentions this in the autobio, which does repeat a lot of the stuff he had told in interviews over the years:
I'm sure that on some of the nights Minder went out there was a bit of thunder and lightning over my house, a few tiles would fall off the roof and Alastair's voice could be heard booming from above, 'This is not what I trained you for!' He never saw the show but his wife Naomi did and she enjoyed it very much. And, seriously, I think Alastair would have loved it as well.
Quote: sootyj @ 7th August 2015, 8:55 PM BSTAccording to the Times obit, he over heard the famous
"the world's your lobster son"
line in a restaurant and promptly gave the guy who said it £25 for the copyright.
In the book, he says his son was the one who overheard the line:
My son Crispin is a scriptwriter. He dropped in one afternoon and said, 'I've just heard someone in a pub come out with a great Arthur Daley line.' He told me what it was and I liked it. I gave him £25 and said, 'Don't use it. Save that one for me.' I kept it for a couple of years and then ad-libbed it in the boxing episode when I was trying to instil some confidence in Terry and told him, 'The world's your lobster, my son.'
* Not a grudge, but he does mention one "talented and well-known actor" (now deceased) who appeared in a Minder episode and pulled an Arthur-type trick on him by getting him to pose for a photo with Dennis Waterman and later claimed they each charged 500 quid (so the actor could claim 1,000 quid in tax relief). I wonder who that actor was?
When you work with hundreds of people over the years, there will always be one or two about whom you look back and think, 'I wish they hadn't done that.' There are not many I can think of in my career. But one was a talented and well-known actor who was appearing in a Minder episode. While he was on the set he came over and introduced a friend and asked to have a photograph taken with Dennis, his friend and me. We were always pleased to do that and we took the photograph. A couple of years later Dennis and I both received letters from the tax office asking why we hadn't declared income of £500 each for the sale of our images. It turned out that the actor had claimed that he had paid £500 to each of us for having his photograph taken with us and was claiming tax relief on it as part of his professional expenses. Of course, we both replied that it never happened like that and we had not received any payment. We heard no more about it but it left a bad taste behind that one of our own profession should do such a thing. The actor concerned is no longer with us, so it would be unfair to mention his name, but both Dennis and I feel that he stretched the friendship too far over that.
Quote: Kenneth @ 13th July 2016, 9:28 AM BSTWhy is it in the obituary column?
That's as enigmatic as to why my avatar is under your hat - I am sure I can sue.
No one's mentioned Root Into Europe, a 1990s series based on The Henry Root Letters.
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 14th July 2016, 7:38 AM BSTNo one's mentioned Root Into Europe, a 1990s series based on The Henry Root Letters.
I enjoyed it. For some reason I most vividly remember the part with the Italian politician La Cicciolina.
Going back to the stuff about Alaistair Sim disapproving, isn't Arthur Daley just a continuation of the spiv character anyway? Seems little to disapprove. Maybe it's just a name check more than anything? And why not?
I suspect it was more the perceived quality of the writing and production, rather than the character.
Yes, and being on TV when it was thought not as good as theatre or film. Maybe.
No, he was just talking about his voice. His accent.
If you watch the very first episode of Minder recorded, The Bounty Hunter (filmed March 1979, but not broadcast until November '79 as Episode 5 of Series 1), you'll notice that Arthur has a posh accent. He subsequently toned down and eventually dropped the posh act. While never going "full cockney" back to the voice of Cole's childhood, Arthur's accent and syntax were nevertheless an antithesis of the mellifluous elocution instilled by Sim.
It's the stuff like "'er indoors" and "leave it out" and "do what?" that he half-jestingly pretended would have appalled Sim.
EDIT: Incidentally, The Bounty Hunter has Derek Jacobi as the villain. And he's great.
Quote: Aaron @ 17th July 2016, 1:29 PM BSTI suspect it was more the perceived quality of the writing and production, rather than the character.
The perceived quality of writing and production was rightly damn high. It didn't become a hit until Series 3, but when Joe Average watched Minder, he didn't think "this is shitty writing and shitty production values".
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 17th July 2016, 9:03 PM BSTYes, and being on TV when it was thought not as good as theatre or stage. Maybe.
No. Not at all.
If you've not done so recently, watch the Minder episode with Brian Blessed (beardless, playing a crooked cop) and Ian McShane (also beardless, playing a villain), The Last Video Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJHrhnunNOk Arthur runs a video shop and ends up with a sex tape featuring Blessed and McShane. One of the best.
Also a contender for best episode is Whose Wife Is It Anyway?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM8q5taj5pg (incorrectly titled on YouTube)
The look on Arthur's face when he catches the "iron" and Terry in the same bedroom is superb!
Quote: Kenneth @ 18th July 2016, 3:23 AM BSTThe perceived quality of writing and production was rightly damn high. It didn't become a hit until Series 3, but when Joe Average watched Minder, he didn't think "this is shitty writing and shitty production values".
Well of course not. That kind of thing doesn't occur to Joe Average. He's only interested in whether a programme is entertaining or not. The luvvies and media types do moan about such things though.