Minder was devised by writer Leon Griffiths as a vehicle for Dennis Waterman following his success in The Sweeney, with George Cole's Arthur Daley originally conceived as a secondary character.

Griffiths, who was raised in the Communist Party, viewed the show in political terms, describing Arthur Daley as 'the unacceptable face of private enterprise' in a 1984 Daily Mail interview.

The show's launch was delayed by a technicians' strike that took ITV off the air for 75 days in 1979, and despite initially poor ratings, managing director Bryan Cowgill persuaded Thames management to commission a further series and repeat the first, which led to much bigger audiences and eventual hit status by series 3.

Dennis Waterman left the cast in 1989 after series 7, feeling the character of Terry had run its course and that writers found it increasingly hard to craft plots as sharp as the earlier series.

Waterman's final episode as Terry, 'The Wrong Goodbye,' was filmed before he announced his departure, so the episode makes no reference to Terry's upcoming exit from the show.

The series gave early roles to actors who later became famous, including Brian Cox, Steve McFadden, Peter Capaldi, Bill Nighy, and Leslie Grantham, as well as guest turns from Derek Jacobi, Billy Connolly, Brian Blessed, Ian McShane, Roy Kinnear, Andrew Sachs, and Pete Postlethwaite.

Rula Lenska, who was married to Dennis Waterman in real life, appeared in the show playing several different roles.

The theme tune 'I Could Be So Good for You,' written by Gerard Kenny and Patricia Waterman and sung by Dennis Waterman, failed to chart on its 1979 release but became a hit reaching No.3 in the UK Singles Chart after being re-released in 1980.

Dennis Waterman's habit of singing the theme tunes to his own shows (including Minder, On the Up, Stay Lucky, and New Tricks) inspired a running parody in the sketch show Little Britain, where a character played by David Walliams as Waterman insists he will also 'write the theme tune, sing the theme tune.'

Episode titles frequently referenced films, such as 'Gunfight at the O.K. Launderette,' 'Monday Night Fever,' 'The Beer Hunter,' and 'Guess Who's Coming to Pinner?'

Only Fools and Horses creator John Sullivan reportedly cited the success of Minder, which had begun two years earlier, to help persuade the BBC to commission his own show.

The show's highest-rated episode was 1984's 'Second Hand Pose,' watched by 16.4 million viewers, and in 2005 Arthur Daley came second in an ITV poll for the network's favourite TV characters.

The series inspired a hit single, 'Arthur Daley (E's Alright!)' by The Firm, which reached the UK Top 20 in 1982, while George Cole and Dennis Waterman also released a Christmas single together in 1983 that reached No. 21.

An officially licensed Minder video game was published in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, in which players tried to make money buying and selling goods while interacting with characters through a basic conversation system.