The Tour has been ever-so-slowly working its way through ‘Minder’, a long running series which ran sporadically between 1979 and 1994 concerning an aspiring con-man and his “Minder”, played in the early seasons by one of those actors who seemingly have been in TV forever, Dennis Waterman.
Because it ran for so long, there was inevitably some serendipity of Doctor Who actors, both old school and nu, perhaps even more than one at a time, appearing.
There’s very young Peter Capaldi from a 1985 episode called ‘Life in the Fast Food Lane,’ and over there, just a year earlier, is Nick Courtney as a government official in ‘The Balance of Power.’
Best of all is the rare double dip from earlier in 1984 with both Patrick Troughton and Janet Fielding in the same episode entitled ‘Windows’ where Troughton plays the head of an Italian family in crisis and Fielding as a pool-playing aerobics instructor. Sadly they took part in completely separate story threads so there’s no ultimate moment of serendipity but you can’t have everything.
This episode aired the day before episode 1 of The Caves of Androzani premiered so it was quite likely the first thing Fielding did after leaving Doctor Who.
It’s always a gentle and welcome surprise when the streams cross in this way. All part of the fun of stumbling through the back catalog of British entertainment.
