Bring Me the Head of Arthur Daley

The penultimate episode of Minder (and a lot better than the finale), in which Arthur suffers a series of 'accidents' which result in several brushes with the law, and begins to twig that malevolent forces are behind them. Meanwhile, behind bars is residing Charlie Knowles, 20-stones of sheer nastiness who harbours an old grudge against Arthur the size of his huge frame; he may be banged up but he has friends in low places and they're tasked to arrange that Arthur gets plenty of porridge. At first Arthur tries to appease Knowles, but when that fails Ray decides to take the bull by the horns and try to save his uncle from prison, or an even worse fate.

This was perhaps the episode where Ray Daley finally came of age - he realises that he can't out-muscle a gangster like Knowles so he uses his wits and cunning instead. Despite initial reservations, Arthur Daley was proud to call Ray 'family' in the end, and unlike with Terry, i think he had a genuine affection for his likeable nephew and saw in him a worthy successor - it would've been nice to see Ray Daley get to do a series of his own, but it wasn't to be.