George Cole's Arthur Daley remembered with favourite lines - BBC News

George Cole's Arthur Daley remembered with favourite lines

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George Cole pictured as Arthur Daley with Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, in a scene from the ITV drama MinderImage source, Hulton Archive

Actor George Cole, best known for playing Arthur Daley in TV's Minder, has died aged 90.

He played the Cockney wheeler dealer for 16 years, and some of his "Daley-isms" became a part of the British vernacular - with many a shady character dubbed "a right Arfur Daley".

We remember some of his most memorable lines:

"The world is my lobster"

Daley was known for saying this to his minder, Terry McCann, played by Dennis Waterman.

The Telegraph, external recounts that the remark was coined by Cole himself: "My son heard someone say it in a pub and he told me - I took out my wallet and gave him £25 and bought the line off him. I sat on it for about two years and suddenly we had a boxing episode. I went round to see Terry after the fight and he was covered in blood and moaning. And I said, ad-libbing, #Don't you worry my son, from now on the world is your lobster.'"

Cole went on to call his autobiography, The World Was My Lobster

"Er indoors"

Arthur Daley maintained that his wife - who we never saw on screen - was the bane of his life.

He dolefully referring to his spouse as "'er indoors," a phrase that proved so popular it entered the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, where it is defined as "one's wife or girlfriend, a domineering woman."

In 1983, Waterman and Cole collaborated on the Christmas single What Are We Gonna Get 'Er Indoors? which spent five weeks in the UK charts.

Image source, Hulton Archive

"He's an invertebrate liar"

"He must be on them stair rods" (steroids)

Arthur Daley was the king of Malapropisms, often confusing his words but with his Cockney bluster he often got away with it.

Image source, Hulton Archive

"VAT" (vodka and tonic)

Arthur's favourite tipple, drunk at his old haunt, The Winchester Club.

"Nice little earner"

Arguably Daley's most memorable line, Arthur spent his life chasing "nice little earners", sending up the "get rich quick" culture of Thatcher's 1980s.

Cole joked that Minder was a "nice little earner for him." It also brought him an OBE.

Image source, PA