Turtle's Progress (1979–1980)

It's seedy London setting and sharp humour prefiguring Minder, which launched just six months later, this light-hearted ATV drama series centred on the exploits of the eponymous small-time crook first encountered in the 1975 thriller The Hanged Man. The series finds Turtle and his accomplice, retired hooligan Razor Eddie, in accidental possession of a van containing eighty safe deposit boxes – the proceeds of a major bank raid. From top-secret documents to mysterious chemical formulae, the highly valuable contents are soon being sought by their former owners, with a new adventure unfolding as each box is opened. The lovable petty thieves may have a new source of income, but they also find themselves dodging the law, in the form of the relentless but continually thwarted Superintendent Rafferty, their fellow lawbreakers, and some altogether more sinister characters.