John Glynn Edwards (2 February 1931 – 23 May 2018) was a British television and cinema character actor, who came to national prominence for his portrayal of the barman Dave Harris in the 1970s–1990s British television comedy-drama Minder. Early life Edwards was born in Penang, Peninsular Malaysia, on 2 February 1931. His father, who spent little time with his son, was a rubber planter at the time of his birth and died in 1946. His mother died shortly after his birth and he was raised first by his grandparents in Southsea, Hampshire, and then by his father and stepmother, who ran a pub in Salisbury, Wiltshire. He received his early formal education at Clayesmore School in Dorset. In his childhood he read Arthur Ransome's adventure novel Swallows and Amazons, which gave him a life-long passion for river-boating, which began with sailing expeditions along the River Avon in his tenth year. As a teenager he was an amateur actor, before going to Trinidad where he worked first as a sugar farmer, but having decided that his father's life of plantation farming wasn't for him, he found employment as assistant stage manager and compere of calypso shows for tourists. After returning to England he spent a year at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London, and was then hired as a stage manager at the King's Theatre in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Career Edwards trained professionally as an actor with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshopat the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, appearing in its productions of The Good Soldier Švejk and two plays by Brendan Behan, The Quare Fellow and The Hostage, all of which transferred from the Theatre Royal Stratford East to the West End. He also appeared in that company's production of Lionel Bart's musical version of Frank Norman's play Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, opposite Miriam Karlin and Barbara Windsor. He had been spotted by Littlewood herself, who had been in the audience at one of the performances of a successful play he had produced entitled The Call of the Flesh, which featured Yootha Joyce in an early role. In 1964 he appeared in the role of Corporal William Allen, V.C. in Cy Endfield's cinema film Zulu, having opted for the part over another offer of a role in Joan Littlewood's stage show Oh! What a Lovely War. He later said: "I earned 10 times as much money from