Dennis Waterman
Actor
DENNIS WATERMAN, who has died at 74, pulled off that rarest feat in showbusiness: maintaining his star status from juvenile to more-or-less senior citizen.
From the dishevelled and widowed detective George Carter in The Sweeney to the good-hearted ex-copper Gerry Standing in New Tricks, he made a stock-in-trade of playing streetwise characters with more depth than met the eye.
Yet it was his portrayal of someone on the other side of the law, Terry McCann in Minder, that cemented his place in the public’s affection. The series was a cultural touchstone in the 1980s, with the signature dialogue of co-star George Cole’s Arthur Daley becoming part of everyday language.
However, Waterman was by no means just a TV performer – he was also an accomplished singer, stage actor and film star.
Born in 1948 in Clapham, south-west London, as the youngest of nine children, he was surrounded by arts at a young age thanks to his older sister Joy, who ran her own
We knew we were doing something really quite special Actor Dennis Waterman speaking of his time in The Sweeney
amateur dramatics society and encouraged the rest of the Waterman children to join.
His mother, Rose (née Saunders) also dabbled in music by playing the piano in a way which Waterman described as an “East End knees-up job”.
Dennis joined the Corona Theatre School in 1959 following a suggestion from another of his siblings and soon got work in the industry. It was fast becoming a family business – three of his sisters ended up working in the film industry in Los Angeles.
His film debut came in 1960 in Night Train For Inverness. Also at age 12, he was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon.
He followed with the TV series Just William, and spent a year in the West End playing Winthrop Parroo in The Music Man. He was also the youthful lead in the longforgotten Rediffusion children’s series, The Barnstormers.
At 16, he starred on the West End in Carving A Statue, which marked the beginning of a recording career and won him a three-year engagement at the Royal Court.
During that time, his versatility as an actor was stretched in productions ranging from Edward Bond’s Saved, through to Twelfth Night and the John Arden parable, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance.
Further stints on TV and in the theatre led to his casting in 1967 as Pete in Nell Dunn’s deeply controversial Up The Junction, the story of a workingclass lad from Waterman’s native Clapham, who meets an upper class girl from Chelsea, and begins dating her.
His next role made him an instant household name. Thames Television, seeking a vehicle for its recently-established film division, cast him opposite John Thaw in The Sweeney, a series whose worldwide popularity spawned two big-screen spinoffs.
“We knew we were doing something really quite special and very different from British television,” he recalled of the series, which was shot entirely
on location in London, rather than in a TV studio.
“There was no worry then, which I think was a help. There was no great panic about whether it was going to be a success in the ratings.
“We just knew we had very good scripts, we had great directors, and we thought we weren’t that shabby. John (Thaw) and I were great mates and, it sounds horrible, but it was just a joy to go to work every day.”
When the series came to a natural end, with Thaw’s embittered Jack Regan walking away from the job, Thames found an even more quintessential vehicle for his co-star. Minder ran for 10 years from 1979, before Waterman handed over the title role to Gary Webster. During that time he had notched up a number three single with his rendition of the theme tune.
His passion for singing also led him to release albums for EMI and DJM, and to perform on a concert tour with Sheena Easton and Gerard Kenny.
Echoing the success of The Sweeney, Minder was adapted into a film called Minder On The Orient Express, which was broadcast on Christmas Day in 1985, to some of the highest viewing figures of the decade.
But after 10 years he’d had enough, and signed instead for
Yorkshire Television as a smalltime gangster who discovers a new life up north in the comedydrama, Stay Lucky. It ran for four years, during which time he also returned to the stage, in such shows as Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell in Australia, Ireland and the UK, and My Fair Lady in the West End.
But there was a notable curtain call still to come, with a starring role in New Tricks, the long-running BBC drama, whose ensemble cast also included Alun Armstrong, James Bolam, Amanda Redman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Larry Lamb. Some 107 episodes were produced over 12 seasons.
Afterwards he semi-retired, splitting his time between his homes in Berkshire and Spain. His final film role was in the Australian comedy drama, Never Too Late in 2020.
If his career stayed remarkably on the rails, his private life was sometimes prone to wander. There were convictions for drink-driving and accusations of domestic violence from his third wife, Rula Lenska.
Two earlier marriages also ended in divorce, and he is survived by his fourth wife, Pam Flint, whom he married in 2011, and by two daughters from his second marriage.