Farewell to an acting legend – Dennis Waterman was one of our own

He was one of our own. The boy from a working-class family who made good.

Born in Clapham, the youngest of nine children, Dennis Waterman started life in Elms Road on Clapham Common South side, but would go on to become synonymous with London life in the 1970s and 1980s.

For people of a certain age, the actor will forever be the long-suffering DS George Carter, alongside John Thaw’s DI Jack Regan in The Sweeney – the hard-hitting series which brought gritty depictions of the criminal underworld to our screens.

Those of slightly younger middle age will think back fondly to Waterman’s Terry McCann creation – the former prisoner turned bodyguard working for George Cole’s wide boy, dodgy dealer Arthur Daley in Minder.

Those likeable, streetwise characters are a fine legacy to leave for Waterman, who died on Sunday, aged 74.

He was always born to act. By the age of 16, he had performed in Shakespearean plays at Stratford-upon-Avon, appeared in the West End in a play called Music Men and done some TV work when he starred as William in an adaptation of the Just William books. There was even a Hollywood sitcom.

And then there were appearances in the famous Prisoner of War drama Colditz, when he played a young Gestapo officer.

But it was those car-chases, fist-fights and wisecracking, rule-breaking approaches to policing which captured our fascination.

He branched out into music and wrote the signature tune to Minder – I could be so good for you – which was a UK top three hit in 1980.

From 2003-14, he played in the long-running TV series New Tricks, as old-school Cockney detective Gerry Standing. Waterman again sang the theme tune.

Such was his status as a hard-working, ubiquitous character on our screens, that his persona was cheerfully sent up in Little Britain sketches featuring David Williams and Matt Lucas.

In it, Waterman is lampooned for always insisting he wants to “write the theme tune and sing the theme tune.”

“I’ve been unbelievably lucky that I keep falling into really good work,” Waterman once said.

He came from a modest background, born to Rose. His dad Harry was an upholsterer and railway ticket collector. He was also an amateur boxer who encouraged his sons to don the gloves.

The family moved to a Putney housing estate and, at the age of nine, he made his stage debut at Brixton town hall – playing a snake-wrestling moth in Love’s Labour Lost.

He joined the Corona Academy in Hammersmith after failing his 11-plus – a performing arts establishment where he learnt stage craft.

Waterman is survived by fourth wife Pam Flint, whom he married in 2011 and by two daughters from his second marriage, Hannah and Julia.

Pictured top: Dennis Waterman and John Thaw giving a preview of The Sweeney in 1974 (Picture: PA)