Dennis Waterman made tough, streetwise men easy company without tidying them up. We value him most beside John Thaw in The Sweeney, where the pleasure of the partnership can make us too forgiving of the detectives.
Fi1m perspective
In The Sweeney (1975), Dennis Waterman's George Carter makes John Thaw's impatient Jack Regan seem like someone worth spending time with after work. The friendship feels established before we arrive, and Waterman never has to make Carter gentle to make him companionable. This is where we value him most: giving a forceful co-star someone credible to work against, without becoming merely agreeable. Carter has enough roughness of his own to keep the partnership convincing.
That ease was useful beyond police drama. Up the Junction (1968) belongs to his move from child acting into adult film roles, before The Sweeney provided his breakthrough. Minder (1979) put him opposite George Cole's Arthur Daley as the ex-boxer Terry McCann. The part gave him room for humour and vulnerability alongside the toughness. Waterman's generosity towards a co-star matters as much as the change in comic emphasis.
With Thaw, that generosity does more than keep a double act running. We warmed to Carter and Regan, then felt uneasy about how readily their loyalty to each other softened our judgement of their violence. Waterman makes us believe these men would choose each other's company without the job, so their conduct becomes harder to judge at a comfortable distance. The programme is sometimes too fond of them, and the actors are persuasive enough to make that a problem.
In New Tricks (2003), alongside Amanda Redman, he played Gerry Standing, a retired detective, bringing his knack for flawed working-class men to a later ensemble. The recurring tough, streetwise roles also limit the surprises. We need not pretend otherwise to appreciate his natural delivery or the support he gives his partners. Start with him and Thaw in The Sweeney, but keep some distance from the detectives' view of the job.
Biography
Dennis Waterman (24 February 1948 – 8 May 2022) was an English actor and singer. Born in Clapham, London, the youngest of nine children, he trained at the Corona stage school and began his career as a child actor in films and on stage, including early appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He became best known for his television roles as Detective Sergeant George Carter in the ITV series The Sweeney (1975–78), Terry McCann in Minder (1979–94) and Gerry Standing in New Tricks (2003–15). Waterman also sang the theme tunes for Minder and New Tricks.
His film credits include Scars of Dracula (1970), Man in the Wilderness (1971) and Fright (1971). He appeared in numerous other television series and films over a career spanning six decades.
