Dennis Waterman

Acting

Dennis Waterman

Born — Died

1948-02-24 — 2022-05-08

Place of birth

Clapham, London, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

82 titles

Dennis Waterman was an English actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series such as The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.

Known for

Top of the Pops poster
6.6

The biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.

Top of the Pops

1964

The One Show poster
4.3

A topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.

The One Show

2006

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

BBC Play of the Month

1965

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

New Tricks poster
7.3

New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.

New Tricks

2004

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

Film credits

1990s · 6 titles

No artwork available
NR

When Major Robert Turner is shot through the head outside his army base, MI5 operative Neil's superiors task him to uncover who killed him and why.

Circles of Deceit: Kalon

1996

No artwork available
NR

MI5 operative Neil is asked to monitor one of his former SAS colleagues, Jim Caine, a suspect in a safe deposit box robbery.

Circles of Deceit: Dark Secret

1995

No artwork available
NR

MI5 operative Neil is asked to meet with retired KGB officer Alexander Petrov, who has approached MI5 claiming that he has highly classified information that he wishes to sell to pay for a triple heart bypass.

Circles of Deceit: Sleeping Dogs

1996

No artwork available
7.8

John is a special forces operative who retires after his family is killed in a terrorist bombing, but his former bosses have other plans. He is re-activated for duty and is given orders to infiltrate the organization responsible for his family's murder.

Circles of Deceit

1993

Cold Justice poster
9.0

When a washed-up boxer invites a British priest to minister in his South Chicago neighborhood, he never suspects that the priest is not who he says he is.

Cold Justice

1992

Vol-au-vent poster
5.5

It's Samantha's big wedding day but her mother is making it miserable for her with a typical maternal conflict of interests. Her mother orders her the wrong flowers, the wrong type of make-up and wants to video the garden instead of the girls getting dressed. To top it off three thieves have crashed the party pretending to be video-assistants, the make-up artist gets drunk and the chauffeur has choked on a biscuit and died.

Vol-au-vent

1996

1970s · 18 titles

Man in the Wilderness poster
6.3

In the early 1800s, a group of fur trappers and Indian traders are returning with their goods to civilization and are making a desperate attempt to beat the oncoming winter. When guide Zachary Bass is injured in a bear attack, they decide he's a goner and leave him behind to die. When he recovers instead, he swears revenge on them and tracks them and their paranoiac expedition leader down.

Man in the Wilderness

1971

Scars of Dracula poster
5.9

The Prince of Darkness casts his undead shadow once more over the cursed village of Kleinenberg when his ashes are splashed with bat's blood and Dracula is resurrected. And two innocent victims search for a missing loved one... loved to death by Dracula's mistress. But after they discover his blood-drained corpse in Dracula's castle necropolis, the Vampire Lord's lustful vengeance begins.

Scars of Dracula

1970

Fright poster
6.0

Young babysitter Amanda arrives at the Lloyd residence to spend the evening looking after their young son. Soon after the Lloyds leave, a series of frightening occurrences in the gloomy old house have Amanda's nerves on edge. The real terror begins, however, when the child's biological father appears after recently escaping from a nearby mental institution.

Fright

1971

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland poster
6.3

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1972

My Lover, My Son poster
4.2

A woman deals with an unhappy marriage, the death of her lover, and her son's involvement in a crime.

My Lover, My Son

1970

Sweeney 2 poster
6.2

Second theatrical spin-off from the popular 1970's police series. Regan and Carter head a Flying Squad investigation into a series of bank raids by a team of well-armed villains who are flying in from the continent.

Sweeney 2

1978

Sweeney! poster
6.7

When one of Regan's snouts complains that his girlfriend's recent suicide was murder, the flying squad detective feels compelled to investigate. He uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the government, and finds himself fitted up, suspended and under the scrutiny of Special Branch.

Sweeney!

1977

Walt, King of the Dumper poster
NR

Walt finds the voluptuous Jasmine a more exciting proposition than digging a trench...

Walt, King of the Dumper

1971

The Belstone Fox poster
7.5

Tag is a clever fox able to elude the dogs as well as the British hunters who pursue him. In his early years, Tag befriends a hound named Merlin, and their bond remains strong, neither willing to attack the other. Although the relentless hunt for Tag leads to tragedy, the fox remains steadfast in his determination to stay alive and live free in the English countryside.

The Belstone Fox

1973

Follow the Yellow Brick Road poster
NR

Jack Black is a disturbed commercial actor who believes himself to be trapped in a television play, followed around by an invisible camera.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

1972

No artwork available
NR

A night worker at a mental institution finds his job beginning to change.

Night Duty

1972

Give Us a Kiss, Christabel poster
NR

Casual labour appeals to Wilfred, and the street market is a friendly home until he meets the beautiful Christabel. Her haughty dismissal drives him to amazing feats. He'll do anything for a kiss.

Give Us a Kiss, Christabel

1977

The Eyes Have It poster
7.3

A group of terrorists posing as plumbers set up base at a school for the blind. The students remain blissfully unaware while the terrorists plan the assassination of a politician who will soon be passing the school on a parade route. Only one student, Sally, suspects that the men upstairs may be dangerous...

The Eyes Have It

1973

Regan poster
8.7

Rough, tough and politically incorrect in the way that only the best 70's dramas can be, Regan was a pilot film for The Sweeney - one of the major television successes of the last fifty years. Featuring John Thaw as the irascible Detective Inspector Regan and Dennis Waterman as his loyal 'oppo' Detective Sergeant Carter, Regan was an immediate critical and ratings hit, resulting in four series of The Sweeney and two successful feature films. Jack Regan is a good copper, but his tough, intuitive style is becoming unfashionable in a Scotland Yard seeking a new image. When a policeman is mysteriously murdered, Regan breaks all the rules to find the killer - but he finds there are men in the Flying Squad prepared to break him.

Regan

1974

Joe's Ark poster
8.0

The religious beliefs of pet shop owner Joe (Freddie Jones) are shaken by the terminal illness of his daughter Lucy (Angharad Rees). For Potter, this play "makes more than a wry nod at possibilities which can comprehend pain, or disgust, or the implacable presence of death itself."

Joe's Ark

1974

No artwork available
NR

Battalion Commander of the Third Wiltshire Light Infantry is Colonel Keyser. On recent evidence, he is either a psychopathic personality or something very close to it. He could turn out to be the best battalion commander in the division. As the Allies prepare for invasion in 1944, will his reputed psychopathic personality be a good or bad thing, when leading his men into D-Day?

The Breaking of Colonel Keyser

1972

The House on the Hill poster
NR

A court had to decide what to do about Ellen, an elderly lady living on her own in a deteriorating rented property.

The House on the Hill

1975

No artwork available
NR

A social comedy about the relationship between two couples with different political beliefs. Edward and Jane Noble are right wing, but with some liberal leanings, whereas Sean and Marcia are more radical and left wing.

The Common

1973

1960s · 10 titles

Crooks Anonymous poster
6.1

A former burglar trying to go straight joins a rehabilitation scheme using much the same methods as AA. Through the process, he takes work as a department store Santa, where the endless parade of goods and money, not to mention the pretty young shop hands have him like a moth to a flame in no time flat.

Crooks Anonymous

1962

The Smashing Bird I Used to Know poster
4.9

A traumatized and troubled teenager is sent to an all-girls detention home where she strikes up an unlikely friendship with a fellow inmate.

The Smashing Bird I Used to Know

1969

The Pirates of Blood River poster
6.2

A group of ruthless pirates attack a 17th Century Huguenot settlement on the Isle of Devon in search of treasure and will stop at nothing to obtain it.

The Pirates of Blood River

1962

Up the Junction poster
6.2

A young woman trades her upper-class existence for a new life in an economically depressed suburb of London.

Up the Junction

1968

Night Train for Inverness poster
6.2

A 7-year old boy with diabetes is kidnapped by his estranged ex-con father, who doesn't know about his son's medical condition and that he will need insulin injections. Meanwhile the police search for the missing boy.

Night Train for Inverness

1960

I Can't... I Can't... poster
8.0

The tale of a young Irish Catholic bride who is devastated when her pregnant mother miscarries and dies on her wedding day. The young woman, one of seven children, blames her father’s lust for the death. When her own wedding night arrives she is terrified and refuses to consummate the marriage with her husband. Her parish priest forbids her to accept her doctor’s suggestion that she should use contraception and she is driven to desperate measures.

I Can't... I Can't...

1969

Snowball poster
7.4

A boy tells his parents that a bus conductor turned him off the bus home for not having a ticket. The story gets out of control and the conductor, a war veteran with memory problems, is harassed until events take a tragic turn.

Snowball

1960

A Promise of Bed poster
2.8

Three part comedy. A fading sex symbol attempts to win the lead in a movie by seducing the son of a film producer. A depressed middle aged loner whose suicide attempt is interrupted by the arrival of a hippy girl.An avid sex film fan and taxi driver, crashes his cab after being distracted by the leggy charms of his latest passenger.

A Promise of Bed

1969

Ali and the Camel poster
NR

Eight part serial. When Ali's father, a diver, has to go to hospital, Ali is offered money by a Professor involved in a jewel robbery. A camel, who talks only to Ali, persuades Ali to buy him and then helps him to discover where the jewels are hidden.

Ali and the Camel

1960

Go Kart Go poster
7.7

Jimpy leads a gang of kids as they attempt to beat another gang, no matter how underhanded their tactics are.

Go Kart Go

1964

Series credits

Top of the Pops poster
6.6

The biggest stars, the most iconic performances, the most outrageous outfits – it’s Britain’s number one pop show.

Top of the Pops

1964

The One Show poster
4.3

A topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One.

The One Show

2006

BBC Play of the Month poster
5.2

A BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983.

BBC Play of the Month

1965

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

New Tricks poster
7.3

New Tricks is a British comedy-drama that follows the work of the fictional Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad of the Metropolitan Police Service. Originally led by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to reinvestigate unsolved crimes.

New Tricks

2004

Omnibus poster
7.2

Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.

Omnibus

1967

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

Dalziel and Pascoe poster
6.4

In the fictional Yorkshire town of Wetherton, the unlikely duo of politically incorrect elephant-in-a-China-shop-copper DS Andrew Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell) and his more sensitive and university educated sidekick DS, later DI, Peter Pascoe is always on hand to solve the classic murder mystery, while maintaining down-to-Earth wit and humour.

Dalziel and Pascoe

1996

The Sweeney poster
8.1

Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter.

The Sweeney

1975

ITV Saturday Night Theatre poster
7.0

Anthology series of dramatic works.

ITV Saturday Night Theatre

1969

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross poster
6.1

Jonathan Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band.

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

2001

Thriller poster
7.0

Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits.

Thriller

1973

New Scotland Yard poster
6.3

New Scotland Yard is a police drama series produced by London Weekend Television for ITV from 1972 and 1974. It features the activities of two officers from the Criminal Investigations Department in the Metropolitan Police force headquarters at New Scotland Yard, as they dealt with the assorted villains of the day.

New Scotland Yard

1972

No artwork available
NR

Drama 61-67 is anthology drama series which took a different title, based on year of transmission, each year. It alternated with Armchair Theatre from ABC in the Sunday evening slot. The series was described at the time as epitomising ATV drama.

Drama 61-67

1961

Boon poster
5.8

Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon.

Boon

1986

Centre Play poster
7.0

Anthology series of half hour plays produced in BBC's Television Centre's studios.

Centre Play

1973

Murder in Mind poster
8.3

A series of self-contained stories, each recounting a murder scene as seen from the chilling viewpoint of the killer. Explore the inner workings of a criminal's brain, revealing humanity at its darkest.

Murder in Mind

2001

The World of Hammer poster
6.8

The World of Hammer is a thirteen-part British documentary series created and written by Robert and Ashley Sidaway for Channel 4. Initially broadcast from 12 August to 4 November 1994, the series is narrated by English actor and frequent Hammer collaborator Oliver Reed.

The World of Hammer

1994

Churchill's People poster
5.0

Churchill's People is a British anthology series based on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Winston Churchill's four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies. 26 episodes were produced by the BBC and initially broadcast from 30 December 1974 to 23 June 1975.

Churchill's People

1974

Journey to the Unknown poster
7.0

A British television anthology series with a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural theme, similar to the American television series The Twilight Zone, and deals with normal people whose everyday situations somehow become extraordinary.

Journey to the Unknown

1968

Paul Temple poster
7.2

Paul Temple is a British-German television series . It features Francis Matthews as Paul Temple, the fictional detective created by Francis Durbridge, who solves crimes with the assistance of his wife Steve. Paul Temple used overseas locations in France, Malta, Germany and elsewhere.

Paul Temple

1969

Man About the House poster
7.1

Man About the House is a British sitcom created and written by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer, and starring Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, Richard O'Sullivan, Brian Murphy, and Yootha Joyce. Six series were broadcast on ITV from 15 August 1973 to 7 April 1976. It was considered daring at the time because it featured a man sharing a London flat with two single women. Single roommates Chrissy and Jo search for a third tenant to help pay the rent, they intend on finding another female. But then they encounter Robin Tripp... who's looking for a place to stay. Two spin-offs were produced: George and Mildred (1976–79) and Robin's Nest (1977–81). A film adaptation was released in 1974 and, in 1977, the series was remade for American audiences as Three's Company.

Man About the House

1973

Colditz poster
7.7

Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974. The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to escape captivity, as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors.

Colditz

1972

Half Hour Story poster
7.5

18 short plays written especially for TV, an opportunity for up-and-coming directors such as floor manager Alan Clarke, who ended up doing 10 of the episodes. Some top ranking performers were attracted to the series.

Half Hour Story

1967

Canterbury Tales poster
6.4

Six single dramas adapted from six of Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales, transferred to a modern, 21st century setting, but still set along the traditional Pilgrims' route to Canterbury.

Canterbury Tales

2003

Ooh La La! poster
10.0

Series based on the short French farces written by Georges Feydeau, Eugène Labiche, Marc Michel and Sacha Guitry. All of them include mistaken identities and impeccable timing.

Ooh La La!

1968

No artwork available
7.0

A series of anthologies highlighting the initial projects of directors venturing into television drama filmmaking.

Premiere

1977

The Knock poster
6.5

The Knock is a British television drama series, created by Anita Bronson and broadcast on ITV from 1994 to 2000, which portrayed the activities of customs officers from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. The series derived its name from the distinctive 'knock knock knock' command used over the radio to synchronise a raid.

The Knock

1994

Stay Lucky poster
7.0

Drama about a small-time gangster Thomas Gynn (Dennis Waterman) from London who discovers a new life up north in Yorkshire. Helping widowed, self-sufficient businesswoman Sally Hardcastle (Jan Francis) when her car breaks down on the motorway, Thomas reluctantly accepts an offer of a lift to Leeds. Over the coming months, the two become involved in a series of misadventures that soon find them being drawn closer together.

Stay Lucky

1989

Fair Exchange poster
8.0

Fair Exchange is an American television comedy that ran from 1962 to 1963 on CBS. It stars Eddie Foy, Jr. and Audrey Christie.

Fair Exchange

1962

Class Act poster
NR

Class Act is a British comedy-drama series produced by Verity Lambert, and starring Joanna Lumley, Nadine Garner, and John Bowe. The series ran for two seasons of seven episodes each. Broadcast on ITV1, the first premiered on 7 April 1994, until 19 May. The second ran from 7 September to 19 October 1995. Desperate times call for desperate measures when aristocratic Kate Swift's rich husband disappears and she is forced to give up her champagne lifestyle.

Class Act

1994

The First Lady poster
10.0

The First Lady is a British television drama produced for BBC One, starring Thora Hird as crusading local councillor Sarah Danby, set around the fictional Lancashire borough of Furness. Capitalising on the popularity of its lead actress, The First Lady was a down-to-earth series exploring the inner workings of local government.

The First Lady

1968

No artwork available
NR

Armchair 30 is an anthology drama series of short plays produced by Thames Television and broadcast in 1973. The series was a spin-off from Armchair Theatre.

Armchair 30

1973

The Sextet poster
10.0

An anthology series of BBC television dramas on sexual themes. The same cast are featured in each production.

The Sextet

1972

The Sextet poster
10.0

An anthology series of BBC television dramas on sexual themes. The same cast are featured in each production.

The Sextet

1972

The Sextet poster
10.0

An anthology series of BBC television dramas on sexual themes. The same cast are featured in each production.

The Sextet

1972

The Sextet poster
10.0

An anthology series of BBC television dramas on sexual themes. The same cast are featured in each production.

The Sextet

1972

The Sextet poster
10.0

An anthology series of BBC television dramas on sexual themes. The same cast are featured in each production.

The Sextet

1972