"New Tricks" Co-Star Passes Away

Dennis Waterman was born on Feb 24, 1948, in Clapham, London. He passed away on May 8, 2022, in Spain, where he spent his retirement years. Although he acted for six decades, he is probably best known to Americans as rehired detective Gerry Standing in the British police procedural, New Tricks, which ran from 2003 until 2015.

The series centered around three retired Metropolitan Police detectives who were rehired to solve cold cases. They did so quite successfully, too! Of the three detectives – Jack Halford (James Brolin), Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong), and Gerry Standing – he was the free-spirited wise guy. He had several former wives, who all liked each other and enjoyed having dinner together with him. He was something of a gourmet chef in his own nicely appointed kitchen. He imbibed freely.

He drove a 1974 Triumph Stag in racing green. Perhaps (we like to think) in homage to Hawaii Five-0, his license plate ended with “50IR.” We might not think it to be more than coincidence, except that the cameras showed the license plate quite often, as though we were supposed to deduce something from it. Could it infer “Five-0, I Am”? We’ll never know.

Although Mr. Waterman left the series after the second episode of the final season, he appeared in 99 episodes, altogether. He also sang the theme song for the series, entitled “That’s All Right.” The character Gerry Standing’s signature line was “last man standing,” a play on his surname. The last two episodes in which he appeared bore that name.

Rest in peace, Mr. Waterman. We thoroughly enjoyed your performances.

See pictures of Dennis Waterman: Dennis Waterman - Wikipedia

See a picture of Gerry Standing’s Triumph Stag: a6b44e7e145e5731934924bfb12639c775ac443f.jpg (1200×900) (azureedge.net)