He was known for the range of roles he played, including drama (Up the Junction), horror (Scars of Dracula), adventure (Colditz), comedy (Fair Exchange), comedy-drama (Minder), musical (Windy City) and sport (The World Cup: A Captain's Tale).

The family, which included siblings Ken, Peter, a welterweight boxing champion,[5] Stella, Norma, and Myrna, lived at 2 Elms Road, Clapham Common South Side.

[5] Two older sisters, Joy and Vera, had already left home by the time Dennis was born, and another brother, Allen, had died as a young child.

Waterman was also in the original cast of Saved, the play written by Edward Bond, and first produced at the Royal Court Theatre in November 1965.

He was a member of the company of actors who featured in The Sextet (1972), a BBC 2 series which included the Dennis Potter drama Follow the Yellow Brick Road,[20] and Waterman later appeared in the same dramatist's Joe's Ark (Play for Today, 1974).

[21] Also in 1974, Waterman appeared in episode 4 of the second series of the comedy programme Man About the House entitled "Did You Ever Meet Rommel", in which he played a friend of Robin, a German student by the name of Franz Wasserman.

[22] Waterman guest starred in a 1974 Special Branch episode entitled "Stand and Deliver" He became a household name as DS George Carter in The Sweeney during the 1970s.

[31] It was the true story of West Auckland Town F.C., a part-time side who won the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, sometimes described as the 'First World Cup', in 1909 and 1911.

[34] Scenes were shot in County Durham pit villages and in Ashington, Northumberland, where goalposts and a grandstand were erected in a public park with a colliery headframe in the background.

The cast included Amanda Redman, with whom Waterman had an eighteen-month affair during the run of the musical and with whom he later went on to star in the TV series New Tricks.

[42] In 1988, Waterman voiced Vernon's sidekick Toaster in the children's animated series Tube Mice, which also starred George Cole.

[43] After leaving Minder, Waterman appeared as Thomas Gynn in the comedy drama Stay Lucky (1989–93),[44] with Jan Francis and Emma Wray; self made millionaire Tony Carpenter in the sitcom On the Up (1990–92)[45] and John Neil in the mini series Circles of Deceit (1995–96).

[48][49] Waterman appeared on stage in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell by Keith Waterhouse[50] and as Alfred P. Doolittle in the 2001 London revival of My Fair Lady.

[71] Waterman was caricatured by David Walliams in the radio and TV comedy series Little Britain, in sketches where he visits his agent, Jeremy Rent (played by Matt Lucas) looking for parts.

[72] This running joke is based on Waterman having sung the theme tunes for at least four of the programmes in which he starred, namely for Minder, Stay Lucky,[73] On the Up and New Tricks.

In November 2006, Waterman made a guest appearance in Comic Relief Does Little Britain Live, alongside the comedy character version of himself.