Happy new year to everyone. Hope you all had a great festive time. But now it’s back to work.
In this episode we ease back in lightly with an interview with Dennis Waterman I came across recently which I had never seen before. It was given in 2000 in order to promote his book Reminder. You will most likely have heard our earlier episodes relating to Dennis; specifically episode 14 which was a life time tribute and episode 22 where we revisited the Reminder book itself and the Minder chapter.
You don’t have to have heard those episodes to enjoy this interview but I do recommend it as they do go well together which is why I am publishing this interview. It is also one of the better and more in depth interviews with Dennis. Most other interviews are either shorter or he was less interested in opening up.
Here, perhaps surprisingly, it seems like he and Vanessa Feltz actually get on ok and this leads to typical honesty along with her interesting responses. It’s a very enjoyable conversation and does connect with aspects of Dennis’ life I have mentioned earlier, particularly his love life. There are some nice references to Minder of course so I am sure you will find this worthwhile.
The interview was originally televised on BBC One London at 14:50 on Wednesday 6th December 2000.
Stay tuned at the end of the show for two tributes to Minder contributors who recently passed.
We also have listener emails and an update on likely future guests, including why Patrick Malahide might never appear on this show.
Agreed, it was certainly one of his better interviews; my only disappointment was that it skirted over, in my opinion, two of Dennis’s career highlights, ‘Up The Junction’ and ‘The Life & Loves of a She Devil’. In the former, Dennis looked super cool dressed in mod gear, riding a Lambretta around swinging London with Suzie Kendall on the back; the film itself is a true Brit-cult classic and features several faces who would guest on Minder like Billy Murray, Adrienne Posta. Alfie Bass and Michael Gothard. ‘She Devil’ was a bizarre, but oddly compelling tv drama based on Fay Weldon’s novel and Dennis is excellent in it.
It’s a real shame that Dennis Waterman was given such a hard time by the media over the years; he was certainly no saint but then nor are many other celebs who’ve done equally bad if not worse things than him yet are cut much more slack by the press; i found Piers Morgan’s hatchet job particularly loathsome. At least Dennis had the last laugh, ending his career on a high with ‘New Tricks’.
PS Thanks for the mention.
Chris Grant.