Dennis Waterman is up to his old tricks in New Tricks
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New Tricks star Dennis Waterman has revealed show bosses keep chase scenes to a minimum - because viewers would struggle to believe the veteran actors could keep up with criminals.
The 65-year-old star - who has been a familiar face on TV for four decades - will shortly be seen in a new run of the programme 10 years after it was first screened.
But in an interview with Radio Times, he suggested it would be too much of a leap to imagine they could keep pace with a younger generation.
He said: "We're still fit enough as long as they don't put in too many chase scenes. I do a chase as best I can, but I can't be seen catching them. I'm 60 odd - I couldn't catch anyone who was 40, let alone 20."
The show was initially due to be merely a one-off pilot but expanded to a series and became popular with viewers. But Waterman claimed the BBC did not warm to the idea initially, saying: "The BBC wasn't very keen when we started out because the programme had old people in it."
The former star of Minder and The Sweeney is the only member of the original New Tricks cast who will make it through the next series with Amanda Redman soon to bow out, while Alun Armstrong and James Bolam have already left. But he said newcomers Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Tamzin Outhwaite would help the show move into a new era.
"Obviously it's very sad that I'm the last one left of the original New Tricks lineup, because we were such a team," Waterman said in the new edition of Radio Times, published today.
"But I think we can re-evolve with the new additions. We all knew Denis Lawson would be fine because we knew him socially. And my wife kept on about how fantastic Nicholas Lyndhurst had been playing Uriah Heep in David Copperfield back in the 90s, but I'd only seen him in lightweight roles.
"He's come up with the goods, though - this guy who's really steely and off the wall. Tamzin Outhwaite has only done two episodes, but she's going to be great."
PA
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