Leave it out, guv'
Dennis Waterman, star of The Sweeney; Minder; and New Tricks, as well as terrible British sitcoms, has died at the age of 74. He was always strong a screen presence, and I enjoyed watching his performances.
When I was a lad, my brother had a French pen pal who came to stay on a language exchange. This was around the time of the earliest Minder series. He couldn't pronounce Waterman's surname properly, coming out instead with what a man
. From then on, we knew him as Dennis What-a-man.
And he was the people's singer of dodgy TV theme songs.