A 'serious' romantic and a charmer.
Dennis Waterman, South Londoner, star of "Minder" and other TV theatre, pantomime and film, composer of "I Could Be So Good For You", has written a satisfyingly comprehensive account of his adult life, with the help of friends and relatives thrown in. Although we do get a good look at his lowly beginnings, it is as an actor that we see the charm of Dennis, and his humour. His breezy Cockney voice entertains and warms, and it would be hard not to succumb to that quality he has of being a good best-friend, a loving father and 'Dennis The Lad'. Hardly husband material, which he candidly acknowledges, he blithely dances in and out of love affairs and marriages and comes out rather battered but still afloat and trying to make a good life in his last relationship with Pam Flint. He is obviously a 'serious' romantic ('serious' apparently meaning 'very' or 'heavy' to the Brits.) which in part is the constant search for love and attention. His marriage to Rula Lenska, Polish countess, fed the tabloids and entertained the British for a number of years until it foundered in a sea of bitterness and recrimination, first on Rula's side when she gave a scathing interview to the press, and then on Dennis' when he recounted his side in this book.
Often funny, and never dull, this autobiography is well worth reading. It is an account of a football-mad, hard-drinking, extremely lovable charmer whom you could never despise, who is a generous friend and a reluctant fighter. His life with Rula Lenska seems to have been one of surrendered power and of pain, and the reader will be absorbed in this book of a man who made disastrous choices but who still believes in love.
