Life on the Edge: The biography of Split Waterman

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Squire Francis Waterman (27 July 1923 – 8 October 2019), [1] better known as Split Waterman, was an English speedway rider who twice finished second in the Speedway World Championship final. [2] [3] Waterman took up speedway while serving in the British Army in Italy and went on to become one of the top riders of the post-war era. He made the headlines again in the late 1960s when he was convicted of gold smuggling and firearms offences. Cole believed that Minder was created as a vehicle for Waterman. That didn’t stop the older actor from stealing the show, and he continued to play ‘Arfur’ for five years after Waterman quit in 1989.

Split Says 'I Quit' ". The Daily Mirror. 2 July 1957 . Retrieved 16 October 2019– via British Newspaper Archive. Squire Francis Waterman (27 July 1923 – 8 October 2019), better known as Split Waterman, was an English speedway rider who twice finished second in the Speedway World Championship final. Waterman took up speedway while serving in the British Army in Italy and went on to become one of the top riders of the post-war era. He made the headlines again in the late 1960s when he was convicted of gold smuggling and firearms offences. BiographyFrom the very start, one SAW hit led to another. The Dean and Divine records caught the ear of Dead Or Alive’s Pete Burns, and despite Epic’s misgivings (“music for queers” the label reportedly told him), SAW were enlisted to work on Youthquake. The problem with strong, intelligent women is that they can argue well. And if there is a time when you can’t get a word in... I lashed out. Talent, timing and graft had conspired to help them achieve momentous success, dominating the British music industry by 1989. Overnight, everything started to work against them – including each other. Howells attributes their sudden decline precisely to this internal tension; “They stopped talking to one another,” he says. The synergy was gone. Harding remembers Rutherford telling a room of DJs at the DMC convention that “We don’t need you any more, we’ve got Kylie”, while SAW themselves got a barrage of abuse from the dance fraternity while receiving an award at the Royal Albert Hall. Waterman rode in thirty Test matches for England and captained the team in the 1953 series against Australia. [22] Later life [ edit ]

In the Second World War his job was classed as a reserved occupation, but eventually he joined the Royal Fusiliers, serving in North Africa and Italy, where shrapnel injuries led to his transfer to the REME and he was posted to a workshop in Pozzuoli, near Naples. In 2002 Waterman returned to Britain and was a guest at the 45th annual dinner dance of the Veteran Speedway Riders’ Association at the Coventry Hilton. Following the news of his death, fellow TV personalities shared tributes to the actor, praising him for his career that began when he was a child and spanned six decades Producer Jonathan Sothcott tweeted: 'Dennis Waterman was one of our biggest TV stars throughout the 70s and 80s, an everyman figure who felt like one of us. A naturalistic, nuanced actor. He later reflected fondly on his time in the show, stating in his Life And Times documentary: 'We knew we were doing something really quite special and very different from British television.There were, however, some warning signs. The Hitman And Her, Waterman’s late-night trawl through provincial clubland, hit the small screen and hinted at a deepening rift within SAW (“I turned it off after 15 minutes, I was embarrassed,” says Aitken). UK faces being the second slowest growing economy in the G7 next year but will dodge recession, OECD says When they broke up in 1997, Waterman threatened reporters that he might ‘get violent’ if pressed on the rumours. Though his singing style always owed more to pub karaoke than the West End stage, the number from Minder (which he co-wrote) gave him a No 3 hit with I Could Be So Good For You in 1980.