Dennis Waterman has quit ‘New Tricks’.
The 66-year-old actor has decided to leave the unsolved crime drama and will appear in just two episodes in series 12.
His agent Derek Webster told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "Dennis has decided to quit ‘New Tricks’. There are another 10 episodes that they are going to start filming in November and he will be in two of them. So he will be filming with them until the New Year, but then that will be it."
Waterman was the last original cast member left on the BBC show and his main motivation for walking away from his role as former Detective Sergeant Gerry Standing is that he "misses the old crew" – which included Alun Armstrong, James Bolam and Amanda Redman. – and is ready for a new challenge.
Webster added: "Dennis misses the old crew, the original line-up. The chemistry between them on the set was remarkable. It’s difficult to get chemistry like that on set and being on the show with new cast members now just isn’t quite the same.
"I’m not saying there has been a big falling out or anything, but the original team worked together for 10 years, so it was always going to be a bit strange when people started leaving … Dennis has now decided it is his time to go."
‘New Tricks’ is currently in its 11th series and has a star-studded cast which includes Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Denis Lawson.
The show first aired in March 2003 as a one-off episode featuring a group of retired police officers solving unresolved crimes and it was so well received the BBC commissioned a full series which has continued to run.
Dennis Waterman quits New Tricks
