George Cole funeral: Minder theme played at service for Arthur Daley actor

Jonathan Brady/PA
Ramzy Alwakeel13 August 2015
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

The classic 1970s Minder theme tune was today played at the funeral of its star actor George Cole.

Cole died last week aged 90. He is best remembered for playing Arthur Daley, a small-time wheeler dealer whose bodyguard or "minder" Terry McCann gave the show its name.

Dennis Waterman, who played McCann, gave the eulogy at Cole's Reading Crematorium funeral.

He said before the service: "I'm so grateful to have been a friend of this wonderful man. We worked together for many years and my boast is that we laughed all day every day.

"He was an amazing man, a wonderful actor and besotted with his family."

Cole died in hospital with his family at his side after a short illness.

Speaking before the service, Cole's long-term friend Derek Webster said the father-of-four had been a "sweetheart".

Everyone that worked with George absolutely fell in love with him," he said. "There was absolutely nothing about him that you could dislike.

"If you saw him on set you would see him sitting doing the Times crossword very quietly."

Co-star: Dennis Waterman arrives at the funeral
Jonathan Brady/PA

Cole, born in Tooting, began his acting career in 1941 at the age of 15. He starred in scores of films, including the not-yet-released Road Rage, but his most famous role remains Daley - who he portrayed in 10 series between 1979 and 1994.

Additional reporting by Press Association

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in