EXCLUSIVE: Actor Danny Dyer is opening up about his time on much loved Soap, Eastenders, after playing Mick Carter for nine years from 2013 to then departing in 2022
Danny Dyer has slammed EastEnders in a foul-mouthed tirade, saying the soap is now “s***”. Speaking at a charity event on Friday night, Danny gave a no holds barred account of his time on the show, recalling how he’d often be drunk on set, and take Valium and diazepam before scenes.
He also told how stars had the “hump” when he joined as pub landlord Mick Carter in 2013 and made things “tricky”. Asked what he thought of the BBC show since he left, he said: “S*** now though, ain’t it,” he shrugged. “Serves them right.”
He took the part at a low point in his career after his Human Traffic and The Football Factory success had waned and with bailiffs at his door.
Dad-of-three Danny, 47, claims he didn’t get a warm welcome on Albert Square. “I will be honest, it is a very clicky place to work,” he said. “We took the pub over from Jessie Wallace and Shane Ritchie. Kat and Alfie had an 11 year run and then they want to get rid of them.
“So they brought us in and they had the hump. That was getting tricky. I was like ‘What’s the matter with these people, I’ve not made this call’. So there was a lot of people blanking us when we turned up.”
Whilst he looks back fondly on the first three years of working on the show, he said it went downhill from there. “I really cherish those first three years,: he recalled, “Then a new producer came in and sacked every f***er. It is a very ruthless job. I learned a lot. Nine years was enough for me.”
Talking at the Paul Strank Charitable Trust event in Wimbledon, south London – where he donated thousands of pounds of his own money – Danny opened up about the emotional rollercoaster and how he struggled with the lack of downtime from draining scenes, saying there wasn’t enough “duty of care”.
“In a film you properly cry and go to a dark place,’ he said. “You have time to recover. But on soap, you ain’t. On a soap, it f**** a lot of people’s heads up. I tell you most people in soap are off their nut. You meet them on the street and they’re f***ing lunatics, I’m telling you.
“If someone dies in your family, they won’t even let you go to a f***ing funeral because it is such a machine there wasn’t much duty of care there.”
Danny, who has suffered from drink and drug abuse in the past – going to rehab in 2017 – said he would down pints on set, before bosses stepped in.
“When I first arrived the pints were reaI,” he recalled. “I was slipping and sliding around having a few lagers and they found out, so they started to put TCP in the f***ing beer!
“I was off my nut for a lot of that job, I’ve got to say. I was on a lot of valium and diazepam, that is why. Still got that f***ing job done somehow.”
Danny has seen a career resurgence since EastEnders gave him a chance, landing his first ever BAFTA nomination for his role in Sky comedy Mr Bigstuff.
He’s also received rave reviews playing Freddie Jones in the television adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel Rivals for Disney. He concedes he’s got EastEnders to thank for it.
“I was a snobby f***er going I will never go in EastEnders looking down my nose at it,” he said. “It saved my f***ing career. I’d be f***ed without it.”
Describing Rivals as his most lucrative job so far in his career, he revealed how daughter Dani’s appearance on Love Island gave him an expected boost in his pay packet.
“My wages tripled when my daughter won Love Island,” he told. “Honestly, I was the father of the f***ing year and I’d done f*** all. I thought, what a touch!”
Currently filming the second series of racy Rivals, Danny has promised to flash more flesh for his return. “I do think I will get my c*** out in the second series!” he teased.
Enjoying his current purple patch, Danny says he’s always had faith in his ability despite various knockbacks in his career. “I’ve always believed I had something about me and that I can act.
“It is just a matter of never giving up, really. Especially in our world where you get used to a lot of rejection. I’ve never faded into the shadows and always thought ‘No, f**k it, I want to do something, I want to get out the council estate and earn a few quid’.”
Looking ahead to his next role, Danny says he wants to challenge himself and do something “completely left field”
“I want to play a gay aristocrat,” he said.
