Danny Dyer has confessed to downing booze and taking prescription pills before filming scenes on EastEnders during his nine-year run as Mick Carter on the hit soap
Danny Dyer has confessed that he was “off his nut” while filming for EastEnders, forcing show bosses to take drastic action. The actor made bombshell claims about his time on the BBC soap as he slammed it for being “s*** now.”
Talking at a charity event on Friday Danny – who has suffered from drink and drug abuse in the past – opened up about how he struggled after joining the soap and found himself drunk on set and taking prescription pills. Danny starred on EastEnders for nine years from 2013 – 2022 and during that time went to rehab in 2017 to address his addiction problems.
He described how the production team took action when he was drunk on set to stop him from downing beers while he worked. He said: “When I first arrived the pints were reaI. 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!”
Danny then admitted that he was also taking pills but still managed to act his scenes as loveable landlord of The Queen Vic, Mick Carter. He said: “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 didn’t hold back as he was asked what he thought of the show since he left in traumatic scenes that saw Mick lost at sea saving the lives of ex Linda Carter and evil new wife Janine Butcher at Christmas in 2022. He said: “S*** now though, ain’t it,” adding, “Serves them right.”
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 soaps 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.”
A spokesperson for the show has rebuked Danny’s claims. In statement, they said: “We would never discuss an individual’s private matters however, we do not recognise these claims. EastEnders has extremely robust and well established procedures in place to safeguard the welfare of everyone who works on the show.”
He took the part of Mick Carter at a low point in his career after his Human Traffic and The Football Factory success had waned and with bailiffs at his door, having previously sworn he would never star in the soap.
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.”
Source: Mirror
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