Danny Dyer has hit out to EastEnders in a scathing tirade, branding the BBC soap “s**t”. Speaking at charity event on Friday night (May 9), the 47-year-old gave a brutally honest account of his time on the long-running soap, revealing that he would often be drunk on set, or take Vallium and Diazepam before shooting scenes.
He also revealed how several stars had the “hump” when he joined the show as pub landlord Mick Carter back in 2013 which made things “tricky”. When the Rivals star was asked what he thought about the programme since he left Albert Square in 2022, he said: “S**t now though, ain’t it. Serves them right.” The dad-of-three added that he hit a low point in his career after his Human Traffic and The Football Factory success had waned and with brought bailiffs to his door.
Danny claims he didn’t get a warm welcome on Albert Square, telling the crowd: “I will be honest, it is a very clicky place to work. We took over the pub 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.”
Despite enjoying the soap for the first three years, he admitted that after that it quickly went downhill. He explained: “I really cherish those first three years. 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.”
The TV personality opened up about his time in Walford at the Paul Strank Charitable Trust event in Wimbledon – where he donated thousands of pounds.
It comes after he admitted that he would often “play up” to his public persona as a hard man at the height of his fame after being typecast at the beginning of his career.
Despite his stint of similar roles on the small screen, Danny admitted that he’s “still obsessed with masculinity and the ridiculousness of it.” But the Football Factory star believed men should do better and urged them not to be afraid of opening up and talking about their feelings.
He recalled how there was “violence in the air” during his upbringing in the East End of London, he went to rehab for a drug addiction in 2016, and how therapy and meditation helped him to turn his life around.
During an appearance on Desert Island Discs, he told listeners how his trauma came from male “abandonment issues” after his father Anthony left him when he was just a child.
The actor, who is now a father and grandfather himself, said: “Men do need to open up a bit more, we do need to talk to each other. I envy women that can gossip and talk about stuff.
“I’m still obsessed with masculinity, the ridiculousness of it, but also it’s okay to be masculine and it’s okay to not be that in touch with your feelings, but to be able to speak about it when you’re playing pool or sitting in a car.
“Therapy is difficult for me one-on-one, tissues, and all that waiting for you to cry. It just makes us shut down slightly.
“Toxic masculinity is a thing but it’s not necessarily because you’re a male, it’s because you’re not a very nice human being. We’ve got a lot of lost young men out there who don’t know how to behave and are frightened and we need to stop it.”
