Danny Dyer has admitted the real reason he quit EastEnders in 2022 – he didn’t want to see his character Mick Carter bumped off by scheming Janine Butcher. The actor says he made the “emotional” decision to leave the BBC soap in disappointment over Mick’s storylines, which had seen him split up from long-term love Linda, played by Kellie Bright.
And speaking in a new warts-and-all confessional for ITV, he also reveals what he was paid for The Wall and laughs at how Jilly Cooper’s Rivals has turned him into a middle-aged sex symbol at the age of 47.
Danny’s grilling comes courtesy of ITV series The Assembly, in which the questions are asked by a 30-strong group of interviewers who are autistic, neurodivergent or learning disabled. The deal is that the stars who take part must agree to answer any questions at all in an honest and truthful manner.
Danny says his decision to leave EastEnders was “emotional”, because the soap had saved him when his career was teetering on a knife edge back in 2013.. “I got to a point where I’d made a lot of mistakes in my life and nobody would hire me any more and then EastEnders came along and said ‘we love you – we want to put you in the Queen Vic’. That saved my life because I had bailiffs at my door,” he recalls, “The first four years were incredible.”
But the situation changed after producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins – now the man behind Disney+ hit Rivals – left the showan he was paired up with Janine, played by Charlie Brooks. “A new producer came in and he didn’t like the Carters,” Danny says. “He started to sack people – my son, my daughter – they’ve still got Kellie Bright in it, who plays my wife, Linda Carter. But then they split me up from Kellie and put me with Janine. When they told me I said: ‘Janine? But she murders people!’
I thought ‘oh no, if I stay too long, she’ll kill me – I’ve got to get out’. And basically I went in the sea, and was never found again.” With Mick’s body having never washed up, Danny admits he hasn’t ruled out a return at some point. “If it all goes tits up, I’ll turn up in the pub with seaweed all over me,” he chuckles.
Asked by one group member how he feels about Rivals last year turning him into an unlikely heart throb thanks to mums falling for his affable character Freddie Jones, Danny laughs: “I thought I’d had my days of that, being a sex symbol. Turns out it’s OK to have hairy breasts.” Flashing his chest to the group, he insists: ”If this can be attractive then I’m very surprised.”
Danny – who also says he earned £100,000 as host of gameshow The Wall – declares that his elder daughter Dani is a “nepo baby” but that he was proud of her on Love Island, despite not wanting her to take part. “She is a nepo baby, of course she is, but what’s wrong with that?” he shrugs. “She was such a beautiful human being on that programme – she was respectful and quite vulnerable, she was funny. She was working in a pub before, but as soon as she came home she f***ed off and left me, got a flat in Canary Wharf.”
Asked how he found the experience of being quizzed by The Assembly, which kicks off this weekend, Dyer said he had loved their “beautiful” questions. “It’s been an honour. it’s been very emotional,” he told them, wiping away tears. “It’s great learning about you lot and I learned a bit about myself.”
Executive producers Michelle Singer and Stu Richards said they set out to make a series that wasn’t patronising. “That’s something we think about all the time,” they agreed. “We want people to see these guys the way they are – funny, smart, interesting.” They said all the stars had to do was not dodge the questions. “It could feel like a risk for celebrities but once they’re prepared to do that, the rewards are vast.”
The show, originally from a French format, had huge appeal for ITV entertainment commissioner David Smyth. “The key thing is this isn’t niche. It’s ITV to its core because it’s funny, it’s warm, it touches you and it makes you a bit joyous.”
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