He’s known for taking on “tough-guy” roles such as Mick Carter in EastEnders and Tommy Johnson in The Football Factory, but with two young children, and soon to be a grandad of three, actor Danny Dyer reveals that he’s much softer under his foul-mouthed persona.
Speaking to Closer, Danny, 45, admits, “I’m really just a teddy bear with a bite. I love being around the kids whether it’s as a dad or a grandad. I’m a sensitive soul, really.”
Already a father of three – to Love Island’s Dani Dyer, 26, daughter Sunnie Jo, 16, and son Arty, nine – Danny became a grandad in January 2021 after Dani welcomed son Santiago with former boyfriend Sammy Kimmence.
And Danny’s family with wife of six and a half years, Joanne Mas, 49, is set to grow this year as Dani is expecting twin girls with footballer boyfriend Jarrod Bowen and is due to give birth in June.
Speaking about his close relationship with his eldest daughter, Danny admits, “Dani’s only got a couple of months now before she gives birth and she’s doing so well. She’s actually moved back in with us while her new house gets sorted, and it’s been lovely having her around. I’ve got so much respect for that kid, she’s amazing.”
Since quitting EastEnders in 2022 following nearly 10 years on the iconic soap, Danny has turned his hand to presenting shows such as Cheat and upcoming series Scared Of The Dark.
And Danny tells Closer he thinks that Scared Of The Dark will be a big hit and he’s thrilled to be hosting it.
He says, “The producers came to me and said, ‘We’re going to lock a bunch of celebrities in the pitch black for several days’ and I said, ‘Sign me up!’ It’s Big Brother in the dark, essentially, and it has moments of real emotion, but it’s also very funny to just watch people walking around and banging their shins on things.
“The thing that sold it to me was the calibre of celebrities who were going on the show. I mean, Paul Gascoigne is one of my heroes and Chris Eubank is an incredibly interesting character. You’ve then got the hilarious Scarlett Moffatt and Donna Preston as well, but the brilliant twist is including blind comedian Chris McCausland because he really becomes the hero of the piece.”
Danny also opens up about some of his favourite moments from filming the show, sharing, “There are lots of amazing and hilarious challenges that the celebs get set in order to win time in a ‘light room’, including getting harnessed up and told to walk across a beam that’s supposedly 10 feet in the air but is actually just inches off the ground.”
He continues, “It was also interesting to watch them try to do simple tasks like eating meals because they don’t realise how much they rely on sight for those kinds of activities so they keep missing their mouths.”
After Scared Of The Dark airs later this year, future projects for the Londoner include Heat – an action thriller series – and a Disney+ adaptation of the Jilly Cooper novel Rivals, which sees Danny take on the role of businessman Freddie Jones alongside an all-star cast that includes David Tennant and Aidan Turner.
Telling Closer about this latest project, Danny reveals, “It’s a really exciting job for me and I was so honoured when Dominic Treadwell-Collins called me up and offered me the role. And to work with such brilliant actors is a lot of fun, but they’ve really made me raise my game. I grew a moustache for the character because the show is set in 1986, and I haven’t been able to get rid of it yet!”
But while Danny isn’t disappearing from our screens any time soon, he admits that we’ll likely see fewer and fewer people with a Cockney accent on TV, saying, “I might be the last generation that speaks like I do. It’s a shame to think that my accent is on the way out, because I’m very proud of my roots. I had to fight really hard for my place in the acting fraternity and it’s a shame that there aren’t more working-class actors getting the recognition that they deserve.”
Scared Of The Dark airs every night from Monday 16 to Thursday 20 April at 9pm on Channel 4
