From ‘Human Traffic’ to ‘Eastenders’: The bizarre career of Danny Dyer
My most enduring memory of Danny Dyer is of his Deadliest Men series on Bravo and a scene in particular where having witnessed masculinity at its most disturbing and violent, the London-born actor and presenter had to take a moment to himself in a park. Having recovered, he announces in his typical Cockney dialect, “Finally, I was back to my normal self,” before a quick “Alright, girls” and a sly wink as a handful of young ladies walk past.
This kind of cheeky, blokey attitude defines Dyer both as an actor and a geezer, but his career is one of a genuinely bizarre nature. After being picked up at school by a talent agent, Dyer made his first foray into entertainment with a series of small-part performances in Prime Suspect 3, A Touch of Frost, Loved Up and Soldier Soldier, among several others.
It was in 1999 that Dyer made his breakthrough, though, giving an excellent and nuanced performance in Justin Kerrigan’s coming-of-age comedy-drama Human Traffic as Moff, a young drug dealer with a serious habit despite his father being a policeman. Dyer’s effort as Moff showcased an emotional vulnerability as well as a roguish charm, and he delivered some of the film’s best and most memorable moments.
It wasn’t long, though, that such a boyish effect was suddenly replaced by an out-and-out hardman sensibility in Dyer, and he quickly began to appear in the football hooligan films of the early to mid-2000s like Mean Machine and The Football Factory. Admittedly, though, there was still a nuance to Dyer’s performances that just left enough chinks in the armour to see through to the folly and vulnerable nature of being in such a violent group.
A relatively understandable turn came with Dyer making the transition to presenting TV shows like The Real Football Factories and Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men. His undoubted affability, ability to converse with genuine working-class people, and confidence in front of the camera made him the perfect host of such shows, and he seemed to excel in this new kind of work.
But then we throw into the fact that Dyer has strangely performed in three plays by the iconic British playwright Harold Pinter: Celebration, No Man’s Land and The Homecoming. When Dyer auditioned for the former production, he didn’t know who Pinter was, unlike his competitors, but the legendary writer took him under his wing, and the two developed a deep friendship, with Dyer even admitting that he perceived Pinter as a father figure.
So with such highbrow and intelligent friends, where else for Dyer to go to work but EastEnders, perhaps the trashiest of all British television? Dyer had turned down an offer to feature on the famous soap drama in 2009, claiming he’d only appear once he was “fat, bald and fifty”, but in 2013, at the age of just 36, Dyer joined the cast as Mick Carter.
Dyer hasn’t featured in a film since 2015’s Assassin and has been occupied mostly with hosting duties on game shows like The Wall. Across three decades, Dyer has seen it all, from the honest portrayals of 1990s rave culture to the dark side of football hooliganism to the high-minded theatre of Harold Pinter to the trashy TV of EastEnders and gritty docuseries.
Having only appeared in British productions, Danny Dyer is a true embodiment of the archetypal working-class geezer, and he’s proven himself to be one of the most authentic actors and entertainment figures his native country has ever seen, a testament to the kind of raw, genuine nature of London’s greatest actors.
