Danny Dyer was chased out of his home by yob neighbours because of his EastEnders role, so he understands how his character feels in Rivals. Danny, 47, a former Queen Vic landlord in the soap, stars in the Disney+ series, based on the Jilly Cooper novel.
His character is an entrepreneur who is detested by the upper class residents of the fictitious Cotswolds town of Rutshire. This paralleled the abuse he endured after moving into a four-bedroom house in Essex with his wife Jo and family, reports the Mirror.
Danny said: “When I moved in people were milling around saying, ‘What are you doing moving around here?’ questioning me, thinking I was a multi-millionaire, (but) I wasn’t. It was a big step up for us, a four-bedroom house.
“But I’d wake up some days and there’d be eggs thrown at my house which was weird, people resented me for moving in around there. If you’re going to chuck eggs at people’s houses you’d wait for their reaction – they’d throw the eggs and then f*** off home.
“I’d wake up, look at the side of the house, they’d be shell everywhere. What’s the point in that? Then it started to get a bit more naughty and they started chucking vodka bottles and s***.
“I don’t know what the f*** I’d done but it was my character in EastEnders they didn’t like. It must have been. We moved to where we live now, which is lovely.”
Danny also told the Off Menu podcast that he was harassed by trolls when his connections to Henry VIII’s fixer, Thomas Cromwell, were exposed on Who Do You Think You Are?
Danny was also informed that he was connected to two monarchs. He stated that he would love to play Cromwell, even if it meant more abuse. He went on: “I couldn’t give a f*** about King Edward III.
“I must play Thomas Cromwell, I’d be devastated if I don’t – just a kid out of Putney who rose through the ranks, f***** off to Florence, learned loads of languages, became a lawyer, came back, became Henry’s best mate.”
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