One of England’s most iconic actors, east London-born Danny Dyer’s first love has always been West Ham United.
In the second part of our exclusive interview, Dyer talks about bringing his passion for the Hammers to the set of EastEnders, his love for Declan Rice and family ties to Jarrod Bowen:
If you missed the first part, you can check it out here!
You’re coming up to ten years on EastEnders. What does it mean to you to have been able to share your love for West Ham on the show?
“When I came into the show, EastEnders, I did make it very clear that I'm not really known for playing people with accents or doing anything away from me. I've got a theory about acting that what most people do is just play themselves. You play a better version of yourself. And you look at any actors around you, it's quite obvious that if you're successful at doing something, then people want to recreate it because it earns money, and that's what I've done.
“No one can play me better than me. I think I come from an old school. I'm sort of the last generation of that cockney thing. I think before me was Ray Winstone, before him maybe Michael Caine. I think I had a generation during the ‘90s, early 2000s of my films that represented a certain thing, so when I came into EastEnders, this had to be a West Ham pub. There was no two ways about it. It’s always been a West Ham pub.
“Sometimes show producers will go: ‘Oh, you'll be supporting Tottenham’, or I did a film called Football Factory and I supported Chelsea and it hurt – it hurt a lot – but of course I knew I had to. It was based on a book and that was fine. West Ham do get a shout-out in it, which was nice, but you know, all this sort of stuff here. It's got to be a West Ham pub.
“There are a couple of Tottenham fans in the show. There’s enough West Ham fans in it. You’ve got Perry Fenwick, who plays Billy Mitchell. You’ve got little Jamie and you've got little Johnny Borthwick, who plays Jay – they’re both West Ham as well. But there's a few Tottenham and Arsenal knocking about. I tend to blank them.
“I do try to bring up West Ham as much as I possibly can within the show. Do you know what I mean? It’s a shame that, in my reign, we’ve never had an FA Cup win or something because I would have made a whole episode about it somehow and it would have been a jolly-up in the square!”
Let’s talk about Jarrod Bowen…
“Jarrod’s an amazing human. I couldn't have handpicked a better geezer for my daughter. Honestly, it’s amazing to be around him as close as I am, because first of all I would want a beautiful man to look after my daughter – that goes before anything else – but the fact that he plays for West Ham, and not only does he play for West Ham, he is an unbelievable player… I mean, I just couldn't have asked for anything better.
“I'm trying to do an arranged marriage but it's not working out for me at the moment! But no, I’m seriously so over the moon that she's happy, he's happy, and the fact that he can come around my gaff and open the fridge and get a can of Coke out…well, I don’t like him drinking Coke, because it’s not good for him!”
Jarrod’s worked his way up from non-league to playing for West Ham and England. He’s got a lot of the same values as the Club and east Londoners, doesn’t he?
“He’s a grafter you know. You can tell he’s a grafter and I go back to what I said about West Ham players: all we want to see is a grafter. We don’t want someone rolling around on the floor, moaning all the time and throwing his hands up in the air and having tantrums, you want someone that wants the ball. He wants the ball and he makes things happen.
“As other teams have got more aware of how good he is, they're trying to chop him now and hurt him and mark him out the game. I mean, you can ping a ball at him at a hundred miles an hour right on the touchline in a tight space, he will trap it and get out of that little mess he’s in. He is the ideal West Ham player. And to think of the season… you look at the little table of players’ assists and goals, he's third.”
“I remember when he when he first came, I wasn't sure. I'd never heard of him, I'll be honest. And then he came on and we thought “ooh, he's different, he’s smart.” He very, very rarely loses the ball. Some of the goals he’s scored, I mean, the one against Chelsea – oh! And again, I get tearful watching him now because I'm very close to the man, and he's part of my family now, so it just adds to it, so long may it continue.”
Another big player for us in the last few years has been Declan Rice…
“Declan Rice for me, again, is someone that's just come through the ranks. He’s such a humble kid. I know him a little bit – we have a little text-up now and again before or after a game – and I remember we were playing someone, I can't remember who, it was under the Pellegrini years, and he wasn't even on the bench.
“I remember driving out the ground and I looked to my right, and Declan was in his motor, next to me, and I was like, he couldn’t wait to get out of the ground. And I was like: “what's happening?” Because he was a centre-back then, of course, and he wasn't the player that he is now, and he's like: “I don't know, mate, I can’t even get on the bench.” And I was like ‘wow’ and he was so down and depressed and to think of his rise.
“I think England has played a role in that as well. If you trust Declan with responsibility, he will take it and that's what he's done and he did that for England. He’s only of the only players that came back from that tournament, the last tournament we had, and has cracked on. Everyone else seems to have struggled, every other player hasn’t really had a great season. He’s just cracked right on and he gets better and better.
“I know he’ll probably be the one to tell you that Noble’s probably been a major part of his progression because he’s quite similar to Noble with the calmness and always making the right decisions and always knows what's going on around him. We’ve got to keep hold of him, though.
“Going back to us being a top-six side, why can't we keep hold of these players and move forward instead of, over the years, selling all our best players to other clubs to go and have success? Why can’t we put a stop to that now, and keep hold of him? Make him the captain, you know, he's our future Bobby Moore. Make him the captain and let's put players around him. And then we can go on.
“He's got a lot of integrity that kid, so I hope he stays. Fingers crossed we keep hold of him and he becomes the England captain as well and another West Ham player gets to lift that cup.”
You were here for that Sevilla game. The noise was unbelievable. London Stadium has become a proper home for West Ham now, hasn’t it?
“I think Sevilla proved it. To look around that ground and just to see 60,000 of us having in large… just the noise was… like I said, there’s no noise like a West Ham noise. There really isn’t.”
What can this West Ham United side achieve?
“I've been supporting West Ham for a very, very long time, I'd say sort of 35 years from what I can remember. I’m 45 this year, so from the age of ten onwards. The first game I went to see was against Coventry, we lost one-nil. I just got hooked. We didn't even score but I just remember walking in that ground and it was just like: ‘wow, this is a bit of me’.
“We had a little run with Cottee and McAvennie – I think we came third – you know, the Boys of 86 and that era. Now, we've had nearly two years of us being a top-six side. And why can't we be a top-six side? Why can't it shift now and change?
“I would say to any young West Ham fans out there that’ve got used to this, just don't take it for granted, because we had been sitting top four for most of this season and it is just… I had a grandson a year ago and I was more excited about us being in the top four than having a grandson. I mean it's sent me bandy looking at that league table, and we've been in and out of it, but why can't we keep hold of our players and why can't we take our place? I think a lot of neutrals would love that.
“Obviously Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, they're always going to be in there, Liverpool… why can't we slip in there and why can't we stay at a level? In order to do that we've got to keep hold of the players we've got and we’ve got to get better players around them, and why can't we push on?”
Where do you see the future of West Ham United?
“Like I said, the idea of West Ham being a bigger Club sort of frightens me in a sense of you get used to winning, and we're not used to winning, so it hurts even more when you lose. There's that expectation.
“But I do see us…we are on the up. I think if we keep hold of David Moyes and our players then we're going to be a Champions League side. I think we can break into that top four. We just missed out last year by two points, I think it was two points. We’ve lost games this season we should never have lost. Only beautiful things await us in the future.’
Don’t forget you can check out the first part of our exclusive interview with Danny Dyer here!
