‘My career was on its arse’: Danny Dyer reflects on EastEnders casting as he says goodbye to soap after nine years

‘I’d made a lot of bad decisions, I was in a bad place,’ said actor, adding that the producer ‘took a risk’ on him

Danny Dyer has reflected on his initial casting in EastEnders, saying the show’s producer “took a risk” on him, as he waves goodbye to the soap after nine years.

The actor said “not in a million years” did he think he would have lasted almost a decade playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter on the series.

The 45-year-old actor joined the cast of the BBC One soap on Christmas Day in 2013, shortly followed by his on-screen wife Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright.

After appearing in 1,150 episodes, Dyer is scheduled to leave the soap on Christmas Day this year, with dramatic teaser scenes of his character chasing his betrothed Janine Butcher out of Albert Square.

Dyer said: “It’s very emotional for me, I’m very attached to this show. It’s been a third of my career.

“Thirty years I’ve been knocking about in our industry and for nearly 10 I’ve been in this show and to make the decision I made, I didn’t make it lightly because it’s a huge job to walk away from and I thought long and hard about it and I just wanted it to be a fitting end. So hopefully it is.

“What I will say about that (Christmas Day) episode is it’s definitely about love and relationships.

“We’ve done a lot of Christmas episodes over the years – we came in at Christmas. It’s an intense process and it’s tough, but when you get the right dialogue and the right material, it’s such a beautiful thing, that you’re reaching a lot of people and that’s a massive platform.”

Dyer said TV producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins “took a risk” hiring him to appear on the show almost a decade ago.

Danny Dyer (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

“I didn’t think I’d last nine years. I came into the show and I was a car crash, I can’t believe I got given a shot,” he said.

“I mean my career was on it’s arse. I’ve said this before, I was going to nightclubs waving off a balcony and saying hello to people to pay my f***ing mortgage.

“I’d made a lot of bad decisions, I was in a bad place. Dominic Treadwell-Collins took a risk on me and Kellie, although Kellie was a bit more well-behaved than me.

“We came in together and we was always on trial to start, a new family to take over the Vic. We just got our heads down... and we loved it. We loved the material, we loved the characters.

“I didn’t think I’d last as long as nine years, not in a million years.”

During his time on the show, Dyer has had 117 doof-doofs, welcomed the-then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to Albert Square and starred in a spin-off series with documentary maker Stacey Dooley.

Dyer, who stole a stool from the Queen Vic on his last day of filming, spoke about his EastEnders leaving party, describing it as “really beautiful”.

He added: “I was questioning if I’d made the right decision. There was a lot of love for me in the room and there was a part of me that just wanted to duck out because it was emotional for me, so I thought it’d probably be easier just to leave at the back door.

“But actually Kellie organised something and I’m glad that we did it.”

Dyer’s breakout role was as Moff in the cult 1999 film Human Traffic, followed by parts in Mean Machine and The Football Factory.

In 2019 he made his debut as a game show host, presenting BBC show The Wall.

Additional reporting by Press Association