“There’s something about Disney – it turns you into a kid again”

Sex and money are at the throbbing heart of a glitzy new adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1980s-set Rivals. “I was a child in the ’80s, so there’s a lot of nostalgia for me,” says Danny Dyer, who stars as self-made tech millionaire. Freddie Jones. “I loved the clothes and had a moustache for six months. I looked like my dad in 1983.” The Disney+ drama takes place amid the power struggles of the television industry, where TV execs (including the fabulously named Lord Tony Baddingham, played by David Tennant) are angling to get Freddie’s investment, despite being sniffy about his background. “He’s the richest character in it, but he’s also very working class,” says Dyer.

In an industry famously full of the privileged and privately educated. Dyer knows a bit about this kind of snobbery. “I’ve definitely come across classism,” he says. “When I got into theatre, it was a very alien world for me. A lot of people had gone to drama school, which I didn’t. I came from a council estate and just loved acting. Everybody should be entitled to do something that they love to do.” Dyer grew up in Custom House, East London, and summer holidays meant a caravan in Canvey Island, Essex.

“Every year was the same,” he says fondly. “My nan, aunts, uncles and cousins had caravans on the same site. I always felt it was a magical place – walking along the sea wall, seeing the arcades, smelling the doughnuts and toffee apples. We didn’t have a toilet in our caravan so you had to go in a bucket. And there was a wash house where you’d put 50p in the bathtub to fill it up.” He laughs. “It sounds like I’m talking about the 1920s.”

These days, family holidays are all about keeping the kids happy. Dyer was 19 when his now wife, Joanne Mas, had their eldest daughter, Dani (28). Sunnie was born ten years later and Arty seven years after that. “It’s difficult having big age gaps between the kids,” he admits. “Dani’s now got her own kids and is doing her own thing. But taking a 17-year-old girl and ten-year-old boy on holiday can be hard because they are never going to agree on anything.”

Work-wise, next year Dyer will be seen in Marching Powder, the new film from Nick Love, who wrote 2004’s The Football Factory – one of the movies that made Dyer’s name. And could there be a second series of Rivals? “Hopefully,” he grins. “I’d love to get the moustache back and bowl around in those Farah trousers again.”

Danny’s travels

The first time I got on an aeroplane was to go to Hungary for a job. I was 15 and had a small role in [ITV drama] Cadfael with Derek Jacobi. My character was a leper so I was in rags, but being part of a period drama was just so exciting. My dad was my chaperone, and we stayed in Budapest but filmed in some beautiful untouched woodland. They built a whole mediaeval village out there. At that point, I never thought acting could be my career. I just thought, this is fun while it lasts.

My wife’s dad is from Mallorca and he’s got a flat in Palma so we go there a lot. We were brought up on the same council estate, so she was always very exotic to me because she’d spend the holidays in Spain. Her mum’s an East Londoner, but I’m not sure why her parents decided to live in a Custom House maisonette when they could’ve been in Mallorca eating oysters for lunch on a boat. The flat is up near this beautiful old 15th-century cathedral, overlooking the island. I love the cobbled streets and tapas bars.

I spent a month in New York in 2001, doing a Harold Pinter play called Celebration at the Lincoln Centre. To work on Broadway was so exciting, and it was when Pinter was alive, so he was with us, too. There’s an energy about New York that’s different to anywhere else. I was brought up on all those American TV shows, so the country has always fascinated me. If I ever lived abroad, New York is somewhere I could see myself.

When I left EastEnders, I wanted to get some sun, so took a job in Australia. It was October and I wanted to escape the winter, so I did a Channel 5 drama called Heat. We were shooting on the outskirts of Melbourne, at the southern point of Australia, and nobody told me that it p*sses down every day. Apparently, it’s to do with climate change and the El Niño weather system. It was a really cool city: lovely people, beautiful restaurants, good night life. I did enjoy myself, but I didn’t get a tan.

I was so excited to take our kids to Disney World, because it was unattainable for me as a kid. We stayed in the Boardwalk Inn and woke up early with jet lag so were the first ones in the park at 7.30am. We went for ten days and absolutely rinsed it. This was when my daughter Dani won Love Island, so she was in the villa. They asked us to fly in for the episode where they meet the parents. “You’re having a laugh,” I told them. “I’m hanging out with Mickey Mouse.” There’s something about Disney – it turns you into a kid again. I love that feeling.

My most extravagant holiday was to the Maldives. I’d been working a lot and wanted to take the family somewhere amazing, so we went to a resort called Vakkaru. You fly into Malé, and then get a tiny plane to your own island, where they’re waiting to hand you a coconut with a straw in it. Our villa was on stilts, with steps going down into crystal blue water. It was perfect. Although it cost so much money, I said: “This has to be the best seven days of our lives.” To be fair, it was.

All episodes of Rivals are available now exclusively on Disney+