I’M BLAGGING IT AND I’M VERY RAW. I CAN ONLY BE ME
DANNY DYER is pacing round a well-lit sound stage about 25 minutes from Warsaw Airport in Poland.
He looks trim in a blue suit and is swigging from a can of energy drink.
Every so often he says something to a crew member or a middle-aged married couple from the North of England, who have flown out to take part in his new show.
This is a break during the EastEnders star’s first outing as a game show host – a new BBC1 programme called The Wall, in which contestants must combine strategy, knowledge and luck in a bid for a lifechanging cash prize.
The couple have previously told Danny they want to use the money to fund their young son’s dreams of becoming a pilot and he seems to be genuinely invested in them doing well.
“It’s a surreal experience,” he admits as he sits in his armchair in his dressing room a bit later, after filming is over.
“When I filmed the pilot I was on the verge of tears because it’s a really emotional show.”
But, as impassioned as he is now, the 42-year-old was not always so keen.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to do it at first, and that’s just me being straight.
“The opportunity came up and I thought, ‘Do I want to be a game show host? Not really’; I mean, I’m quite busy at EastEnders.
“They sent me it, I watched it, the American version, which is always very earnest... There’s a lot of money at stake, and it was a bit like, ‘I don’t know if I can pull this off’, Americans are so different to us.
“And then I thought, ‘Do you know what? Go and do the pilot and just see if you enjoy it’ and I really did enjoy it. I did.
“Did I ever think that I would be hosting my own game show? No. I think that I’m at a period in my life when you’ve got to try stuff and so I just thought, ‘Let’s have a go, let’s see where this leads’.”
Does he feel this enthusiasm for trying new things is a by-product of getting older. like his EastEnders character, Mick Carter, is hosting the show.
Danny is juggling the hosting gig with his full-time role in EastEnders, as the landlord of the
Queen Vic, but is enjoying having another string to his bow.
“I fly out here, I do six episodes in five days, and then I’m straight back Monday morning in the Vic, cracking on.
“I’m juggling it, it’s do-able, I just want it to be a success really.
“It’s weird, isn’t it? In the same year I would have done a West End play – a Harold Pinter play (The Dumb Waiter), I’m in the biggest soap on telly, and I’m a game show host.
“And so I suppose there’s not many people out there who can say they’ve done that. So I’m quite proud of that, it’s quite an achievement.”
The Wall continues Saturdays, BBC1, at 8.30pm.