TOUGH EARLY
E VERY parent wants their children to have a better life than they did, but it took a recent question from his son for Danny John-Jules to realise just how different their upbringings were.
The moment came when 12-year-old Dante asked for an en suite bathroom added to his bedroom.
“Me, my brother and sister had one bath a week, three of us together after putting money in the meter,” says Danny.
“The rest of the time we washed in a plastic bowl with a flannel. So I told my son, ‘You’ve already got a phone that’s worth more than my entire upbringing’.”
The 57 year-old actor may now be in showbiz but his childhood was anything but glamorous. He grew up in a flat in West London’s tough Cheltenham estate and worked from the age of 12.
“Mum and dad split up when I was six. My gran lived with us and had three jobs. Mum worked all her life.
“This was the 60s, when women didn’t have the same rights. If you left your husband you were a social leper. You stuck by your husband, even if he was throwing you around the room.
“So it was about survival. I had a paper round when I was a kid, had jobs on a second-hand stall, building site, hospital, warehouse and hair salon before I got into the business. I don’t D know any other way than hard work.” anny now has a £1million Notting Hill home where he lives with partner Petula Langlais and children Dante and Danae, 10. But success was hard earned.
After acting classes in a “pigeon-bitten rusty old church hall”, Danny starred in the West End for a decade before his role as Cat in sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf.
Filming in the Caribbean for BBC1 show Death in Paradise – he plays Officer Dwayne Myers – gave him an opportunity to reconnect with estranged dad Hyram. Danny says: “For the last 30 years dad lived in Dominica, one island from Guadeloupe where we film.
“So two years ago I brought him, mum and the entire family together for the first time since 1966.
“At first my brother had no interest in going. He couldn’t bear the thought of reconciliation with my dad. He had to struggle through university on his own and became a barrister. But we all came together before dad died last year.”
Growing up as a child of divorce made Danny acutely aware of the infamous Strictly curse, but he joked: “I only joined for the curse. I’ve been trying to get rid of the missus for years.”
He and Petula have been happily together for 17 years and survived the seven years of absences filming Death in Paradise. Danny says: “I think we should dispel the curse. In any industry where you’re chucked into a room with 30 or 40 new people, stuff happens.
“I was on the West End show when Alfred Molina and Jill Gascoine met and they’re together 30 years later. So is it a curse or blessing? I’d call that a blessing.”
Danny is the oldest Strictly contestant – the youngest, at 24, is Paralympian Lauren Steadman – but he reckons he’d win in any dance-off with his kids and has a far more stamina than millennials.
“My kids can floss but I know the Bus Stop and the Hustle. And do millennials have a lesser work ethic? Oh God, yeah.
“I’ve done workshops and before I’ve even asked them to do anything they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m so tired’. I’m like, Whaaaat?’”
Danny’s energy might come from his