Who will speak for England in its moment of crisis? The answer this summer, it appears, is actor Danny Dyer, who – with a bit of help from his daughter Dani – is dominating the national conversation.
In a deeply surreal appearance on a one-off evening edition of ITV’s flagship Good Morning Britain programme on Thursday, the EastEnders star – flanked by Piers Morgan, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, and Pamela Anderson – unleashed a tirade of abuse at the state of Brexit negotiations to an audience of millions.
“Who knows about Brexit? No one has got a fucking clue what Brexit is,” said the actor, 40, dismissing attempts by the leader of her majesty’s loyal opposition to explain Labour’s position on leaving the European Union.
“You watch Question Time, it’s comedy. No one knows what it is. It’s like this mad riddle,” he continued. And then, in a crescendo widely greeted on social media as the moment that Dyer became an unlikely new remainer icon, he turned his attention to the former prime minister who started it all.
“What’s happened to that twat Cameron who brought it on?” he demanded. “Let’s be fair. How come he can scuttle off? He called all this on. Where is he? He’s in Europe, in Nice with his trotters up. Where is the geezer? I think he should be held accountable for it.”
Following a lengthy reflective pause which drew comparisons with the works of Harold Pinter, Dyer summarised his views on the former prime minister by spitting out a single word: “Twat.”
At the same time that her father was setting the internet alight with his appearance on ITV’s main channel, Dani Dyer – the actor’s 21-year old daughter with a confusingly similar name – was appearing on the nightly edition of ITV2’s cultural phenomenon Love Island, where she has become the clear favourite to win the series thanks to her down-to-earth persona and devotion to her on-screen partner, Jack.
When that harmony was threatened on Thursday by the arrival of Jack’s ex, she expressed her dismay about her lot in highly relatable terms. “I get really, really happy with someone,” she explained, but ultimately she finds herself under threat from “some girl with a nice bum and boobs who hasn’t eaten cheese toasties every night”.
The combined peak audience for both programmes was 8.8 million, meaning roughly one in seven Britons watched a member of the Dyer family dispense their wisdom on an ITV channel on Thursday night.
“Dani is everything you don’t expect from Love Island or indeed from being the daughter of a cocksure, wide boy – albeit lovable – showbiz dad,” explained Lucie Cave, editorial director for celebrity magazine Heat.
“She’s almost old-fashioned in the way she carries herself – and uses an eye mask like a chastity belt. She’s the one judge of character all viewers listen to without being remotely bitchy or judgmental.”
By comparison, Cave says the appeal of the older Dyer, originally from Canning Town in east London, is because he “cuts through the bullshit and the sycophants and isn’t afraid to call people out if he doesn’t understand them” – while also being willing to take the popular stance of standing up to Piers Morgan.
The clan’s growing cultural significance meant that Dyer Sr’s comments prompted questions at the highest levels of the British establishment (as well as approving tweets from the likes of Lena Dunham, the creator of Girls). Theresa May’s spokesperson admitted she had been too busy negotiating the future of EU immigration policy at an all-night summit in Brussels to watch the star of Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men. However, Downing Street noted that “people who appear on broadcasts and in newspapers are perfectly entitled to their opinions”.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Cameron said it was “not something we will be commenting on”, raising the tantalising prospect that the ex-Tory leader may indeed be resting his swine-like appendages in the south of France.
Danny, who says he did not initially want his daughter to appear on Love Island now says she has shown a new way to succeed: “She’s proved with this reality TV thing that actually you can be a decent girl, with self-respect, dignity, not be rolling under the bedsheets, still have respect off the man and be loved and adored by young people.”
The older Dyer’s long-standing cult following has beenboosted by his appearances on EastEnders and his discovery that he is – in common with many Britons – a descendant of King Edward III.
His career has not always been plain sailing and he was dropped as an advice columnist for lads mag Zoo in 2010 after recommending a heartbroken boyfriend should “cut his ex’s face, so no one will want her”.
But his straight-talking commentary on the world – he once marked the anniversary of al-Qaida’s attack on the World Trade Centre by tweeting “can’t believe it’s been nearly 11 years since them slags smashed into the twin towers it still freaks my nut out to this day” – helped revive him as a semi-ironic cult hero.
That said, it is unclear how he would vote in a second referendum. Dyer has previously told the Daily Telegraph that he voted for Brexit in 2016 because he was “fucking sick of politicians doing fuck all” and wanted to “make these politicians fucking do something”.
Either way, ITV is unlikely to be in trouble for Dyer’s post-watershed use of the word “twat”. Media regulator Ofcom describes it as a “potentially offensive” term which is less problematic “if describing a rude or obnoxious person”. The broadcaster will be hoping Cameron meets this standard.
