By Stefania Sarrubba

Published: Thursday, 22 December 2022 at 12:00 am


EastEnders star Danny Dyer has looked back on his almost 10-year stint on the Square as Mick Carter.

The soap actor is bowing out this month with an explosive exit storyline for Mick, entangled in fiancée Janine Butcher’s (Charlie Brooks) plotting and scheming while still harbouring feelings for his ex-wife Linda (Kellie Bright).

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press at a Q&A, Dyer explained the decision to leave, also going back to the troubled beginnings of his soap career.

 

“I’m very attached to the show,” he said. “It’s been a long – it’s been a third of my career – about 30 years I’ve been knocking about in our industry, for nearly 10 I’ve been in the show and to make the decision I made I didn’t make it lightly, you know.

“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.”

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Kellie Bright as Linda Carter and Danny Dyer as Mick Carter in EastEnders.
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron

When asked if he thought he would last nine years on the show, Dyer answered: “No, I did not think I would last nine years. Listen, when I came into this show I was a f**king car crash. I can’t believe I got given a shot. My career was on its f**king arse. It was.

“I’ve made a lot of bad decisions. I was in a bad place. [Producer] Dominic Treadwell-Collins took a risk on me.”

Dyer also touched upon the relationship with his on-screen wife Kellie Bright, as well as Maddy Hill and Sam Strike who portrayed the couple’s children, Nancy and Johnny.

“We had so much work, we just got our heads down, we drew on all our experience,” Dyer said, adding: “We loved it. We loved the material. We loved the characters.”

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(L-R) Maddy Hill, Kellie Bright, Danny Dyer and Sam Strike attend the National Television Awards at 02 Arena on January 22, 2014 in London, England.
Mike Marsland/WireImage

Of the on-screen family’s bond, Bright added: “We loved each other.”

And while the Carters’ era as we knew it may soon come to an end, Dyer said he is “proud” of the work they’ve done together.

“I’m so proud of that era that we had and it’s sad to think that all could come to an end, obviously. I really did appreciate all the years that we had, and we did some really strong beautiful work [but] the show has to change and has to move on.”

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