Danny Dyer looked unrecognisable in his first television appearance, which placed him alongside a British acting legend. The EastEnders star made his small screen debut opposite Dame Helen Mirren in the ITV crime drama Prime Suspect back in 1993, when he was just 16 years old.
Early Role as a Troubled Teen
Danny played the tricky teenager Martin Fletcher, who became embroiled in a murder investigation and clashed with Helen's character, DCI Jane Tennison. ITV shared a clip from the episode on Instagram ahead of the launch of Danny's new quiz show Nobody's Fool, commenting: 'Imagine your first ever TV appearance at 16 being opposite Helen Mirren.'
In the clip, Danny is seen with long hair and a scraped face as he is interrogated by Tennison, looking very different to his current appearance. The detective quizzes him about what happened to his face, and he explains: 'You know the escalators? Top of King's Cross. I was coming down them, and my coat got caught, and I fell forward and I hit my face. And then I got up and I fell over again and I hit my nose. Nobody hit me.' When she asks if he lied to the police officers, he responds: 'Yeah, I suppose so.'
Career Progression
After his breakthrough in Prime Suspect, Danny went on to appear in other television shows such as The Bill, Skins, Hotel Babylon, and A Touch of Frost. Other small screen outings included Soldier Soldier and Family Business.
In 2004, he starred in the film The Football Factory, and in 2013 he landed the role of Mick Carter in the BBC soap EastEnders, which made him a household name. The actor was a firm favourite in Albert Square for many years but bid farewell to Walford in 2022.
Current Projects
Danny is currently starring as Freddie Jones in the Disney+ series Rivals, an adaptation of the late author Jilly Cooper's book, which also features Emily Atack, Alex Hassell, David Tennant, Katherine Parkinson, and Aidan Turner.
EastEnders airs on the BBC. Nobody's Fool premieres on Saturday, May 23 at 9.00 PM on ITV.
