One of England’s most iconic actors and television personalities, east London-born Danny Dyer’s first love has always been West Ham United.
In the first of a two-part interview with the Club, EastEnders and The Wall star Dyer discusses his upbringing, growing up as a Hammers supporter and his respect and admiration for recently-departed captain Mark Noble...
What was it that hooked you to West Ham United as a young boy?
“The club chooses you, whether you like it or not, I don't care where you're from, whether you’re from Wycombe and support Wycombe Wanderers or Colchester and follow Colchester United, or whatever, it might not be a glamorous club, but there's something about [supporting your local club]. And West Ham are not glamorous club but we're a little club in East London with a community with a certain type of person that goes to that club.
“So, they chose me. I lived a mile-and-a-half away from the ground and I used to be able to walk to the ground. Clubs were coming to our town, to our part of London, and try and nick points off us. They would usually do that, but now and again we'd do them and it would just be a beautiful feeling. I'd walk into that stadium, and I'd look around and I’d hear people talking and they all spoke the same as me. We've all walked the same streets. We all know where the same chip shops are, and pie and mash shop is, even though we don’t actually know each other, we're all the same.
“There is something about West Ham and our fans. I know all fans say that, of course they do, but there is something about it – the noise we make is not like any other noise, the away support we take, do you know what I mean? I've not been to as many away games as I would have liked, but the ones that I have been to over the years, we’re an East London force, and we’re passionate about our club, we really are. We love it. We love being the underdog as well.
“My Dad took me as a kid and I used to walk to the ground with him or meet him in the boozer and then when I didn’t go with my old man, they used to open the gates at Upton Park and you could go and stand on the corner flag with ten minutes to go. You could actually stand on the side of the pitch and it was just like the smell of it…I remember when it was all standing as well – the South Bank, the North Bank – there was just something magical about Saturday afternoon.”
West Ham United fans are unique, aren’t they?
“We are unique because I think East London is a famous place anyway. It goes way back to the slums of Victorian times. East London is the Cockney accent and it's a thing that’s done all around the world. It's known all around and in America everyone knows what a Cockney is. So you know just goes way back. In the Blitz we were bombed and we were the one who took it right on the chin. It breeds a certain person.
“We’re a train station, let’s have it right, which is weird because West Ham train station is nowhere near the ground. Upton Park was our train station. We have moved to Stratford now, but we were tiny. We were a road, really.
“You’ve got Liverpool representing Liverpool, Manchester has got two clubs, but they represent a whole city. Chelsea, you know. Tottenham and Arsenal obviously represent that North London thing but there are two clubs there, but we own East London. We are East London and I love that.”
When you were going to the Boleyn Ground as a boy, which players did you want to see?
“For me, it was always the [Tony] Cottee and [Frank] McAvennie years when I started going when I was nine, ten, eleven. We were good then. Mark Ward was another one I used to look up to, then you had [Alan] Devonshire and all that little mob.
“I remember my old man used to talk about Bobby Moore and them sort of days and I’d missed that era unfortunately. I think that we’ve got the biggest history because the biggest prize in world football, the greatest accolade that you can get, which we have got nowhere near winning [since 1966], was raised by a West Ham captain and I cling on to that for all my life!
“If you want to look at it that way, in that World Cup final, we won that World Cup. Geoff Hurst got a hat-trick, so if we're going to live off history, we have achieved things and we have produced some of the best players that this country has ever seen.”
You’re perhaps the second-most famous EastEnder in the world after Mark Noble...
“Me and Mark! He’s a Custom House/Canning Town boy. I always say Custom House slash Canning Town because nobody knows where Custom House is! They think it’s just a house in east London but it’s a lovely little area, a naughty little community.
“I’m proud of where I’m from and it’s made me the man I am today. I am a little peasant and I'm proud to be a little peasant. And there are a lot of people out there who think I'm a ‘Mockney’ – I’ve heard that sort of dialogue, usually off middle-class people who don’t have a clue. But I'm an East Londoner, so the fact that Mark comes from the manor is rare.
“It’s very rare with within football nowadays that you get a player from that manor who has lived and breathed it, you know what I mean, and played for their boyhood club. It doesn't really happen, mate, so we've been blessed with him.”
Mark Noble epitomises so much about what it means to be West Ham, doesn’t he?
“I think the thing about Mark is, when he first ran on that pitch, he was a skinny little thing and he brought that Canning Town thing with him as well, that Custom House grit. We love a challenge over there. We love someone, even if they're not the best technically, someone that gets involved in it, someone who is just running around, chasing the ball.
“Julian Dicks was someone who I loved as well. I mean, Julian Dicks was from that era when he was so proud of the fact that whoever he was marking, he'd let him know early doors. Mark is the same as he’s a grafter and you can tell what it means to Mark when he's playing because of the emotion within him.
“He's organising everyone and he's always quite tearful because he's playing and he’s very professional, but you’ve got to remember he’s playing as a fan and when West Ham do well or when we do something quite special it makes me cry. I don’t know why and you’re not really allowed to cry as a man, but at West Ham it’s allowed and there is nothing more beautiful and poetic and looking around and seeing thousands of proper geezers crying and emotional, cuddling each other, just because we've had a big win or we've progressed in the cup, or we've got a last-minute winner. There is something in that.”
The way Mark Noble runs the West Ham dressing room could be compared to an East End father with their family…
“He clearly does. He cops for every player. I think he did that with [Dimitri] Payet as well. He wants them to experience that West Ham thing, even when they're from another country and I think they get it through Mark. I think he explains it to them, what this Club is, because we aren’t some little club. Yes, we're the underdogs, but we're a special club, West Ham, and I think they learn pretty early on about it.
“I remember watching a game with Mark [involved] and he was on the bench and he was running up and down warming up and he always gets an amazing reception and gives everyone a clap. There was a ball boy sitting on his little stool and he just sat down next to him put his arm around him and he was talking away to him, chatting away, and I thought ‘that’s the mark of the man’.
“I mean, that's a proper geezer that is the is part of that Club, is part of the fabric of that Club. And whether he knew his ball boy well or not it didn't matter. Maybe the ball boy was having a bad day, I don't know, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the fact that he took his time out, knowing he was probably going to be brought on in a minute, and sat with him. And he had his back to me with this and he had his arm around him and was chatting I thought ‘well, that's rare, that is’.
“I think it's inevitable and I pray and look forward to the moment when Mark becomes West Ham manager because it has to happen. I mean, there's no two ways about it. That's the only manager I can think of in the future. To have Mark at the helm, that's the ideal scenario for me.”
Are there any other standout Noble moments you can remember?
“Mark is not really known for his goals, but I think that strike, that sweet strike against Leicester City when he just smashed it from outside the box. I don’t know how he did it. The height of it, and the way the ball hardly moved, it was just such a beautiful goal. And he looked around like he couldn't believe it either.
“But, if you do scratch the surface, he is a great technician on the ball, actually. It's a shame he didn't make more goals, but what a beautiful goal! I was jumping around like a lunatic when he scored that and when he does score you are so happy for him. I am always happy when West Ham score, but when it was Mark, it adds a different layer.”
Have you spent much time with Mark?
“Whenever I see him it always feels like we're old friends, even though we never grew up together obviously, because I'm a lot older than him and I think there's a mutual respect there.
“Maybe he grew up watching my films as much as I watched him on the pitch. I've done him a couple of favours in the past. He's done me a couple. He came to watch me in a play once and brought his missus and the kids and everyone in. I'll do anything for that geezer. If he ever needs a favour, I'm always here for you Mark. Don't ever forget that, son. He’s done me plenty over the years so yeah, there’s a bond now of maybe mutual respect.”
Check out part two of our exclusive interview with Danny Dyer focusing on his love for Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice here!
