Danny Dyer plans stage tribute to mentor Harold Pinter
Actor Danny Dyer has revealed that he is in the early stages of developing a play based on his close friendship with the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter.
Currently titled When Harry Met Danny, the project is still in its infancy, with Dyer only just beginning to float the idea.
If the play does go ahead, the Rivals star said that one of the biggest decisions to be made will be whether to play the role of himself or Pinter, who died in 2008 aged 78 from liver cancer.
Dyer told Deadline he 'really like[s] it and [is] really excited about it.'
'I'm grateful for the years I spent with Harold and he was a real mentor to me,' he said.
Dyer and Pinter's friendship began early in the actor's career when he auditioned for Pinter's play Celebration. Their relationship deepened over time, with Dyer going on to star in two more of his plays. In 2020, he presented a Sky Arts documentary titled Danny Dyer on Pinter, exploring the impact the playwright had on his life and career.
Pinter directed a series of successful plays over his 50-year long career. Some of his best-known plays are The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005, as well as receiving over 50 other prizes, awards, and honours.
Dyer could also be in line for his first BAFTA TV Award next month for his turn in Ryan Sampson's comedy Mr Bigstuff, in which he plays Lee, but he's not sure Pinter would have been too pleased about the nod.
'Harold was very anti-establishment and that's why I loved him,' Dyer said. 'He was a bitter man and always wanted me to be a bitter animal. I think he'd say, 'Get back in the theatre and f*** the awards, because that's where you're best.''
It comes after the EastEnders star, 47, who was raised on a council estate in Custom House, East London, has invested money into a caravan site off the northern coast of Kent.
Dyer has documented the early days of the business venture in his forthcoming Sky TV series The Dyer's Caravan Park, which sees him and his daughter Dani take on the project on the Isle of Sheppey.
Speaking on The Jonathan Ross Show on 21 February, Dyer told the presenter: 'I'm going to invest some dough into a caravan site.
'I went to caravans on my holiday as a kid - Canvey Island. Caravans are a thing for me, it's very much about nostalgia.'
He added: 'I['ve] seen Jeremy Clarkson is cracking on with his farm so I'm going to try and run a caravan site and bring back the British holidays.'
In a trailer for The Dyer's Caravan Park, Dyer jokes: 'So, Clarkson's got his farm. Richard Hammond has his workshop, f*****g about in there. If Jamie Oliver can save school dinners then I think I want to bring back the caravan holiday. Why the f**k can't I save the British holiday?'
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