FOR most film fans, Danny Dyer’s football hooligan character, Tommy Johnson, was his ultimate role.
But the former EastEnders actor almost missed out on the part in classic Noughties film The Football Factory, because he was being a “doughnut”.
Director Nick Love — who also made The Business, Goodbye Charlie Bright and Outlaw with Danny — had to give his hard-partying pal a stern talking to before hiring him for the gritty 2004 movie.
The 54-year-old filmmaker had been warned that Danny was too much of a “liability” to cast as the lead.
Now the actor and the director are making a comeback with their first film together in 14 years, in another tale about a cocaine-sniffing football thug.
It was that talk in London’s notorious Groucho members’ club 20 years ago that helped Danny turn his life around.
I was quite militant in those days, I had worked with Danny on Charlie Bright — his career was taking off but he f***ed it. He acted like a bit of a doughnut a couple of times
Nick Love, Director
The actor has admitted that he realised it was a choice between “crack on with acting or just disappear and become a smackhead” after their frank conversation.
Talking to The Sun, Nick reveals: “I was quite militant in those days. I had worked with Danny on Charlie Bright — his career was taking off but he f***ed it. He acted like a bit of a doughnut a couple of times.
“I said to him, ‘Listen, I have written this film and I know you’d be able to do it but people are warning me against you.
“You’ve got to liven yourself up, and he did — he did it brilliantly.”
Undoubtedly, Danny’s performance in The Football Factory is his most memorable to date.
Revealing the darker side to “the beautiful game”, the ultra-violent movie follows Chelsea fan Tommy, who lives for bloody brawls with supporters of rival teams.
Even though Danny is once again playing a drug-taking football hooligan in their latest film, Marching Powder, Nick insists it is not a Football Factory sequel.
The Sun has been given an exclusive first look at the 15-rated trailer and images from the movie, which will hit cinemas next year.
‘Too spicy’
This time Danny plays Jack Jones, who has six weeks to turn his life around or end up going to prison.
It is full of one-liners, with Jack replying “very” to a couple saying “hi” and his long-suffering wife telling a social worker that her husband would “rather give his cocaine to the homeless” than go to couples’ therapy.
Nick explains: “It’s not a sequel. It’s a sort of reflection on what it’s like to be slightly washed up and middle-aged and then completely f*** your life up.
People might think it relates to The Football Factory because it’s got Danny Dyer and it is made by me and it has got football violence in it, but that’s where the comparisons sort of finish.
“I think the most important thing is that it’s got more comedy.
“This is about the disintegration of the relationship and about a wife who’s had enough of her husband acting like a complete c*** from years of sniffing cocaine and fighting at football.”
In many ways, the film is more of a “rom-com”, but clearly not in the same vein as Love Actually.
The topic of white working class middle-aged men is not necessarily in vogue. I think this particular culture — no one is talking about it, no one is talking about the working class. They are forgotten about. They are a written-off generation.
Nick Love
It does, however, poke fun at Richard Curtis’s 2003 hit movie, by having Danny and Stephanie Leonidas, who plays his onscreen wife Dani, holding up signs with messages on them.
But rather than professing his love, Jack’s sign asks, “did you f*** him”.
Such liberal swearing, including the C-word, meant Marching Powder was “too spicy” for television executives.
Nick, whose other works include a remake of The Sweeney with Ray Winstone and the 2023 TV series A Town Called Malice, reveals: “We actually spoke about doing this as a TV show about three years ago.
“But it was a bit too spicy for all the broadcasters and the streamers.”
So rather than giving in to woke, risk-averse scheduling, Danny and Nick decided to produce Marching Powder as a “low-budget” movie.
They secured funding from industry newcomer True Brit Entertainment, which is backing fresh, homegrown productions.
Nick, who grew up on a South London council estate, thinks too many “money people” are scared of putting swearing and working-class characters into movies.
The Millwall fan comments: “For people to give you the money to back you for a controversial movie like Marching Powder is great.
“The topic of white working-class middle-aged men is not necessarily in vogue.
“No one is talking about the working class — they are forgotten about. They are a written-off generation.”
In the trailer, Jack’s wife is just as foul-mouthed as him. When he asks what time it is, Dani replies: “It’s just coming up to ‘You are an absolute c*** o’clock’.”
Nick grew up in a world where such phrases are “no big thing” and is worried that they are becoming “illegal”.
He says: “It’s almost like swearing’s become hijacked, or it’s become illegal in certain quarters.
“But the truth is that people swear. It’s a way of communicating with each other.
“You don’t just swear to be rude to people. People swear because it’s part of their DNA, and actually terms of affection, as you saw from the trailer.”
Stephanie, 40, who auditioned for The Football Factory but missed out on a role, certainly appears to have plenty of scene-stealing lines.
Nick says she is “like the female Dyer”.
But the old-school director has had to accept the modern-day film industry’s handling of sex when one scene called for Stephanie to strip off.
He says: “You can’t make a film without an intimacy co-ordinator these days.”
While Danny’s Love Island star daughter Dani, 28, has made a name for herself on the small screen, it is now the turn of his son Jack to steal the limelight. The 11-year-old plays Jack’s kid JJ in Marching Powder.
After years of excess Danny, who also has 17-year-old daughter Sunnie with wife Joanne Mas, has finally settled down.
‘Second chance’
The couple married in 2016 and are now grandparents to Dani’s three children — Santiago, three, and one-year-old twins Summer and Star.
Danny is receiving rave reviews for his role in Disney’s racy adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, and also hosted BBC gameshow The Wall.
Despite the star’s somewhat bold exterior, Nick reckons Danny has never let showbusiness go to his head.
I’m at the point in my career where I am really grateful to still be making films, rather than feeling entitled to it like I did when I was younger.
Nick Love
He says: “He’s the only person I know personally who hasn’t been affected negatively by fame.
“He’s just the same as when I met him when he was 16.
“He’s very appreciative that he’s been given a second chance a couple of times. I have been given a second chance a couple of times.
“He’s having a real renaissance.”
Nick, who was married to EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer, 52, for two years before their divorce in 2000, has also mellowed these days.
He says: “I have been settled for a very long time. I’m at the point in my career where I am really grateful to still be making films, rather than feeling entitled to it like I did when I was younger.”
That perspective meant that making Marching Powder with Danny was the most fun Nick has ever had in the movie business.
He concludes: “I would say it’s been the most enjoyable experience I’ve had making a film.”
Judging by the gag-packed trailer, audiences will find the new flick very enjoyable too.
- Marching Powder will be released in cinemas in March 2025.
