Danny Dyer has candidly revealed that he unintentionally gained a stone in weight while filming the second series of Jilly Cooper's Rivals, which is set to premiere on Disney+ next week. The 48-year-old former EastEnders star, who appears alongside David Tennant, Aidan Turner, and Emily Atack, confessed to feeling lonely during the 10-month production.
Speaking about his experience, Dyer said: 'I was missing everyone, I was quite lonely on that one, Rivals, but Rivals is done for now and in the can. But while I was playing Fred, I have put on a stone.'
The actor attributed the weight gain to his 'awful diet' while living alone in Bristol. He explained: 'My diet was awful, living on my jack jones in Bristol and eating on Deliveroo’s and buying a pack of sausages which is a 12 pack and cooking them all of a night and making myself a couple of sandwiches, which is awful for my cholesterol. I am not advising any man my age to eat 12 sausages and then I got constipated.'
About Rivals and Dyer's Role
Adapted from Jilly Cooper's 1988 novel, Rivals was a major TV event in 2024, praised for its gripping drama of sex, power, and Eighties excess. Dyer stars as Freddie Jones in the series.
In addition to Rivals, Dyer will appear in a new ITV gameshow inspired by the series, Nobody's Fool, alongside Emily Atack, launching later this month.
Other Projects and Reflections
Recently, Dyer has also starred in the reality show The Dyer Caravan Park with his daughter Dani, 29, touring Britain's holiday parks. He returned to the big screen in March with the thriller One Last Deal, playing football agent Jimmy Banks.
Reflecting on his career, the father of three admitted that earlier struggles have made him eager to maximise his earnings. Speaking on his Live and Let Dyers podcast, he said: 'I am so busy at the moment and it’s the greed of it all. I’ve been around a long time, and I reckon I’ve only really had continuous success in the last 15 years, before that I made a lot of films, but I wasn’t being paid a lot of money, and I never knew when the phone was going to ring. But now I am in this purple patch, I am just taking, job after job after job.'
Rivals series 2 launches on Disney+ on May 15.
