Danny Dyer was so skint when BBC offered him EastEnders role that he ‘couldn’t even afford to buy the execs a lager’ – but these days his kids get driven to private school in a Bentley

He recently revealed his children get driven to their swish private school in a Bentley, after his role in EastEnders and a series of top films saw his bank account swell.

But it all could have been so different for national treasure Danny Dyer, after he went broke following a string of box office flops in the 2000s.

Things got so bad for the actor, 47, that he couldn’t even afford to buy BBC execs a lager when they met him to offer him a role in their flagship soap in 2013.

He previously told the Jonathan Ross Show: ‘I didn’t have an audition, they rung me up, I had a touch.

‘They said, “Listen we want you to come in the show, take over the Queen Vic” and at the time I was skint and I just had about enough petrol money to get there, that’s the truth.

‘They thought I was a multimillionaire and I met them in the hotel and I walked in absolutely skint, not a bean about me. I thought, I hope they don’t ask me to get them a lager because I’ve got no dough.

‘They sat me on a throne and said how great I was and how they wanted me to come in and take over the Vic and [I was] going to have a really big storyline about having a gay son.’

Danny explained he made out it was no big deal, but secretly he was overjoyed by the career-saving offer.

He said: ‘I was like, “Wow, I want to do a cartwheel in front of them” but I thought, “Play it down, don’t show your bolt too early.”

‘I went, “I’ll think about it” and then I walked out and I did a couple of backflips on the way out! I played it right down, I didn’t want to look desperate and I was desperate.’

Speaking about what he might have had to do if the role didn’t come up, Danny said: ‘I might have had to go and load skips Jon, I just couldn’t catch a cold, I was doing nightclub appearances.’

In 2023, the Marching Powder star put his past financial woes down to a run of ‘s*** films’ including 2012’s Run For Your Wife which made just £602 in its opening weekend.

He told The Sun: ‘I was on my a**e. I was f***ed. I had made too many bad films. I’d had my shot and made some good stuff. I had resorted to going to nightclubs and waving off balconies.

‘That chips away at your soul that I’ll tell ya. Where do you go from there?

He added: ‘I f***ed it. I got a call from Dominic Treadwell Collins who asked me to come for a meeting. I had just about petrol money to get there. I swear to god I was on my a**e. He told me about this part – Alpha male who wears a pink dressing gown.

‘And his first storyline is going to be about his son coming out to him as gay and you just put your arm around him and tell him you love him.

‘I said “wow you f****** get me.” I thought I’m going to come in and chase Phil about. Six months or maybe a year. You can’t take Phil on.

‘But no he said take over the Queen Vic and come with a family. They didn’t know I was skint.’

His life now is worlds away from the dark pre-EastEnders days and Danny told ITV’s new show The Assembly last month that his kids head to their private school in Chigwell in style.

Each episode of the series sees a different celebrity face questions from a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people, which will force them to cast aside their media training, with no topic off limits.

And in last week’s instalment, he said that because of his fame, his kids have never been on a bus and instead get driven ‘door to door in a Bentley’.

He was asked by one of the interviewers: ‘How working class are you to send your son to a private school?’

Dyer responded: ‘I am a working-class kid and I am very proud of my roots. We moved to a better place where we could bring the children up.

‘I have put my children in a private school, but now they’re not street wise. I don’t regret it but there’s a part of me that I wish I could instil a little bit of knowing what it’s like to struggle into them.

‘But like anyone, if you have kids you want to give them everything you can and it can backfire on you slightly, because now, they get driven around in a Bentley.

‘I’ve got a Bentley. I walked everywhere as a kid or got a bus.

‘My kids have never been on a bus, they don’t have to. Because they get driven door to door in a Bentley.’

Danny, who hails from east London, has three children with his wife Joanne – Sunnie, 18, Arty, 11, and reality star Dani, 28, who won the fourth series of ITV dating show Love Island.

He revealed in March that they were going to send his son to a private school in Chigwell.

Asked on The Assembly show how he felt about her going on the show and being a nepo baby, he responded: ‘She is but by default and I think that’s why she got on the show.

‘I never wanted her to do it because I heard people have s.e.x on that show. As a father I don’t want to see any of that.

‘She didn’t tell me until the last minute and she just went. She was such a beautiful human being on it. So actually, it worked out really well with her. She was working in a pub before that.

‘She is a nepo baby but what’s wrong with that?’

Revealing all, the the Rivals star said he was paid £100,000 for his BBC gig presenting The Wall and that meditation and therapy has helped him become a better person.

Having accrued a vast sum of money from his successful acting career, Danny has now handed over the reins of his bank account to wife Joanna Mas, owing to his previous wild behaviour.

Last week, he broke down in tears as he revealed his partner controls all their finances.

Their on-off relationship was marred with cheating allegations in the past, although they eventually got back together for good and married in 2016 after Joanne proposed a year before.

Back in 2000, Danny’s wild behaviour culminated in Jo catching him cheating on her, causing her to kick him out and clear their bank account.