On a freezing November evening in the Cotswolds, Danny Dyer is calling on more than 30 years’ experience as an actor to prepare himself to cope with the night of filming ahead.
“You got to put them heat pads in your trotters,” he says, gesturing towards his feet.
“I’ve got two double ones for me toes,” he continues, “and Long Johns obviously.”
We have been invited to the set of Rivals, the adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s bonkbuster, which has generated exactly the kind of heat the cast and crew could do with tonight.
The show’s first season even won the International Emmy Award for best drama in the hours before we arrived.
The location is Chavenage House, near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, where a bonfire scene is to be filmed for season two.
For Dyer, one unexpected outcome of the first season was his character, Freddie Jones, being declared a sex symbol.
“With a wig and a moustache,” he chortles, while wearing the sort of sheepskin coat that even Del Boy might have rejected on taste grounds.
“He was very kind. There’s not a lot of kind people in this show. And while he is really powerful, speaks loads of languages and is really rich, he’s still very much, in essence, working class. He tries to do the right thing and I think that’s maybe what’s been found attractive.”
He pauses before adding: “It can’t be my belly and breasts. Especially when you stand next to Aidan Turner.”
The only downside for Dyer is that he has been stuck with the moustache for all seven months of the shoot, and when we speak there are another three to go.
“I just want to see my top lip again,” he mourns ruefully. “I miss it.
“My grandchildren only know me as a moustached man, and that depresses me slightly.”
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