Emmerdale’s Aaron Dingle actor Danny Miller has candidly opened up about his father in an emotional update on Good Morning Britain
Emmerdale’s Danny Miller emotional as he makes heartbreaking confession about famous dad(Image: ITV)
Emmerdale’s Danny Miller has spoken out about his father amid his dementia battle, revealing he misses him “so much”.
The Aaron Dingle actor has been incredibly open in recent months about his father Vince, who is living with dementia. Vince is a well-known star in the showbiz world as a singer, compere and comedian.
And on Monday (March 23) Danny appeared on Good Morning Britain where he spoke about Vince in an emotional update. He said: “It’s sad, and, you know, me and my dad were thick as thieves at one point, and, you know, losing him over and over again is awful.”
Admitting he misses the man his dad was, Danny added: “I live a couple of hours drive from my dad now, which breaks my heart, but I have my own family.”
He continued: “I’ve got a job up in Yorkshire, on Emmerdale, and being around in Manchester isn’t easy anymore, so I moved my family up there, and it was kind of a really tough thing to do, because I’m not there for my dad as much as I’d like to be. I miss him terribly.
“But you know, the days where I do see him again, I often get, you know, a good visit, and I usually find if I play Matt Monroe – my dad was a comedian, but he’s a singer as well – and Matt Monroe was a friend of his.”
Danny went on: “I played it one day, and he just kind of pointed at it, and he said, 10th of December, 1970, whatever, and I Googled it, and he was right. I think it was either his birthday or when the single was released, and from then on I kind of thought, I’m gonna do that, so I do it as a normal thing. Now I’ll put it on the side and just play and just talk to him normally. I tend to get a better visit.“
Danny then spoke about his Emmerdale co-star Charley Webb, whose mum Helen passed away last week following a 12-year battle with Alzheimer’s. He said: “Charley Webb is a good friend of mine. She was on here [GMB] with you guys not long ago, talking about her mum’s Alzheimer’s, and unfortunately, she passed, and it’s so sad.”
Danny continued: “Charley was a massive inspiration for me to why I spoke out about it. It made me want to talk out, it made me want to be vulnerable, and allow myself to sort of put out an unfiltered video.”
He added: “I wanted to just try and allow people to see me to be someone completely different and be vulnerable and talk about these things in hope that it will sort of resonate with somebody somewhere and they can relate to it and go, actually, I’m going to go out and get a memory test.
“That is the beginning of how to sort of get that diagnosis for dementia and it’s something that, you know, I want to fly the flag for because I don’t want dementia to destroy the families as it’s destroyed ours.”
The GMB host then pointed out how Danny’s father had a very successful career as a compere comedian and “knew lots of influential and important people”.
Danny then went on to reveal what it is like now having a conversation with his father. He shared: “There’s good days and bad days. There was a time last week where I didn’t know if I’d be sat here, because, you know, he’s up and down with his general health anyway, but dementia does always make it feel somewhat worse, and there’s all water infections that, so, your urine infections that suddenly make them more confusing. And then his health declined. He looked, he looked ill.”
When asked if his father is sometimes unaware of who Danny is, the actor replied: “No, that will break my heart. I’m not there yet. We’re not there yet, luckily, but it will break my heart.” Admitting he misses his father “so much”, Danny said: “He used to call me a lot and just ranted and then put the phone down without even saying, how are you? And I’d give anything back to have those conversations.”
Known as the ‘king of comperes’, Danny’s father Vince worked as the VIP host at Manchester United for almost 30 years. He also worked at Old Trafford for 29 years and often interviewed football legend, Sir Alex Ferguson.
No stranger to rubbing shoulders with famous faces throughout his 65-year career, Vince has also worked with Johnny Mathis and Shirley Bassey and even spoke at comedian Bernard Manning’s funeral.
When Vince was 82, he announced that he would be officially retiring from the showbiz and entertainment world. He told Manchester Evening News: “I’ve no upset about it, the time is now to get out while you’re on top, you don’t want people saying ‘not him again’!”
To celebrate his retirement, Danny put together a charity bash in which he paid tribute to his dad, dubbing him the “best in the business”. On stage, Vince said: “I’ve had a great career, I’ve done it all as a presenter, comedian, singer, I’ve been very fortunate. As Edith Piaf said, Je Ne Regrette Rien, no regrets!”
Emmerdale airs Monday to Friday at 7:30pm on ITV and ITVX
