He’s miles away from Albert Square and all the EastEnders drama, but Danny Dyer was still thrilled to be reunited with one of his former co-stars while filming for Mr Bigstuff.
Nudity, fights and secret kisses – Danny Dyer doesn’t hold back in the second series of Mr Bigstuff. He even bumped into one of his former co-stars in EastEnders.
Danny Dyer‘s appearance in the first season has already earned him the 2025 TV Bafta for Male Performance in a Comedy Programme. Now, the show returns with Danny and creator Ryan Sampson as chalk-and-cheese brothers Lee and Glen – two blokes bound by blood but tested by secrets and deep-rooted dysfunction.
The emotions may be deep, but Mr Bigstuff doesn’t forget its slapstick roots. The stunts are back, and Danny has gone full throttle. “It’s very physical. It was a whole day of me having a tear-up,” he says, “I don’t mind that stuff, but it’s getting a bit more difficult as I get older.”
One brawl sees Lee square up to members of a working men’s club – and even Ryan couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Danny was very impressive, he’s like Errol Flynn when he gets going,” he says, “I’ve never seen anybody do that before. It’s really technical and knackering.”
Alongside the bruises and banter are a few familiar faces, with Taskmaster’s Fatiha El-Ghorri popping up again as Aysha, as well as EastEnders stars Alan Ford, who played Stevie Mitchell, and Linda Henry, aka Shirley Carter. “I love Linda,” says Danny, who starred as Shirley’s son Mick in the BBC soap. “I wanted more scenes with her.”
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Both actors were inspired by their own lives to nail the chaotic relationship. “They’re at each other’s throats, aren’t they?” says Ryan, 39. “I have siblings, and we sometimes tear strips off each other.”
Danny’s real-life brother Tony provided some inspiration for Glen and his character Lee. “We’re only 18 months apart but we’re so different, a little bit like Lee and Glen.
My brother hated football when he was a kid. His best friend was a girl and he loved playing with Barbies,” Danny, 47, recalls. “He was the bane of my life because being in an East London school, he was being bullied for it and I was fighting his battles a lot.
“He’s a straight man, but he wanted to play with dolls. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.” And then there were the games they played together.
“We used to play a game called Judo Mermaid. He was the mermaid so he would put my mum’s tights on his head and I was Judo. I’d turn up, a bit like Columbo, with a celery stick in my mouth, and solve crimes.”
But in Mr Bigstuff the laughs stop for Glen when his fiancée Kirsty – played by Harriet Webb – starts behaving strangely. She’s sitting on a secret that could destroy everything.
As fans will remember, Kirsty shared a stolen kiss with Lee at the end of series one. And she’s kept it to herself since. But in real life, Harriet admits she isn’t to be trusted with her own secrets.
“I’m very much an over-sharer,” she admits, “I once lied about how many sausages I’d eaten. Then immediately, after telling the lie, I revealed the truth.”
When a mystery blackmailer appears and threatens to spill the beans, silence becomes critical for her relationship with Glen. “Throughout series one, they told each other, ‘No more secrets,’” Harriet says.
“They made a pact, especially after he found out about Kirsty’s shoplifting. So to have another secret, although I’m not the only one, is a lot.”
Series two doesn’t just revolve around Kirsty’s moral dilemmas. Lee and Glen go digging into their father’s past, only for Lee to stumble on something that could shatter their sense of identity.
Not all scenes were fun for Harriet. She recalls one tough day of filming in Canvey Island, Essex. “There was one day dedicated to a scene in episode five and Ryan told me, ‘I can’t wait for this,’” Harriet says.
“And I was like, ‘It’s going to be hell, I’m going to have to be on the verge of tears for an entire day.’ That was my biggest challenge this season.”
For Ryan, the toughest scenes were the romantic ones. As a proud gay man, filming intimate moments with Harriet took some getting used to.
“I’ve written a lot of sex scenes and kissing,’” he says, “But actually doing it… There was one moment Kirsty was like, ‘I think you grab my boob now.’ That might only be the second boob I’ve grabbed.”
Still, the messy love triangle, the family drama and the emotional gut punches all come wrapped in the off-beat humour that made Mr Bigstuff a surprise hit. And its second series goes bigger and bolder.
As for a third? The cast are all on board, though Ryan says he hasn’t got it nailed down yet. “I’m waiting to see what the viewers think,” he says. “But season two ends on the biggest plot twist I could think of. That’s the jumping off point for series three. I already have a few ideas.”
Mr Bigstuff Series 2 launches on Sky and streaming service NOW on Thursday 24 July.
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