Mr Bigstuff's Ryan Sampson Tells Capital Breakfast He 'Manifested' Danny Dyer Quitting EastEnders

17 July 2024, 08:12 | Updated: 17 July 2024, 08:42

Mr Bigstuff writer and actor Ryan Sampson joined Capital Breakfast with the lead of his new comedy sitcom Danny Dyer.

Mr Bigstuff is a brand new comedy series starring Ryan Sampson and Danny Dyer as brothers Glen and Lee.

After working together on Plebs, this is Danny's first time playing the lead in a comedy show and it all came about when Ryan wrote the character of Lee especially for Danny to play.

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Ryan told Capital Breakfast with Jordan North, Chris Stark and Kemi Rodgers how the concept of Mr Bigstuff came about. "I just thought the idea of me and Danny playing brothers was just like the funniest thing. Pretty stupid ennit?

"I spent a bit of time, got really into it. Wrote the first episode, spent about a month really like churning through it and then I showed it to a producer and he was like, 'Do you realise [Danny's] in EastEnders for the foreseeable?

"'So there's no chance you're going to get him and you've written it specifically for him - like in his voice.'"

Ryan went on: "And so I went for commiseratory drinks with my friends... and we stayed out all night and on my way home in the morning, I went past a news agents and on the front of The Daily Express it said: Dyer Quits Enders.

"And I was like, 'God wants this to happen'. So yeah, [I] manifested it baby."

Danny Dyer hilariously teaches cockney rhyming slang with Ryan Sampson!

Danny left EastEnders in 2022, nearly a decade after he joined the cast as Mick Carter in 2013. He explained that while he was working on EastEnders he was "out of the game" and not considered for other roles.

"I didn't exist anymore in the industry, but that's the way it works," Danny went on, adding that it's a "great job" that brought him "stability".

Luckily he'd stepped away from the soap opera as Ryan said for the role of Lee in Mr Bigstuff "it was him or nothing".

Mr Bigstuff is available to stream on Sky Max and streaming service NOW from 17 July

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