Danny Dyer rejects claims BBC is 'dumbing down' with new history series Right Royal Family

EastEnders star will host a two-part programme about his royal lineage, which will feature scenes where he dresses up as his ancestors – from Vikings to Elizabethans

Danny Dyer has hit back at claims that the BBC is “dumbing down history” by having him as the host of a show about his royal ancestors.

In a 2016 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, the EastEnders star, who plays landlord Mick Carter, learnt that he is related to Thomas Cromwell, Edward III, William the Conquerer and Henry III.

He will now present a two-part BBC history series titled Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family, which will include scenes where he acts out crucial moments in the lives of his ancestors, incluing a Viking called Rollo.

Dyer said he hopes the programme will help to dispel the “hard man” image he has cultivated over the years via series such as The Real Football Factories and Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men, which he claimed were “purely for money”.

“I’m a sensitive little soul really, quite a spiritual man as well,” he told the Press Association. “This is more me and what I’m about, this show.”

Ahead of the Right Royal Family broadcast, the 41-year-old suggested there has been some criticism of the programme for the sole reason that he has a “working-class accent”.

“I know there’s been a little bit of bad press around this, from people who haven’t even watched a second of it, about how the BBC is dumbing down history just because maybe I’ve got a working-class accent or whatever they want to say,” he said.

“I don’t get it. Judge it after you’ve watched it at least. A lot of people might be bored of that boring history formula, and I think (this is) a different way to learn.

“I’m going to try to be as funny as much as I possibly can, and I like to embrace every historian with a big cuddle at the beginning, you know, to make them settle down, and just have an old chinwag about medieval history.”

Dyer also revealed that the show will feature his daughter, Love Island winner Dani Dyer, as an Elizabethan princess. His wife, Joanne, will also make an appearance.

“I think it will be interesting, and a lot of my little Dani’s fans they’re gonna love it. You know, seeing her dressed up as an Elizabethan princess, and my wife as an Elizabethan queen,” he said.

“But I think they’ve done her as an evil queen. Petrifying she was, I think she took it a little bit too seriously.”

Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family will air on January 23 on BBC One