Benidorm is back, and so is Tiger Dyke, and this time he’s opted a lads holiday with best mate Joey, instead of a holiday with his family.
Joey Ellis is played by relative newcomer Nathan Bryon and it’s safe to say that the pair of them have come to Benidorm for a good time. So where better to have a chat with new boy Nathan and seasoned pro Danny Walters, than by the Solana pool?
Despite not knowing each other until Benidorm, chatting to Nathan and Danny was like chatting to two guys who had been friends for years! Here’s what the mischievous duo had to say...
So Danny, you're the last Dyke standing...
Danny: Yes! I’m very lucky to be back, that's the main thing. Because obviously things change every year but I’m holding on there, I'm keeping the Dyke legacy going.
Tiger and Joey are mates aren't they?
Nathan: Yes they’re definitely mates, who are finding a lot out about each other as they go along.
Danny: These are two mates, who are basically just a typical group of mates really. They get along, there’s so much banter, there's no sort of arrogance between them, it's literally lads on holiday, fooling around having such a great laugh.
Nathan: And innocent! They’re not gross, they're not rowdy lads.
Danny: Tiger was never like that. He’s very mischievous, very clever, streetwise, and towards his mum and dad he was quite aggressive. But now he’s on holiday with his mate you see a different side to him because it’s two lads on holiday having fun.
Nathan: All the things they do, I think we would like to do.
Who gets the most girls then?
Danny: Tiger definitely thinks he’s got it all but he fails every time, but I assume we don’t get any birds.
Nathan: We try hard, we go to ultimate lengths this series, and then I think it’s just a bit of a bromance really.
Is there anyone they've got their eye on?
Nathan: There’s someone who has caught our eye.
DW: With Benidorm, you're two lads on holiday, you’re looking around the pool and sometimes there’s not a lot of talent... as Tiger and Joey would call them!
There is a character, a member of the bar staff who we try to impress and we think we're going to get her and we would do anything to get her and it’s a battle between us as to who will get her first.
We’ve always got Mateo ruining things because he’s the hot good looking guy, mature, Spanish, romantic, so us two British, we’re a bit dull compared to Mateo! (Laughs)
Have you been out on town together much?
Danny: Yes, a few times.
Nathan: Danny’s like the Beckham of Benidorm, and they’re like "Who’s his friend?" (Laughs) That happens, but our nights out in Benidorm are just mental.
Danny: A lot of people look at Nathan and go "Are you the new character?" - They obviously know what's going on, and they know that things have changed so they like to get the gossip. It's really good for us to get in pictures together, because when the series comes out, then they'll know!
Nathan, being the new boy, it must be nice to be out here in Benidorm filming?
Nathan: Oh yeah, it’s amazing, look at this, we're having an interview by a pool! It's amazing to work with the cast, to be here, the sunburn, we're very very lucky.
Do you have many scenes with any of the other characters?
Nathan: We have a few scenes with Kenneth, John Challis... It’s gone so fast! I remember day one we came in and it was raining so hard and yesterday I was on the beach!
Danny: It’s one of the best jobs in the world. I'm very lucky. It's the best job ever!
Are you going to be performing again in Neptunes?
Danny: Well... Someone is definitely performing!
Nathan: There's a big Neptune's number and I’m performing in a mankini! When it came, it was a lady-kini, is that a thing?
Danny: Yeah, it was a woman-kini so there was no pouch!
Nathan: So I thought I was going to wear boxers, so that wouldn't be too bad. But then in rehearsal they said "Oh no, you're not going to wear boxers!"
Danny: I said to Derren (Litten) - "This is 9pm on ITV, it's not the Playboy channel!"
Nathan: I was nervous as hell doing it, I had to whip off my trousers, in my mankini and shake my butt! So that was a moment.
Also my girlfriend’s family are going to watch that and they’re going to see far too much of me, more than they ever should. The nation will! More than they ever should.
Were you a fan of Benidorm before coming into it?
Nathan: Yeah, but I haven’t watched all of them but I watched the whole of the first series, and some of yours (looking at Danny). I can’t wait to sit down with all the box sets and churn it all out up to series eight! I want to see it all.
Danny: Benidorm is such a unique type of acting as well, as an actor it's the only show where you can push the boundaries of comedy, it's about having a lot of fun and I think the more fun we have on set the better it'll look on screen.
It's fantastic writing as well by Derren Litten that it’s almost given to us on a plate. You've just got to trust the words, trust the other actors. The type of comedy it is, there's nothing else like it on tv.
Nathan: We read one of the new scripts on set, we had it emailed to our phones and we were like "Oh my God!" we were actually laughing out loud, that’s rare.
Derren gets the gags like bam bam bam, so you don't have to improv. It's there, you know he's been considerate for so long that it doesn't just land on the page on a whim, it's carved out. So hopefully we’ll bring it off the page and it’s funny!
We really enjoy it, and it's nice when we do a crew rehearsal to see them giggling. The script is really well done so we just have to throw those lines together. We banter with what’s on the script, we have to make it look like banter.
Danny: In the read-through, which was sort of an audition, Nathan turned up, read the part of Joey and absolutely smashed it! Everybody cracked up, and we knew that the actor was right and the writing was right.
Do you have much of a comedy background?
Nathan: Yeah definitely. I love doing comedy. Comedy is my thing. I do YouTube sketches and stuff like that so yeah, I just love making other people laugh.
Danny: Tim Healy comes up to us and says he's never seen a double act like us, nowadays. He says we remind him of like a Dumb and Dumber, or like a Morecambe and Wise. It’s a great double act and hopefully people will warm to them.
I imagine there's quite a bit of corpsing on set?
Nathan: Big time! One time I was sitting in the background and Honor was doing a scene in Neptune’s and she does this amazing American accent and was talking about having a big butt like Beyoncé.
I don’t know if you’ve seen her but she’s tiny and I didn't know this was happening and it was only the back of my afro that was in shot, but I couldn’t believe what was coming out of her mouth! I was like what?!
Would you say that Tiger has developed more as a character, now that he's without his family?
Danny: Yeah definitely, you see a much more individual side to Tiger, and you actually see his personality.
In series six when he leads Michael Garvey astray, that was introduction to him. He's a little shit, he's cheeky, he's very naughty and likes to get into trouble. Last year there was a more romantic side to Tiger as he tries to fall in love with this girl, but this year he’s single again, and you actually see what Tiger’s all about.
How far away are your characters from yourselves?
Nathan: That's a good question! (Laughs)
Danny: I have to say there are definitely aspects of him in me. I sometimes base my old personality, there were times when I used to be cheeky towards my mum, so I base some of those aspects on Tiger. Sometimes the banter we have is the banter I have with my friends, so there are aspects of Danny in there.
Nathan: I definitely have Joey moments! I have been on a lads holiday and I got up to loads of crazy thing, but that’s good because if I hadn't, how can I portray it authentically.
I definitely have Joey moments like when I went to the gym in his apartment and cracked the wall with some weights and then to fix it I got a poster and just stuck it over, but there’s CCTV and it’s not like they’re not going to recognise me with my afro.
Danny: This guy came up to me and I tried to play dumb, I tried to do a Tiger on him and be a bit cheeky. We basically had to face the music and Nathan had to pay 20 euros.
Nathan: That's why I don’t go to the gym anymore, I can’t deal with these things. I know I can break stuff without trying.
Will you be working with Joan Collins?
Danny: Well she's obviously going to do something diva-ish but I don’t know if we’ll be working with her but hopefully, she’s a good laugh and very glamorous!
And finally, Madge is back! Will you be working with her?
Danny: We haven’t done any scenes with her, but we've spoken to Sheila. Every time she just gets oranger and orange and oranger! She looks like a cheesy wotsit.
Nathan: I love Sheila. Team Sheila! But even I had to have a spray tan – I was like "What?!" This is just how I look! I’ve already got a natural tan!