The Dyers’ Caravan Park - Dani Dyer Q+A
If anyone knows how to keep Danny Dyer in line, it’s his eldest daughter, Dani Dyer – so naturally she was an essential part of bringing The Dyers’ Caravan Park to life.
Used to life in front of a camera, Dani is letting cameras in on her life with her dad as they take on the project of investing in Priory Hill Caravan Park in Kent. While it sounds like fun, soon Dani is putting in the graft to make sure the park gets a new lease of life.
With time of the essence and the industry fighting a battle against cheap holidays abroad, can Dani help give Kent some zest?
Speaking ahead of the series, Dani talks about how her dad brought her into the project, what she brings to the table, and how she became besties with the residents.
Why did you want to make this show with your dad?
You know what, we get on so well, and we’ve always just worked really, really well together. My dad has always loved a caravan holiday, that was his thing from his childhood. So, when the idea of him running a caravan park came about, he said to me, “Would you be interested in coming along and helping me do it?” I was like, “You know what? Yeah.”
He always says that I don’t understand the caravan holiday, but I went on one! Alright, I stayed in a bungalow, but it was on a caravan site.
So, you’ve had the caravan experience before?
Yeah. I used to go away in the summer holidays with my best friends Ellie and Charlotte, and we used to go down to her Nan’s caravan for a couple of weeks and I loved it. That was our first sort of sense of freedom, like we’d go to the clubhouse, we’d go to the sea, and we’d go to the shop and buy all our snacks. I think one of us had our first kisses down there. I just loved it.
You and your dad have never run a business, have you?
No, we’re not really business-y kind of people. When we got approached with this idea we were like, “Can we do it?” And you know what, it’s probably one of the best things we’ve done. But we have to take our hats off to the people that run it [Priory Hill], because it’s been a family run business for so many years.
Darren, Paul, Mark [the management team] and [co-owner] Jimi and Alex are fantastic. They’ve never done TV before and this caravan park means so much to them, so for them to let us come into their world and let us have a go – it’s been fun. We’ve had a great year.
You’ve got a close bond with your dad – so much so, you say you’d stuff him when he dies, so you can always have him around. Tell us about your relationship.
I really would! He’s just my best mate; I just adore him. Me and my mum have got the most amazing relationship and I’m really close with my dad as well. I don’t know if it’s because they had me so young and I’ve gone through life with them together, but I just adore that man so much. He’s like the naughty boy that I have to rein in a little bit.
I always say to him, if he was in my year at school, I would want to be his mate. We just have such a good bond. Obviously, you know, he’s the dad, but we just get on so well. People always say to me, “What’s it like working with your dad?” And I’m like, “To be honest, it doesn’t feel like work”. We just always work well together, and we know how to be on TV together.
Reality TV is my thing, whereas for him he obviously does acting. So, he’s like, “Dan, I couldn’t do it without you.” So, it just works really, really well. I think you can tell by watching, we don’t really know how to run a business. We’re just trying our best and giving it a go.
You balance each other out. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
I think my dad’s weakness is money. He will spend and spend and spend that man, whereas me, I do like to have a little bit of a look, because when we got there [Priory Hill], we didn’t realise how expensive things are. We wanted to get a park for the kids, and we were like, “Oh my God, I didn’t realise how much a slide costs.”
He’s very much all in, whereas I’m like, “Right. Let’s just take a little bit of a step back and see what will work best for this caravan park. You know, let’s not throw our money into just one thing.” So, I think we just balance each other out by me being a little bit more sensible when it comes to the money side of things. I think for him it really works because he’s lovable down there, like everyone adores him. And I think people that may not have been a fan can see him now and go, “Oh, we love Danny.”
I think it’s really lovely with the residents because we’ve just become so close with them all.
Were you nervous when you first arrived at Priory Hill and Nutts Farm?
We were petrified because these residents have been there for years and years, passed down caravans, passed down chalets, and then suddenly having a film crew turning up – we thought they might hate that and might not want us there, and a few of them probably did think that.
But I think in the end, they thought they just wanted to have a laugh and come together. We held a meeting when we first arrived, we heard all their ideas, and we turned a few heads, which is what we wanted to do. We wanted to give everyone an amazing summer, and hopefully we’ve done that.
You rolled your sleeves up and got stuck in. Which jobs did you enjoy?
I do love a bit of cleaning. It’s a problem. No one can mop a floor the way I can, other than my beautiful cleaner Vicky. I like organisation, I’m quite good at that, and I do love my sage [to cleanse a space]. I’m really into all that because I do a bit of Pilates and all the saging and stuff. Jarrod thinks I’m woo-woo, but I love all that.
So, I got all that negative energy out of the caravan I was cleaning – I mean, that caravan, the state of it! But, yeah, I like to get my hands dirty, which I don’t think people realise. My dad will give up, he’ll just light a cigarette and go, “I ain’t doing that!” He’s good at emptying the bins but I can’t see him putting the Toilet Duck down the toilet.
You make an unconventional video to sell one of the new luxury caravans. It’s very funny. What was your creative vision for it?
That caravan is absolutely beautiful and we’re not businesspeople, right? So, we wanted people to get in on the joke with us. Obviously, we wanted to show off this caravan and show what it’s about, but we wanted to go down the comical route. So, showing the caravan but us also taking the p**s out of a holiday ad, because when people see an advert, it’s boring, right? You want to laugh or cry or get something from it.
So, for us, we were like, “How can we sell this caravan in a comical way?” Like with the billboard, we just sort of went off the cuff, really. We were like, let’s just go into this caravan and have a little bit of a walk around, and then Eleanor was there – and he said that she did swinging, and she went along with the joke!
We just went through each room, and I was like, “How can we make it a little bit funnier?” And I was like, “Listen, Dad, you’re the BAFTA winner here, so I’m leaving the acting skills to you.” I thought it was funny. They [the management team] didn’t like the ending, though, when – obviously he didn’t do a s**t – but he sits down on the loo, and all this stuff comes out. We just wanted to try and make it funny, and there were so many people that loved the video, so that was positive and really good.
What was it like working with the management team?
They were amazing. Again, they’ve never done TV before, but when you actually watch them, they are just so good at it. The TV show was their sideline and every day they are running that caravan park, you know. We definitely have our highs and lows, as you’ll see, there’s moments where they’re like, “Why have you done this?” and others where they’re like, “This is one of the best nights ever.”
We’ve just never wanted to let them down. When things go wrong, because things do go wrong along the way, you always have a little element of guilt. We always said to them how grateful we were because without them, there would be no show – like we’re just there but they are essentially the main thing. We always just have a chat and see what they’re happy with, what they’re not happy with.
They essentially become our friends for life. We adore them.
Tell us about the residents. Did you have any favourites?
We adored the residents. I loved Sheila and Lynn! They were just so up for a laugh. They remind me of my nan’s generation; they’re just so laid back. But, yeah, I loved all the old girls. We took my nan down the caravan park, and we couldn’t get her out of the bloody clubhouse!
You were doing this at the same time you were filming Strictly. Were the team and residents supportive when you had to pull out because of injury?
Yeah. I was absolutely devastated because it was something I was so excited about, and it was such a big thing for me. When I had to pull out, it genuinely felt like someone had died. But, yeah, everyone has been so amazing and so supportive. They threw me a party [at Priory Hill] just before I was going to do Strictly and I joked, “What was in that cake?!”
But, yeah, they were all messaging me and they put a sign up to say, “Vote for Dani!” which they had to quickly pull down. They played the launch show in the clubhouse and was just rooting for me to do so well. Then when I saw them all after, they were just cuddling me. They were just as gutted as I was.
What have been your highlights from the whole series?
I loved the sports day, and we also did this ‘80s theme night with a DJ and karaoke and everyone got dressed up – I really enjoyed that. But then we also built a park for the kids, and I was really happy about that as well because we put a little smile on the kids’ faces. We just got some really cool people down and some of the boys were playing football with legends.
There were some nights where Mr Dyer did have to get up on the stage and have a sing and a dance – I mean, we’ve gotta have a laugh. I did it, too. He says I cheated because I did the song Candy, and he said there’s not that many words in it. I’m like, “Yeah but I’ve got everyone on the dance floor. Thank you very much!”
Will you, Jarrod and the kids be staying at the site? Have you already been?
So, the kids have been but not Jarrod. It’s been hard with his football schedule. But the kids have been down, and they loved it. I want to take them down there again next year, because they just run wild and play with all the other kids. They had their ice creams, played on the swings. It’s fun for all the family. Everyone comes together.