The Dyers’ Caravan Park - Paul Shaw Q+A
If there’s anyone who knows the full ins and outs of Priory Hill Caravan Park, it’s site director Paul Shaw. And now he’s got two helping hands with Danny and Dani Dyer in The Dyers’ Caravan Park.
At the start of the show, Paul admits that he’s not a fan of EastEnders, but when you’re in charge of events and have a BAFTA-winning actor at your disposal, Paul knows a little bit of razzle dazzle could come in handy to give the grounds a bit of life.
Speaking ahead of the series, Paul talks about the ups and downs of having the Dyers’ around.
What jobs did they both excel at and what were they rubbish at?
I mean, they were fantastic. They threw themselves into everything and tried almost everything. I’d probably say manual labour is not their thing. They had a little go at riding on lawn mowers, which wasn’t very successful.
Danny got the mower stuck, he drove it into a swampy area and got it completely stuck, covered in mud – then he got off and left it.
What was he good at?
As soon as you give him a microphone and put him in front of people, he’s just away. He’s a natural, obviously, that’s his game. So, there were things like the sports day which I was really worried about, thinking it would be a disaster, but that all went really smoothly because, again, he had a microphone and led from the front, and he done that with the nights that he put on.
Even with the owners’ meeting as well, just having him straight away on the microphone was great. It was fantastic because it was the first time all the customers got to see him and realised this was all sort of real. They had their selfies and all that sort of stuff. Danny and Dani are both selfie magnets when it comes to the general public.
Danny also turned his hand to bingo calling, didn’t he?
Yeah, he did. That’s the only time when he had the microphone that he wasn’t sure of himself. He was very worried because we made it pretty clear to him that we’re playing for money, so you can’t mess up. The whole thing has got to be serious.
So, he was very nervous going into that. He didn’t like selling the tickets either, because of having to add up the prices in his head. He did not like the mental arithmetic at all.
What did you think about their unique video advertising the deluxe caravan?
I thought that was quite funny. From minute one, it was always like, “Right, we’ve got to watch the swearing a little bit, Dan. Don’t forget when you’ve got the microphone.” But that’s just part of him, it’s not easy for him to switch that off.
So, the video was a bit crude in places, but I think most people took it as a light-hearted joke. From our point of view, it was fantastic publicity. I think it had over two and a half million views.
What were your highlights of the Dyers’ time at Priory Hill and Nutts Farm?
It’s so surreal looking back on what we’ve done this year. It’s just crazy, and it was so much fun. It was such a laugh with both of them and the production company Expectation as well – all the team involved were such nice people. We just had such a great time.
It was brilliant. But I think one of the highlights was when Jimi, Danny and I went on a beer tasting day. We went to a local brewery and did some beer tasting, and that was a good laugh.
Finally, in the first ep you said you weren’t a fan of EastEnders. Having worked alongside them, are you a fan of the Dyers now?
Oh, absolutely. Definitely. 100%.