7 minute read
Danny Hatchard
About Danny
Danny-Boy Hatchard (born 26 July 1991) is an English actor, best known for playing Lee Carter in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Private Rhett Charlton Aka “Cheese” in BBC’s hit military drama Our Girl.
Hatchard’s other credits include Steven Pierce in the 20th anniversary production of Beautiful Thing, and in 2019, Danny played Private Rhett Charlton in the fourth series of Our Girl.
Most recently Danny was cast in Ridley Road, which is in post-production. Recent announcements confirm the show will air at some point this year, and we can’t wait.
Danny Hatchard with Danny Dyer at the Old Vic - Eastenders (BBC)
Danny! What’s up? Never a dull moment?
Well there is never a dull moment in the House of Hatchard …. cooking, playing, you know the odd computer game. But to be honest, I try to get out of the house as much as I can. If I am indoors I’m cooking, or I’m on the peloton, or writing or I’ve got mates around or just playing with the dog. Yeah, it’s very chilled round here. Not manic but I wouldn’t say it’s dull either!
Ridley Road – looks a winner! Grim story line?
Well, it is a thriller set in the 60s. It’s based on the novel of the same name by the author Joe Bloom. Some of your readers may or may not have read it, but it’s a fantastic novel.
The storyline is based around two Jewish lovers who end up going undercover as part of the National Socialist Movement, which was run by a huge fascist and Neo-Nazi called Colin Jordan.
It’s a thriller. And I don’t want to go into it all too much, because I’m terrible at giving away spoilers! But yeah, it’s going to be a fantastic show. I play Colin Jordan’s right-hand man - so I play a bit of a nasty piece of work, and a clear product of his environment and miseducation.
Danny Hatchard on Albert's Square - Eastenders (BBC)
Tough during lockdown for actors?
Yes, incredibly tough. Many of my friends have had to find work elsewhere. Whether that be in Waitrose, delivering for Amazon, working anywhere and everywhere so that they can earn money because a lot of them weren’t furloughed. There’s a lot of uncertainty around theatre, especially because shows are being cancelled left right and centre, even though they’d been promised a job six months prior. What do you snack on during filming?
Well it may be boring, but for me, it has to be hummus, carrot sticks, radish, toast, you know, like little soldiers with hummus! Sliced bell peppers dipped in hummus. Really that is literally the thing that I snack on the most. If not, I’ll make like a couple of wraps or something like I’ll make some Linda McCartney shredded duck wraps with shredded carrots, shredded spring onions, and shredded cucumber and whack some hoisin sauce on there - and its always delicious.
Everyone knows you as Lee Carter in Eastenders – Mick and Linda’s son. That must a been a giggle?
It was amazing. I had an incredible time on the show. I learned so much while I was there, however unfortunately there is some level of stigma around actors who are in soaps. They’re called soap actors, but they shouldn’t be because they’re not soap actors. They are actors, and they just so happened to be in a soap.
It can be quite frustrating because these actors are among the best actors I’ve ever worked with and their level of work ethic is like no other. At Ridley Road we filmed four episodes over a period of three to four months. But four episodes of EastEnders could easily be filmed in one week. So hopefully that gives you some level of perspective. It’s an incredible show to be a part of to work with Danny Dyer, Kelly Bright and the rest of the Carter clan…. and to have formed the bond that I have with them. It was an honour and a privilege, and I will always fly the EastEnders flag.
Danny's on-screen family from Eastenders (BBC)
And your ex-screen sister Nancy Carter is vegan! We spotted that this summer… Will Ridley Road be flying vegan colours?
I did not know that!
So those of you who don’t know Nancy Carter is played by an actress called Maddie Hill. I had absolutely no idea that she was vegan, but me and Maddie don’t really talk all that much - partly because we’ve actually been really busy.
And flying vegan colours? I doubt it. You know, it’s in the 60s. I’m not really sure. But it’s a nice thought.
Do you have your eye on films at all? Or theatre? Or is it TV?
I do not discriminate with regards to work. But yeah, I really don’t mind what I do next with regards to TV, film or theatre, but as long as it’s classy and it’s something that I would enjoy I’ll happily do it.
Fave vegan din dins?!
It’s really, really difficult to pick because I love all the vegan food that I cook! And that’s not just me being biased to my own cooking skills! But if I was to step away from my own personal favourites of me in the kitchen, or what I cook in
the kitchen, I would have to say I adore a What the Pitta kebab wrap. I love it. It just blows my mind every single time. I could eat it all day long, but unfortunately it is vegan junk food!
Future of veganism?
There are just so many benefits to being vegan - and adopting a plant-based diet is going to take over because everybody wants to live longer and everybody wants to look after themselves. A lot of people are wising up to the fact that animal agriculture and the dairy industry is barbaric. And the more people learn about it, the quicker we can, as a society, adopt predominantly a vegan diet and change the world.
Tips for newbies?!
The top tip for newbies… take it easy. I feel like a lot of newbies don’t stick to it because they get so overwhelmed by completely changing and switching to a vegan diet because of their lack of education and understanding of what they can use to cook different things like replacements of cheese and milks in this that and the other. I would always say take your time with it. First of all, replace your butter with flora.
Flora original or Flora light because it tastes exactly the same as butter and it’s totally vegan.
And you won’t feel like you’ve made that much of a difference but you have because what you’re essentially doing is boycotting other butters and margarines that have animal products in and the more people who boycott those, the less likely they are to continue to manufacture them and exploit animals and therefore adopt vegan ingredients.
And then milks you know, you got hemp milk, rice milk, almond milk, soya milk, oat milk, cashew milk, but you want cows titty milk…?! I mean, listen, I would say the best thing for you to do would be to find one of them that you like, my personal favourite is Oatly Barista. I have it in everything. And then when I have more porridge, I have soya milk because it’s got a natural taste and a natural sweetener in it, which just tastes delicious. And it’s nice and creamy.
And then just take your time discovering new things to cook - and I said this on VegfestUK Chat … teach yourself one vegan meal every single Monday, or whatever day you pick.
Choose one vegan meal that you’re going to learn to cook once a week and by the end of the year you have 52 different things on your menu and you can literally eat and pick and choose one of those for the rest of your life every single day.
You will never get bored because 52 different dishes to cook is a lot of choices. I don’t think people usually learn to cook more than 10 things. And being a vegan would be a doddle after that!
Also learn to use seasoning as well… I don’t know what it is with predominantly white Western culture, but we think seasoning is salt and pepper. It’s not! It can be paprika, onion powders and garlic powders, herbs and spices. Turmeric, curry powders and it just makes food so much more exciting. Also go on social media and start looking at people that are vegan and start looking at people that are teaching how to cook new vegan things, and suddenly it’ll just become more exciting.
Check out Danny's segment from 'Karin's Christmas Cracker' livestream from December 2020!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxzT2OzydAQ
Danny on ‘Karin’s Christmas Cracker!’
