Danny Dyer’s favourite kebab is a doner with chilli sauce. His wife has had total control of their finances ever since they had a particularly huge spat in 2000. And when he was a child, his dad would refuse to hold his hand. These are some of the details I learnt while watching the Rivals actor being grilled by a panel of neurodivergent and learning-disabled interviewers on ITV’s groundbreaking, funny and often moving series The Assembly, where no question is off limits.
The show initially aired as a pilot last year on BBC One, which saw 56-year-old actor Michael Sheen being asked the jaw-dropping question, “How does it feel to be dating someone only five years older than your daughter?”, about his partner Anna Lundberg, who is 30. The format replicates the original French show Les Rencontres du Papotin, on which President Emmanuel Macron was quizzed on whether marrying his high school teacher set a bad example (I should note, questions around age-gap relationships don’t actually appear in every episode).
