Danny Dyer had a savage reaction to the winner of his own “surreal” lookalike competition.
Mike from Southampton was crowned the best lookalike at a contest in London on Wednesday, with the judges praising his swagger and charm.
However, some fans felt that runner-up Richard - who is an official Danny Dyer lookalike - resembled the actor more closely and claimed he had been “robbed”.
Dyer later met the contestants at a Mr Bigstuff event, reeling as he saw the participants piling into the room.
The EastEnders actor was particularly impressed with Mike’s outfit, which consisted of a white and maroon Sergio Tacchini jacket similar to one he wore in his 2005 film, The Business.
“Did you nick it?” Dyer asked in shock.
The actor - who is currently filming the second series of Rivals - then tickled Mike under the chin and joked, “You’ve got the same little double chin there, look!” prompting Mike to burst out laughing.
Surrounded by the contestants, Dyer also quipped: “This is like me ageing through the years!”
As they all lined up around him for a group photo, he added: “Come here, Dans! Look at this f**king boyband here, look!”
Speaking to the camera, he said: “This is very trippy, this.
“This is a very surreal for me and I have realised how much I don't look like Danny Dyer anymore.”
Mike himself admitted he didn’t have a huge likeness to Dyer while discussing his win.
“No one’s ever told me I look like Danny Dyer, but I’ve lived a similar sort of childhood — working-class,” he told Metro.
“I’m obviously very good-looking, very charismatic, and a geezer. I didn’t expect to win in the slightest.”
Turning to runner-up Richard, he joked: “I feel like I’ve met Danny Dyer today.”
Richard is signed to an agency as Dyer’s official lookalike thanks to his striking resemblance to the London-born actor.
Actors Ryan Sampson and Harriet Webb, who star alongside Dyer in the Sky comedy series Mr Bigstuff, judged the lookalike event alongside The Standard’s senior social features editor Katrina Mirpuri.
“Britain, do you look like Daniel Dyer?” Sampson asked in a clip announcing the contest last week, as Webb chimed in: “Do you smoke a lot of fags?”
“Do you wear too much leather?” they added. “Do you look anything like this man? If you do, we need you.”
Referencing the growing global trend of celebrity doppelgänger contests, including recent events for Timothee Chalamet in New York, Harry Styles in London, Paul Mescal in Dublin and Pedro Pascal also in New York, Sampson teased: “We’ve had Timothée Chalamet.
“We’ve had Pedro Pascal. Now it’s time for a Danny Dyer lookalike contest on the 23rd of July at 1pm at Hoxton Square.”
“Be there or be, as they say, square,” Webb said, with Sampson quipping back: “Albert Square,” in a nod to Dyer’s long-running role as Mick Carter on EastEnders.
