Everything you need to know about Danny Dyer and Mark Wright’s festival fracas and three-year feud
The pair have crossed paths on Twitter and at a charity football match before the feud reached boiling point at the weekend
THE bell rang last weekend signalling the latest round in a bitter feud between rival EastEnders and Towie tribes.
In one corner of V Festival’s backstage VIP bar was that professional Cockney Danny Dyer, celebrating a joint stag and hen do with his fiancée Jo.
In the other corner, his sworn enemy — Mark Wright, out for the day with pals from back home.
Ali v Foreman it is not.
Never mind the Rumble in the Jungle or the Thrilla in Manila, when Ali battled Joe Frazier.
Let’s just call it the Fisticuffs at the Festival.
On Saturday a group of Wright’s mates brawled with Dyer, 39, leaving him with a black eye.
The scuffle took place while Mark, 29, was in the toilet.
Reports suggest Danny’s daughter Dani, 20, shouted abuse at three of Mark’s mates as they headed towards the toilets.
A witness said: “I saw a young woman shouting at three men, calling them c***s over and over again.
“She was screaming, ‘Mark Wright is a c***!’.
"One of Mark’s friends told her to shut up but she got more wound-up and more aggressive.
“It was like she was trying to provoke them. She was in their faces getting louder and louder.
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"Then Danny came round the corner to intervene and I saw him throw a punch at one of them.”
One of the actor’s pals, Danny “Boy” Hatchard, piled in and started throwing punches, as Dani continued with her verbal attack.
The men were forcibly separated as punches and kicks flew, with one onlooker describing it as “complete carnage”.
Danny was left sprawled on the floor at the festival site in Chelmsford, Essex.
The ruckus happened in front of Danny’s fiancée Jo Mas — two weeks before they are due to get married.
Jo said: “Danny is not an aggressive person. He wouldn’t have wanted to fight anyone. They’ve ganged up on him.
“There were five guys against one and Danny still went for them. But the most f****** disgusting thing is it was all in front of my 20-year-old daughter. They’re a bunch of talentless Essex t***s.”
Mark, known for his immaculate grooming, was quick to distance himself from the fight.
Witnesses said that when he arrived he tried to calm down the situation and even shook Danny’s hand.
Yesterday he tweeted: “Seen some stories online today about V Festival. I would like to confirm I personally wasn’t involved in any physical confrontation.”
But Danny, who rarely shirks a Twitter spat, hit back: “No. True. Where was ya?? Do you wanna declare who ya snakey 2 Bob mates are?? Especially the 1 squaring up to my Dani. No daughter should have 2 see their old man being toe punted in the nut by 5 complete p****s.”
Later, Danny shared a picture of Mark and a group of his friends, with the caption: “Friends eh. How to ruin ya pals career before it had even started. Legends. Other than that I had a proper night. X.”
The pair live relatively near to one another. Essex native Mark resides in Buckhurst Hill, close to where he grew up, while Danny has moved from Canning Town, East London, to Debden in Epping Forest, Essex.
Yet the bad blood goes back years.
It began when Danny got the hump after being mistaken for Mark — who he sees as a vacuous celebrity, with himself a serious actor.
In a 2013 interview, Danny fumed: “I got mistaken for Mark Wright once. In a café. It put me right off my beans. I don’t know him but he’s everything I hate about this whole celebrity world.
“It’s mainly because of some of his quotes saying he wants to be the next James Bond. If he’s the next James Bond, it’s over for me. It’s the arrogance of it all — it irritates me.”
He added: “Mark’s not up my street. He’ll never be a mate of mine. Good luck to him, just stay away from me.”
Soon afterwards, they found themselves playing in the same charity football match.
A row led to Mark SLAPPING Danny in the face.
Last week Danny stirred things up, tweeting: “My worst nightmare would be listening to Heart FM while eating an Oykos yoghurt. It would be like p***ing razor blades.”
Mark's everything I hate about celebrity world
Mark is a DJ on the radio station and appears in adverts for the yoghurt brand.
His footballing brother Josh, a midfielder for Gillingham, leapt in: “You must still be hurting from when Mark gave you a slap in the changing room that day. Get over it you melt.”
Danny told his followers the slap happened at a “charity football match for terminally ill children” and accused Mark of hiding behind his dad after the slap.
He added: “What a geezer. My bird hits harder.”
Josh replied: “Not sure it happened like that mate you ran your mouth as always and pushed him into corner so he protected himself by slapping you.”
Danny responded: “We all know what happened. He took a bang liberty. End of. He ain’t a bit on me. Crack on.” Mark only got away with it, Danny said, as “there was kids waiting outside with months to live”.
The Wrights should have known better than to tangle with Danny on social media.
He once tweeted: “I hate that early bird . . . You know the one who catches the worm . . . get back in ya nest ya feathery little mug.”
On being unable to find ducks at a local pond, he fumed: “Maybe they was shy . . . or maybe they was arrogant . . . p****s.”
He called the 9/11 attackers “them slags”, Lord Sugar a “slightly comatosed tramp” and Postman Pat a “busy c***”.
In Mark, he has found a rival who would hit back.
The Towie star has clashed repeatedly with his ex Lauren Goodger, who he split with in 2011.
He ranted that Lauren’s “endless mentions” of himself and wife Michelle Keegan were “embarrassing”, adding: “It’s hurtful to think one person needs to mention you every week to earn a living. PLEASE respect my wife and STOP.”
Mark called footballer Joey Barton a “complete lunch” after Joey had branded the Towie cast “mentally deficient”.
Yet Danny and Mark are unlikely brawlers.
Mark sobbed on TV after being criticised by the judges on Strictly Come Dancing.
And Danny, despite tough-guy roles in films such as The Football Factory and The Business, has confessed to secretly yearning for parts in period dramas, plus a fondness for jasmine tea.
Dani insists he “wouldn’t want to hurt a fly”.
She posted on Twitter: “My dad is the strongest person I know. He isn’t a fighter just because he plays good acting roles.
My heart is broken as I witnessed the whole thing. He is such a sensitive loving person.”
Neither has done their reputation any favours. Yet this could rumble on and on.