Love Island: Danny Dyer 'didn't want' daughter Dani to go on the show

EastEnders star Danny Dyer has revealed he's struggled with his daughter Dani appearing on Love Island.

"I didn't want her to do it. I'd never seen it before... you fear it as a father," he said on a special evening edition of Good Morning Britain.

Dyer also lashed out at former Prime Minister David Cameron's role in the Brexit referendum.

"How come he can scuttle off?" he said. "He brought all this on. Where is he? He's in Nice, with his trotters up."

He added: "Where is the geezer? I think he should be held accountable for it."

Dyer was also asked by Susanna Reid how he felt watching his daughter "being seduced on national television".

"It's a nutty thing," he said about the ITV2 reality programme. "It is what it is. It's a game show."

He added: "Fifty grand's at stake - that's a lot of dough. And Dani's gonna win it."

Dani Dyer (in pink bikini) has not "put a foot wrong" according to her Dad

The show sees a group of "sexy singletons" try to couple up and convince the public to keep them on the island, in order to win the big prize.

Dyer told Reid's Good Evening Britain co-presenter Piers Morgan, who has openly criticised the show for several weeks, that his daughter has not "put a foot wrong".

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"I did struggle at first, it was difficult," he said.

"But as it's gone on, I think what she's done is she's proved with this reality TV thing that actually you can be a decent girl, with self-respect, dignity, not be rolling under the bedsheets, still have respect off the man and be loved and adored by young people."

Danny Dyer has played the role of Mick Carter in EastEnders since 2013

Morgan asked Dyer about his daughter's career and whether he would have preferred it if she had "done it the hard yards way, gone to drama school, learned the craft?"

Dyer responded by saying: "She's a talented actress. I've had my moments with reality TV as well, and it is an instant thing at the moment. It is a career.

"Some of these young kids, they can't be bothered with that real struggle, that rejection in acting, it's a tough thing, and so why not go and try and do something like this Love Island? Everyone's talking about it. She can earn loads of money and crack right on.

'Paternal concern'

"So who am I to judge? Get hold of that Piers, eat it!" he said, prompting laughter from Morgan.

Morgan responded by saying: "We won't agree on Love Island, but I understand your paternal concern for your daughter."

Dyer added that Dani's new boyfriend on the show, Jack Fincham, "seems like a good kid".

Wednesday's episode was ITV2's most-watched programme ever, peaking at 3.4 million viewers, with an audience share of 15.8%, according to ITV's spokesman.

These figures are up by 1.3 million compared with last year's equivalent episode.

Morgan and Reid made a rare evening TV appearance together

Good Evening Britain - broadcast at the same time as Love Island - was aired on ITV just after England were beaten 1-0 by Belgium in the World Cup.

Other guests on the show included Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, actress Pamela Anderson, boxer Amir Khan, former politician Ed Balls and comic Daliso Chaponda.

Piers Morgan claimed a ratings victory, thanking viewers for "restoring his faith in humanity" by tuning in.

"Good Evening Britain peaked at 5.2m viewers last night, smashing Love Island which peaked at just 3.6m. Thanks for watching!" he tweeted.

However, the audience trailed off sharply as the show went on, and average audiences tell a different story.

Love Island reached an average of 3.116m viewers across the whole show, compared with Good Evening Britain's 3.103m - a difference of 13,000.

Both figures were dwarfed by the average audience for England's third World Cup match, which came to just over 13 million.

Who really won the ratings battle?

BBC News entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba

Certainly when it comes to the average number of viewers, which is the standard benchmark, Love Island just edged ahead of Good Evening Britain.

But is it true that GEB had a peak of 5.2 million viewers? Almost certainly not.

After the England vs Belgium final whistle, the number of ITV viewers was plummeting rapidly throughout the post-match coverage from a high of 14.6 million. Something that unsurprisingly continued when that came off air at 21:15 BST with adverts then kicking in.

5.2 million is the average number of viewers who were watching the channel between 21:15 and 21:20. GEB is advertised as starting at 21:15 but didn't actually begin until after 21:19, so the number of people watching the first minute of the show is almost certainly lower than the figure of 5.2 million, with the opening titles likely to be the most popular part of the programme at just under 5 million.

That's still more than the Love Island peak of 3.6 million. But whereas millions of viewers flocked to Love Island as soon as it started and stayed with it, Good Evening Britain inherited an already large, declining audience, and continued that trend. By the time it came off air, GEB had lost close to 70% of the audience it started with.

The one-off special was definitely a winner on social media, though, and Danny Dyer's take on Brexit has gone viral. One online video of his comments has racked up 4.5 million views, ensuring the show is reaching even more eyeballs and getting people talking.