Danny Dyer and Nick Love on Marching Powder, football rivalries and Red Dead Redemption

The ultimate cockney couple are back. Nick Love, the director of Football Factory and The Firm, has reunited with everyone’s favourite fridge-freezer, Danny Dyer, for his latest film, Marching Powder.

Marching Powder is a movie that returns to the themes of hooliganism, masculinity (toxic, intoxicated or otherwise), and overindulgence that introduced us to this partnership over twenty years ago.

We now see these themes from the new perspective of a dad who needs to get his act together or risk losing it all. As the film shows, it’s hard to turn your back on your pals when all you’ve ever known is scrapping at the football, getting on the gear and being a general nuisance.

It's immediately apparent from their work that the pair from London are concerned by the state of football, and how vices can consume a man’s life, leading them to be left behind, never quite able to grow out of bad habits picked up in their youth. Sobering stuff, but it’s laced with enough humour for a big ol’ bubbly bath.

If all of that sounds like a bit of you, you can check Marching Powder out on the 7th March when it releases exclusively in cinemas.

But before that, check out what they had to say on everything from cowboys to pear juice and what it’s like working with a rival fan…

You have a fantastic working relationship after collaborating on multiple projects together. Has this been sustainable because of Millwall's lack of success?

Danny Dyer: West Ham, we can’t really get on our high horse about nothing, really, can we? I did go to a couple of Millwall games with Nick, [and] a few of the boys from the film, as they were all Millwall. In a way, I probably am playing a Millwall fan. We keep it anonymous. That was, umm, eye opening for me.

Nick Love: The main thing is, there’s a lot of similarities, there’s a lot of partisan anger as well – some people can’t even be in the same room as Millwall and West Ham.

DD: Yeah, yeah, the old school lot, they have a lot of beef that goes way back, but we put all of that to bed, me and him. It’s all love.

Despite being humorous, the film still tackles some serious themes. In the beginning, it mentions how expensive top-flight football tickets have become. Do you think that’s why people are going to more non-league games? Is that the answer?

NL: Definitely. It’s completely changed football, hasn’t it? Working-class people are being priced outta the game, really.

DD: Just corporate b*llocks now. You’ll find within this hooliganism that it is with the lower-league teams that have 2,000 people watching.

NL: It’s much more exciting now lower lower-league football.

DD: Yeah, I get it, the culture is sort of building with the really, really lower league teams like Gateshead and all that, Chatham.

NL: Yeah, I saw Tranmere played Salford the other day. I think that’s a fixture I would have loved to have been at.

DD: That’s a game. But Nick wrote all that stuff about the ticket prices because it’s true.

NL: Just making little digs at society, my personal little gripes.

Can fans do anything about the ticket prices?

NL: Nah, you can’t reverse it, can ya.

DD: Unfortunately, we’re sheep, and we do as we’re told. They try and protest at certain grounds.

NL: I f*cking hate that. The French protest properly. F*cking we don’t. Taxes go up, or this goes up, we just go ‘ahh f*ck it, oh well, let’s do it’. Then, somehow, you dig the readies out as well, we’re all getting paid less but somehow we still go for it.

DD: Without the fans, football is f*ck all. There should be more protest, ya know they say they’re gonna boycott a game – we was doing it over at West Ham for a while – about 20 people boycott it.

NL: Not to bang on about Millwall, but to bang on about Millwall. Millwall’s changing. If you go down there now, you’ll see a lot more families down there. F*cking face painters, beer machines, it’s not like the old days where there was none of that sort of thing, it was the last bastion of angry working class men. There’s still an element of that, but even that’s getting eradicated from football.

Why did you settle on Jack, Danny’s character in the film, drinking Pear juice when he cleans up?

DD: That’s brilliant from Nick again; it’s symbolic, isn’t it? The idea of a man having the front to ask for a pear juice in front of his mates. The reaction it gets. I dunno, why is it pear?

NL: Well, it's just ‘what’s the most embarrassing thing you’d do in front of your mates in the pub?’ There’s some serious themes in there, but it’s mostly undercut with ironic humour.

DD: It’s a man who is trying to do the right thing. The ridiculousness of masculinity. It’s almost by asking for a pear juice and reaching out, [Jack] gets his hand f*cking slapped away, so he realises early doors he can do this sober thing and stay away from [his mates].

NL: Someone watched the film, and one of their criticisms was they couldn’t believe people would treat each other like that. I thought, you’re f*cking joking, aren’t ya. This idea that men don’t treat each other in that way, that everyone is kind.

DD: I mean, men are awful to each other; we do love each other. But we’re not very good at expressing it, that’s all. They’ve all got their own issues, all the boys. They would probably like to have the front to order a pear juice themselves, but it’s that pack mentality, isn’t it?

That whole thing when I go to the toilet as Jack and they’ve tapped a wrap of gear on the wall for him, because they think they’re doing me a favour. ‘We’ll snap him out of it, he’ll be alright’. Then, I get a lovely little speech in the mirror about addiction. Watch the film and you’ll learn all about this stuff, it’s not too heavy. Or too serious. But it highlights things that should be highlighted. It's a working class film.

NL: It's a bit of a piss take, but it's a piss take for everybody. [Danny's] the biggest joke in the film. It’s not like us taking the piss out of anyone in particular, we just wanted to make something thats entertaining. Also, so much of the stuff I see at the moment is so f*cking beige. Where’s the f*cking fun in stuff?

Rockstar's Red Dead 2 appears on the screen. Are there similarities between the death of cowboys and the death of football hooliganism, and do you think there is a chance it could be glamorised in the future just like cowboys are?

NL: Pffft above my paygrade. Hmm, well, I dunno. I suppose there is a relationship there, like gang mentality and tribalism. In Marching Powder, Danny has got a very good scene where he talks to Jeff when they’re clearly in this new world where they’re trying to work and it's full of kids in Stussy t-shirts, whilst they’re being served cappuccinos.

I think there’s definitely an element of, if you’re in your 40s and life hasn’t worked. It’s not that life hasn’t been kind to you, you might of f*cked up. His character has unashamedly f*cked up, it’s not like life was unkind to him, he probably could’ve had a good life but he f*cked up. But, there’s definitely a sense that if you get to your 40s and you’ve not cracked on, life will leave you behind now.

I noticed this when I was at the football a few weeks ago. I was at Millwall away; I was with 100 boys or whatever. The point is, all of them, whilst they’re there, they have an invincibility about them. I know most of those boys; their lives are not what it feels like on a Saturday afternoon and so, there is an element of life passing you by.

But football feels like one of the last staging posts where you still feel relevant. So I think that’s why, even though it's been hijacked by corporations and the middle classes, I feel football has a very big lad culture. I’m not sure it will ever be eradicated from it because it's where they f*cking really relate to each other.

That sounded a bit profound that.

DD: F*cking hell, well done, well done. Jesus, that was beautiful.

Marching Powder releases exclusively in Cinemas on 7th March, 2025.