Phil Daniels

In 1984 Mike Leigh made a film called Meantime. Set on a London housing estate and a pretty bleak story with plenty of plinky plonky dreary incidental music it sounds much the same as a large selection of his back catalogue.

Meantime, devised by Leigh and the cast, as are all his films, featured some of the best acting talent of the day. It saw future Hollywood stars in Alfred Molina, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth.

However at the time of the production the biggest acting talent among the cast was one Phil Daniels. He’d starred in Scum and Quadrophenia and was the young prospect touted for success.

Molina has featured in numerous Hollywood films including Boogie Nights and last year’s Spiderman 2. Oldman of course starred in Dracula, JFK and this year as the young Commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins. Tim Roth landed an Oscar nomination for Rob Roy and is a familiar face on screen thanks to roles in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Dark Water.

Phil Daniels this week joins the cast of Eastenders.

Although I’ve obviously written this to highlight the fact that Daniels hasn’t reached the status of his peers, what his involvement in Eastenders will surely do is create some great drama for the show. Eastenders has been consistently the best soap opera on television for my money since the glory days of Brookside ended some ten years or so ago. That said it stumbles every now and again, bringing back and then killing off yet again Dity Den is just one of those glitches.

Daniels’ career path has had its highs and lows over the years. Perhaps his biggest hit of the 90s was singing on Blur’s Parklife. Of course he has done some good TV work including the recent Outlaws, The Long Firm and from a few years ago his bulimic food critic in Holding On.

I think Phil Daniels’ chance of appearing as the lead in a big movie has gone, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be responsible for some of the best soap opera drama in the coming year.