The Assembly, review: Danny Dyer braves a bracingly direct grilling, with charm and an open heart

Telegraph

26-04-2025

If you've ever had a sneaking suspicion that members of the public could do a better job than TV presenters when it comes to conducting interviews and holding people to account, The Assembly (ITV1) is here to prove you right. This is a gem of a show in which a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disabled people put questions to a celebrity.
There is no Graham Norton-style fawning or Today programme grandstanding from the interviewers, who take the mic one by one. It helps that the first celebrity subject is Danny Dyer, who throws himself into proceedings wholeheartedly. The questions broadly fall into two categories: sweetly honest and bracingly direct. All are specific – none of your wishy-washy, 'Tell me about your creative process,' gubbins here.
'How much money did you get paid for presenting The Wall?' (Answer: £100,000) 'How working class were you to send your son to private school?' ('I don't regret it but… I used to get the bus. I don't think they've ever been on a f---ing bus. They get driven door-to-door in a Bentley.') The programme kicked off with a spicy reference to Dyer's previous marriage difficulties; even Piers Morgan would shy away from opening with: 'When Jo kicked you out, she emptied your shared bank account. Do you still have a shared bank account now?'
A lady in a sparkly top voiced what we were all thinking when she asked Dyer why he kept swearing. One chap playfully challenged him to a fight. Another asked: 'What's your favourite kebab?' These sorts of questions brought to mind the late, great Smash Hits magazine. But there were more poignant moments in the programme, as when someone spoke of being abandoned by their father and asked Dyer how he had coped with a similar situation. Dyer recalled with clarity a moment from his boyhood when he reached for his dad's hand to cross the road 'and he told me I wasn't allowed to hold his hand any more'. He followed it up with some words of wisdom: 'Children just need stability and affection and to feel like they're loved. When you haven't got that, it's a really tough thing. It's their loss… we can't force people to be decent human beings.'
The pilot for this show aired on the BBC a year ago but the producer recently told Radio Times that the broadcaster could not afford to commission a full season, hence its move to ITV1. This is a bit baffling, because the programme doesn't look as if it costs a fortune to make. The format is adapted from the French show Les Rencontres du Papotin, on which Emmanuel Macron gamely appeared and was asked if marrying his teacher set a bad example.
Dyer was wonderfully patient and open-hearted, dispensing hugs and cracking jokes. He was never patronising. He even led a group meditation session, which you probably didn't have on your Danny Dyer bingo card. But in one sense, he was too easy a choice. You get the impression that he would answer questions with this much candour, whoever he was talking to, whether it was Nick Robinson or the milkman. Get some politicians in front of this lot so we can see what they're made of.