It may be a vehicle for a great deal of British acting talent, but ‘Game of Thrones’ is apparently unwilling to accommodate Danny Dyer. The ‘Eastenders’ star has apparently auditioned for the HBO smash series on three separate occasions, only to be rejected.

Dyer revealed during a recording of ITV’s ‘Jonathan Ross Show’ “I’ve been up for it three times, I got three knockbacks”. Dame Diana Rigg, another guest on Ross’ show and who plays Lady Olenna Tyrell in ‘Game of Thrones’, said “I’ll put in a word for you as long as you lose the cockney accent.”

Danny Dyer Kellie Bright
Danny Dyer, pictured with 'Eastenders' co-star Kellie Bright, auditioned for 'Game of Thrones' three times

One of the roles that he auditioned for was the character Pyper, played by the London-born Josef Altin. This adds to his dismay at being rejected – he continued “There's a couple of cockneys knocking about. There's a couple of chimney sweeps too. I've seen them.”

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Dyer, who won Serial Drama Performance at the National Television Awards last week for his role as the Old Vic landlord Mick Carter, also spoke of his desire to branch out and tackle some of the most prestigious roles in British television.

“I think that I could play ‘Sherlock’… if I did it my way,” he said. “Benedict [Cumberbatch] is brilliant and the lines roll off his tongue, but that role is about being highly intelligent rather than posh. I think I could do ‘Doctor Who’ as well.”

The 36 year old also encountered some problems on ‘Eastenders’ too, regarding perceptions of class and accent: “I want to bring back a bit of the East End. They're good writers there but they're quite middle class people so I'm constantly changing the dialogue and I'm freaking their nut out and they have meetings over the word 'boat race' [rhyming slang for ‘face’]”.

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