Danny Moon

Danny Moon
EastEnders character
Portrayed by	Jake Maskall
Introduced by	Kathleen Hutchison
Duration	2004–06
First appearance	30 December 2004
Last appearance	31 March 2006
Classification	Former; regular
Profile
Date of birth	1979
Date of death	31 March 2006
Family Father Bobby Moon Mother Alison Moon Brothers Jake Moon Other relatives Alfie Moon Spencer Moon Maxwell Moon

Daniel "Danny" Moon is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jake Maskall. He made his first appearance on 30 December 2004. The character was axed in July 2005 but returned briefly in March 2006 for the special week of episodes as part of the storyline Get Johnny Week.

Storylines

Both Jake and Danny have implied that their childhood was miserable and full of abuse. Danny once told Alfie that their father used to beat them with a belt. Danny also suffered from bedwetting. In later years he proved to be quite clingy, depending on his older brother Jake.

Danny arrived in the series with his older brother Jake as the second cousins of Alfie and Spencer Moon. Alfie in particular was not happy to see them since they were always in trouble, and it turned out that Alfie took the rap for their crime and went to prison for three years for credit card fraud.

Danny worked for his much-hated enemy Andy Hunter until the gangster's death. He had a brief relationship with Andy's estranged wife, Sam, just to spite his boss. He and Jake had some animosity between them surrounding the time of Andy's death, but they reconciled. He and Jake then started working as doormen for another gangster, Johnny Allen.

On 8 July 2005, Danny left Walford after he unwisely set fire to Johnny Allen's house because Johnny would not take him seriously and stole his business ideas. Jake knew what Johnny would do to Danny and they planned to flee Walford before Johnny could find them. Whilst Jake was saying goodbye to Chrissie Watts, Johnny was forcing Danny into his car. He gave Jake a chance to leave, but Jake got into the car to stay with his grateful but scared brother. Johnny drove them to a forest and locked Jake in the car as he prepared to shoot Danny. Johnny didn't pay any heed to Danny's pleas for mercy, but, after Jake kicked the car window out and escaped into the woods to find them. He played more successfully at Johnny's conscience by persuading him not to kill Danny. The episode ended with Johnny raising the gun at both of them, however, it did not reveal their fate until a few months later when Jake turned up, where it turns out that Johnny let them go: under the agreement that they were not seen again.

Jake told Johnny that he wasn't there to cause problems, but for personal reasons as his would-be love interest Chrissie Watts was under suspicion for her husband Den Watts's murder. Johnny let him stay, but refused for his brother to ever return. Jake revealed that Danny has gone abroad to sort himself out.

On New Year's Eve 2005, Danny was contacted by a wounded Johnny who had been beaten severely by Dennis Rickman for threatening his wife Sharon and ordered him to murder Dennis. Returning to the Square that same night, Danny disguised himself and stabbed Dennis in the chest while the locals celebrated the new year, filming what he had done on a mobile phone at Johnny's request, and left Dennis to bleed to death in Sharon's arms.

On 21 March 2006, Jake was summoned to Johnny's club, Scarlet, only to be greeted by Danny who was there to look after things for Johnny, who was then living in Essex. Danny revealed he had been in contact with Johnny while he was abroad, and to make up for what he did, he was now working for Johnny. After hearing that his Nana had died, he left again.

Phil and Grant Mitchell returned later the same week and set off to Essex where Phil wanted to confront Johnny about Dennis' murder. When he and Grant broke into Johnny's mansion, Johnny attacked Phil with a stick. Danny suddenly appeared and Johnny ordered him to throw the Mitchell brothers out. Danny was overpowered by Grant, who punched him and locked him in a room. When released from the room, Danny was asked by Johnny to look after Ruby while he tried to evade the Mitchells.

Danny's behaviour suddenly showed signs of mental illness when he referred to Johnny as "dad" when asking Ruby if he ever talked about him and told Ruby to get undressed but he promised he wouldn't look. He then drugged Ruby with sleeping pills and lay on her bed watching her sleep.

Jake tracked Danny down and tried to persuade him to return to Walford. Danny didn't want to go because he thought Johnny needed him and Johnny's home was his home as well. Jake was aware that Danny was being used by Johnny and Johnny didn't care at all for him and that Danny had become mentally unstable.

After initially fleeing from the Mitchells, Johnny returned to where he had last seen them, with Danny and a shotgun in tow. After returning to the house and locking the brothers in a sound-proof room, Danny was again confronted by his brother. During the conversation, Danny produced a mobile phone with video evidence that it was he who had delivered the fatal stabbing to Dennis on New Year's Eve. After a short struggle in which Danny took a pistol to Jake, threatening him, he knocked Jake unconscious with a baseball bat and, under Johnny's orders, marched the Mitchells into the nearby woods armed with the shotgun and a spade with the intent to kill and bury them. Just as he was about to kill Grant, Jake appeared with the pistol that Danny had dropped during the earlier struggle and, only meaning to shoot his brother in the arm or leg to save the Mitchells, accidentally fired a fatal shot. Danny was killed instantly, and Jake then told the Mitchells that it was Danny who had murdered Dennis.

Jake secretly buried Danny in the woods where he died, with only the spade to mark his grave. Only the Mitchells, Sean Slater and the Allens are aware that he killed Danny.

External links

• Danny Moon at BBC Online