This entertaining soccer romp – which first appeared as a hit West End play – stars
Joseph Fiennes (last seen as the villainous Commander Fred Waterford in the chilling dystopian saga “The Handmaid’s Daughter”) as England manager Gareth Southgate. The four-part drama is an undeniable treat for all football fans as it follows the since knighted Sir Gareth’s endeavours to turn around England’s struggling team.
Joseph, who also played Sir Gareth on stage, said: “The journey that Gareth has gone on since a young boy breaking into football and then finally making it into the England squad in itself is an amazing trajectory. He had an unfortunate moment, as many players do, in a penalty shootout in 1996 when a lot was riding on that.
There’s the personal journey for Gareth in this series from that, to when he was employed by the FA and England to run the under 21s. The seniors were then going through a terrible series of losses that culminated in a loss against Iceland, who were ranked much below England at the time. As many of us know, Gareth was brought in as a caretaker manager.”
He continued: “In ‘Dear England ‘ we get these two wonderful journeys – Gareth’s personal demons connected to the loss of a cup, and then the bigger epic picture of what we might call a gentle reformation within England.That second part essentially boils down to quite a few important factors, one of which was bringing on board a team of psychologists into the England team. A lot of other sports and teams had psychologists on board, such as golf and tennis, but it seemed like England and the Football Association were late to bring in that dynamic. That was one of Gareth’s drives – to understand the mental side of why they were losing; I think England and Gareth got a better understanding of the fragility that elite athletes are up against. So, these are the two journeys that we go on – the personal and the epic. It’s a brilliant ride.”
Joseph was also flattering of his fellow cast members which include Jodie Whittaker, (best known for playing “Doctor Who”), as FA psychologist Pippa Grange, and “The Bay’s” Daniel Ryan as Steve Holland, Southgate’s Number Two.
He said: “Not unlike Gareth and the England team, it’s all about how a unit can come together and how individuals can melt together as one company. As an actor, I’ve been very fortunate that most of my life is spent in the company of others and there’s been nothing quite as wonderful as this experience with this company of extraordinary talent – Jodie Whittaker, who plays Pippa Grange, brings all of her brilliance, authenticity and truth to a really important and integral role. To have her voice and presence and scope of mind, the brilliance of her psychology and the way that Jodie tapped into her, really balances the piece out.”
Joseph went on: “Steve Holland is a real person who was the right-hand coach of Gareth. He’s played by the wonderful Daniel Ryan who I’ve bonded with immensely. We have another team member in the coaching club, the fictional coach Mike Webster, played by Sam Spruell. This group really are the backbone, as well as the players, of the piece.
I have to really shout out to all of the actors starring as the players as they are just extraordinary. They look the part, they act the part and they play football like professionals. The casting is quite brilliant and they themselves are pretty unique. It’s a hard one to cast but all of the young players went to a bootcamp and that bootcamp was good at getting them technically switched on to the game but it was a good way of bonding them together as a team because they came back onto set afterwards as this one unit which was great to see.”
He added: “In terms of how I hope an audience will respond, I think ‘Dear England’ is a nuanced piece, it’s political – football is political, there’s no way for it not to be – in its very minute delineations. This is a political piece in the best way, in not dividing people but actually bringing people together and ruminating on really important themes. I feel the psyche of our nation is part of that discussion, through football, which should bring people together and I really hope ‘Dear England’ does that. ‘Dear England’ is ultimately a state of the nation piece and it deals with some serious subjects all wrapped up in the beautiful game.”
So that’s it – catch you next week for some more TV chatter. In the meantime, keep practising those penalties and, above all, stay safe!
