Joseph Fiennes reveals the 'big responsibility' of playing Gareth Southgate in the new miniseries Dear England, which also stars Jodie Whittaker. The show delves into the brutal mental toll and toxic expectations placed on elite athletes.
Aside from being a sports biopic, Dear England is an autopsy of British identity, masculinity, and the gruelling cost of public expectation. Having started life on the stage of the UK's National Theatre, the story's move to the small screen brings mental health from the sidelines into the spotlight. As Joseph Fiennes, star of both the play and series, tells The Watchlist, 'This is a drama that uses football and Zeitgeist personalities as a vehicle to tackle slightly gnarlier subjects.'
A Four-Part Drama
The four-part drama traces the England team's arduous path to soccer glory, with Fiennes reprising his award-winning role as player-turned-manager Gareth Southgate. Southgate works with respected sports psychologist Dr Pippa Grange, played by Jodie Whittaker, to change hearts and minds. Fiennes notes the transition from stage to screen: 'The stage version of Dear England was kind of cartoonish; sometimes it was colourful, it was caricature-ish in some elements – everything that theatre can do to arrest you and connect with you. Within television, it's the camera – the lens is close up.'
The Weight of Portraying a Real Person
Fiennes admits his only trepidation was that Southgate himself could and likely would see his story brought to life. 'When you're portraying public figures who are alive, you want to do them right. It's a big responsibility. I feel the weight of that but at the same time we're interested in them because they offer critical junctures in their lives which they may not want to expand upon publicly. Our job is to find the balance between honouring them and going to those vulnerable places.'
The story's beating heart remains the overarching theme of pressures faced by elite sportsmen. This is best reflected in the series opening with Southgate's trauma as a young defender who misses a penalty shot at the UEFA European Football Championship in 1996. From there, it follows his journey from a 2016 appointment as England's manager through his widely praised leadership during the 2024 European Championship.
Jodie Whittaker's Accent Challenge
Whittaker faced a different hurdle with her character. Grange lived in Adelaide for 20 years while working to improve the mental health of AFL players and members of the Australian Olympic swimming team. This meant the Doctor Who star had to shed her natural Yorkshire lilt to maintain a flatter Aussie tone. To nail the voice, Whittaker drew on her experience playing an Australian in the 2023 mystery drama series One Night. 'On One Night, the accent was the thing that terrified me the most, particularly because almost the entire cast was speaking in their natural accent. I worked really hard on it. And weirdly, it's like a muscle, like a bike.'
While Dear England explores a specific, darker facet of sports culture, Whittaker says her own appreciation for its global resonance was solidified while watching a Twenty20 cricket match in Sydney. 'We're on opposite sides of the world but there's a familiarity to the passion behind sport. I'm lucky; I was brought up in a house where my dad was a massive football fan, and I married an equally huge fan. It was always a joy thing, like a big meal where everyone sits together.'
Even now, it's not uncommon for a group of Whittaker's friends to gather at her home to watch soccer on weekends. 'I've always seen it as this beautifully universal event that gives you a vocabulary. You might not speak the same language or have anything in common, but if you bring up football, you've found a way into a conversation.'
Dear England is streaming now on Binge, with the final two episodes dropping this Thursday.
