To watch Dear England (Sunday, 9pm, BBC One) – the BBC’s stellar adaptation of James Graham’s Olivier award-winning play – you must first understand the incomparable damage to the national psyche that arose from Gareth Southgate missing a penalty in the Euro 96 semi-final. For those born outside England or too young to remember, imagine the apocalypse mixed with the death of your childhood pet and you’re just about halfway there. I was 11 at the time and almost three decades later still remember going to bed crying as my dad explained over my tear-strewn pillow: “This is what it is to be an England fan.”
You’d better get your therapist on speed dial: the four-part fictionalised account of Southgate’s revolutionary reign as England manager begins with a real-life clip of his penalty miss. Fast forward to 2016 and England is in crisis, with the men’s squad crashing out of the Euros to Iceland while Brexit looms large. Meanwhile, Southgate (Joseph Fiennes, reprising his critically acclaimed West End role) – now middle-aged and managing the under-21 men’s team – is watching football on the TV and looking pensive.
The first 10 minutes is essentially exposition for anyone unfamiliar with the minutiae of mid-2010s English football. There’s a scene in which manager Sam Allardyce is asked to resign by the FA while explaining helpfully for the viewer that he’s only lasted one game and has just been caught giving illegal player transfer advice “over a pint of wine”. An irate Allardyce insists this is what people want from an England manager: a pint of wine (but presumably while winning games). Cue Southgate – the gent who buys croissants for staff and remembers the cleaner’s name – waiting in the corridor to be asked to be caretaker coach.
Wait, there’s more exposition! It’s the World Cup in two years, the FA bosses tell Southgate/viewers, and the press and fans are foaming at the mouth. No caretaker manager has ever gone on to be the long-term manager, Southgate explains back to two men who presumably know that.
Once the script gets past this, it’s a joyous, rousing ride. We begin with Southgate finding his new young players as their names are flashed on screen as if in Ocean’s Eleven – which is useful because some of the actors look nothing like their real-life counterparts (Wayne Rooney will be very pleased, is all I can say). Next, Southgate recruits psychologist Dr Pippa Grange (Jodie Whittaker) to help tackle the men’s mental blocks. Or as he puts it, “Come help fix England with me.”
If you don’t buy the link between football and the wider country, these winks to the camera may seem a bit much. At one point, Southgate actually wonders out loud if there is an alternative universe where he didn’t miss that penalty and we would all be living in a happier, more confident England as a result.
But that apparent weakness is arguably the drama’s strength. This, of course, is not just a show about kicking a ball into a net. Named after the open letter Southgate wrote to fans in 2021 after backlash over the team “taking the knee”, the script is meaningful precisely because it weaves in multiple wider themes: from the concept of English values and changing ideas of masculinity to racism among football fans. The scene in which Black England players endure monkey chants from the stands is deeply affecting.
Fiennes has a wonderful vulnerability as Southgate, picking up the key mannerisms without ever falling into caricature. As the team psychologist, Whittaker has some poignant exchanges with the players that moved me almost as much as seeing the inflatable unicorns again. I’m not saying I got emotionally engaged but after 45 minutes I did find myself shouting: “Come on, boy!” at an actor playing Jordan Pickford about a game I saw the result of a decade ago.
By the time a waistcoat-clad Southgate is on the pitch cheering England’s first ever penalty shootout success at a World Cup, I had to remind myself they never actually won anything in the end. Unless this is an alternative universe? It’s hard to keep track through the tears.