Aside from being a sports biopic, the new miniseries 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 performing arts institution the National Theatre, the story’s move to the small screen is also helping to take mental health from the sidelines into the spotlight.

As Joseph Fiennes, star of the play and the series, tells The Watchlist, “This is a drama that uses football and Zeitgeist personalities as a vehicle to tackle slightly gnarlier subjects.”

The four-part drama traces the England team’s arduous path to soccer glory, and sees Fiennes reprising his award-winning role as player-turned-manager Gareth Southgate, who works with respected sports psychologist Dr Pippa Grange (Jodie Whittaker) to change hearts and minds.

“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,” Fiennes says of the original by British playwright and screenwriter James Graham, which featured comedic portrayals of figures such as former UK prime ministers Boris Johnson and Theresa May, and the England team’s former manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.

“Within television, it’s the camera – the lens is close up,” the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated actor continues.

“I felt very cautious about the move because on stage, you can be in the middle of the stalls, you squint, and suddenly I could be Gareth in the waistcoat. But with the detail of a close-up, you don’t get that escape.”

The Handmaid’s Tale star originated the Southgate role in 2023 at London’s National Theatre, before the popular production was revived in 2025 with the character played by Gwilym Lee – the British actor who appeared alongside Miranda Tapsell in last year’s Prime Video comedy-drama series Top End Bub.

Regardless of its stars, the story’s beating heart remains the overarching theme of the pressures faced by elite sportsmen.

This is best reflected in the series opening with Southgate’s trauma as a young defender who misses the 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.

Fiennes admits his only trepidation was the fact 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,” the actor explains.

“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.”

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, which meant the Doctor Who star had to shed her natural, full 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,” she tells The Watchlist of working alongside Kat Stewart, Nicole da Silva and Yael Stone.

“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,” she adds of Australia and the UK.

“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,” she says.

“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. For more from Stellar, click here.