"He was just very kind, articulate, and a smashing gentleman. And I was very grateful that he didn't wring my neck." That's Joseph Fiennes — BAFTA and Emmy-nominated actor — reflecting on the moment he finally came face to face with the man he'd been portraying on stage and screen. His reaction? He asked for a selfie.
Fiennes plays Gareth Southgate in the BBC's Dear England, a four-part dramatisation of the England manager's tenure from 2016 to 2024. It's now streaming on BINGE, timed well for anyone looking to get into a football headspace with the World Cup approaching. The show is adapted from James Graham's West End play — which won Best New Play at the 2024 Olivier Awards — and Fiennes played the same role in that production too.
Too nervous to do his homework properly
Despite having already inhabited Southgate on stage, Fiennes was so awestruck by his subject that he deliberately avoided meeting him during the National Theatre run. Instead, he pieced together a portrayal from Sky Sports coverage and televised interviews.
"I didn't get to meet Gareth, and I wish I had," he told Esquire. "I was left to Sky Sports and interviews that don't give you the full story."
That first in-person encounter came at a King's Trust gala in the UK, sandwiched between the stage run and the start of filming — which is about as high-pressure a moment as you could possibly pick for a first meeting. Southgate tapped him on the shoulder. Fiennes went, in his own words, "all gushy."
Southgate's legacy gives the drama its weight
The reverence makes sense when you look at what Southgate actually achieved. He's widely regarded as England's most successful manager since Alf Ramsey — the man who won the World Cup in 1966. Southgate took England to a World Cup semi-final in 2018, then to consecutive European Championship finals in 2021 and 2024, losing both. He resigned after the second final defeat.
The show isn't just a football story. Fiennes has been clear about that. Masculinity, racism, and the psychological toll on young athletes are all threaded through the narrative — themes Southgate himself pushed to the front during his time in charge. It's that quality, more than the waistcoats or the tactics, that gave Fiennes the most to work with.
"I hope that you then begin to be invited into the more important things that go beyond prosthetics and waistcoats and the character, and even football," he said of his performance goal.
For anyone revisiting Southgate's era through this lens — and there are plenty of bettors who'll remember exactly where they were during those penalty shootouts — Dear England is a sharp, grounded portrait of a man who changed what an England manager was allowed to look like.
Southgate is 55. The job is someone else's problem now. But the material he left behind, apparently, is rich enough to terrify the man playing him.
