Dear England drama: 'A story of real hope' says writer

Dear England drama: 'A story of real hope' says writerImage source, BBC/Left Bank/Justin DowningImage caption, "Like a lot of people, England and their tournaments have sort of been chapters in my life," says writer James GrahamByShola LeeBBCPublished6 hours agoFor writer James Graham, football and drama have more in common than you might think.The creator of Dear England, says they can both unite us – either around a tournament or a story – at a time when we might feel divided and they can get us to reflect on who we want to be."It's always captivated me, the drama, the operatic scale of these huge World Cup tournaments," says Graham, who previously wrote Sherwood and Quiz.And he found the progress of the England men's team under Gareth Southgate "incredibly inspiring". Under Southgate, the England men's team won a World Cup penalty shootout for the first time.The new four-part BBC drama, Dear England, based on Graham's Olivier Award-winning play of the same name, is a fictionalised account of the real events that saw Southgate (played by Joseph Fiennes) transform the team, bringing in psychologist Pippa Grange (played by Jodie Whittaker), to address their problem with penalties by looking at their mindset and the pressure that players faced.As Southgate, played by Fiennes, says in the series: "I think there's something really wrong here..."Image source, BBC/Left BankImage caption, In the series Southgate (Fiennes, right) takes the team to an army training camp with psychologist Pippa (Whittaker, left) to get the players working togetherThe series also delves into the racist abuse faced by players when they miss these penalties, like Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after the team's exit from the Euros 2020.And the name of the BBC drama is reference to the opening line of a heartfelt letter penned by Southgate in which the former manager explains what matters is more than t...