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Football fans should put aside thoughts of relegation battles, league trophies and spies in training ground bushes for an hour this weekend and let Dear England take them on a journey back to the oh-so-nearly days of England’s young football team and its inspirational manager Gareth Southgate (Joseph Fiennes).
The new four-part BBC drama is adapted from Jamie Graham’s acclaimed 2023 National Theatre play about how the one-time Middlesbrough manager took over as England manager in the wake of Sam Allardyce’s sacking, overcame a nation’s reservations and transformed its football team.
‘The play is about so much more than just football,’ Dear England producer Tina Pawlik tells Time Out. ‘It's about the pressure we put on these young sportsmen, [who are] carrying the dreams of the nation. It's a really important story, and it ties in beautifully with this summer’s World Cup. It’s a real opportunity to keep the conversation fresh about how we support people.’
What is Dear England about?
Directed by Rupert Goold (Judy), and named after the letter Southgate wrote to the country ahead of Euro 2021, it opens with a young Southgate’s harrowing penalty miss at Euro 96, a memory that still haunts him as he channels his own experiences into creating a healthier culture for the England team. He recruits sports psychologist Pippa Grange (Jodie Whittaker) to help change free the minds of the players.
A sporting revolution follows, despite the misgivings of stuffy FA suits like Greg Clarke (John Hodgkinson) and (fictional) England coach Mike Webster (Sam Spruell), as Southgate lifts the weight from the players and gave the likes of Harry Kane (Will Antenbring), Jordan Pickford (Josh Barrow) and Bukayo Saka (Abdul Sessay) the chance to express themselves at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and the 2020 European Championships.
Where was Dear England filmed?
Despite spanning two overseas World Cups and a UEFA Nations League tournament, the series never left England. The matches were recreated using a combination of archive footage and English football grounds – including one or two unexpected choices.
The cast was also expected to be able to knock a few balls around in scenes set at England’s St George’s Park training centre, with a football choreographer brought in to help with realism. ‘Trying to make football convincing on screen is one of the hardest things,’ says Pawlik. ‘It was important to make sure that the cast weren’t just incredible actors, they could also look convincing kicking a ball.’
Here’s where those scenes – and others – were filmed IRL in the summer of 2025.
St George’s Park was filmed at Tottenham Hotspurs’ training ground
England’s training HQ, St George's Park in Staffordshire, was out of range for the London-based production. Instead, Tottenham’s ultra-modern training centre in north London stood in for five days’ filming interiors and training scenes. ‘Because Tottenham is so new and so elite, you buy into this idea that it is St George’s,’ says the producer. The exterior shots are actually a secondary school outside of London. ‘Finding that was our biggest challenge,’ says Pawlik.
Gareth Southgate recruits Pippa Grange at the Tate Modern
Southgate used 114 players during his eight-year stint as manager but his most important call-up never kicked a ball: psychologist Pippa Grange, played by Dr Who herself, Jodie Whittaker. Episode 1 shows Southgate persuading her to join his team in a scene filmed at the Tate Modern. ‘That was the first day of filming,’ says Pawlik, ‘so Jodie had her longest scene on day one.’
The team’s Royal Marines bootcamp was shot at Pippingford Park, Sussex
To help team bonding, Southgate takes the players all on a gruelling Marine bootcamp. In reality, this was at the Commando Training Centre in Devon. Dear England used this 1000-acre estate in Sussex. ‘It was the hottest period of the year and we had the actors walking up these hills in army fatigues with huge rucksacks on their backs.’
Wembley Stadium was recreated at The Emirates and The Valley
The producer admits that not being able to film at Wembley Stadium was her biggest regret. ‘We were really hoping we could recreate the moment of Gareth going onto the pitch,’ she says, ‘but it's really difficult to get a date at Wembley. We ended up shooting those scenes at Arsenal and at Charlton Athletic, who let us film on the pitch.’
The penalty shootouts were filmed at Barnet FC’s The Hive stadium
Spoiler: England actually won penalty shootouts under Southgate. Those two fateful shootouts – against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup and Switzerland at the 2019 UEFA Nations League – were all filmed at Barnet’s ground, The Hive. ‘This was four very cold nights on the pitch,’ says Pawlik. ‘The thing about shooting at football stadiums is that you can have many people saying you can film on the pitch, but if the groundsman says no, it’s not happening.’
Southgate’s meeting with his assistant was filmed at The Pavilion Café, Greenwich
During one scene set during the pandemic, Southgate meets his coach Steve Holland at an outdoor café for a heart-to-heart. ‘We looked at motorway cafés [for this] because there’s a lovely romanticism about them, but they don’t quite deliver on screen,’ says Pawlik. ‘There’s something beautiful about Greenwich and the pavilion is special. It was nice to get an exterior that wasn't a football stadium.’
The inflatable unicorn race was shot at Harrow School
Photographs of the England players having inflatable unicorn races in a Russian swimming pool during the 2018 World Cup made the front pages at the time. A pool at London’s Harrow School was used to recreate those splashy antics. ‘This was our first week of filming and it was a really good way to get the guys bonding,’ remembers Pawlik. ‘We were like: let's see if Joseph Fiennes’s prosthetic nose is waterproof!’
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was used for the Women’s Euro final in 2022
It isn’t just Spurs’ training ground that pops up in Dear England – Tottenham’s stadium also appears when Southgate meets Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli, and again to double as Wembley Stadium when the Lionesses win the Euros.
When can I watch Dear England?
Dear England starts tonight at 9pm on BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
Is there a trailer?
Yes, and you can watch it below.
