BBC’s Dear England made me tear up – but it has one undeniable issue

There is a moment towards the midway point of Dear England’s first episode that made me scoff in disbelief.

The BBC series, which is adapted from James Graham’s award-winning play of the same name, sees the England team led by Gareth Southgate (Joseph Fiennes) trawl through muddy waters and camp under the stars as part of a 48-hour Royal Marines boot camp.

It comes just months after Gareth takes over from Sam Allardyce as manager, and I found myself saying – surely there is no way on earth that a group of millionaire sportsmen actually did this.

However, after a quick google search, I not only found myself eating humble pie, but much like former England player Raheem Sterling – who actually took part in the camp – I was completely won over by this fictionalised version of Southgate’s tenure.

Speaking at the time, Sterling said that at first he was ‘not interested’ in commando training, but later described it as a ‘massive’ moment in uniting the group.

And the former Manchester City player’s words are a near perfect description for how Graham’s series – directed by Rupert Gould and Paul Whittington – exceeded my expectations and made me well up on more than one occasion.

As an avid consumer of football and massive England fan, I was quietly skeptical of whether we really needed a series about the country’s footballing achievements given how the topic has dominated headlines for the past few decades.

Going into this series, I had also not seen Graham’s hugely popular and successful stage dramatisation, so I was really heading in with fresh eyes.

But after getting to grips with this fictional imagination of what the England coaching team and players were really like, I can honestly say that the series has changed the way that I would ever approach watching another game of football.

Despite Fiennes telling me himself in person that he was ‘extremely nervous’ to play Southgate on camera, the Shakespeare In Love star has somehow managed to morph into the former Middlesborough player.

Thrust into the spotlight as the new England manager in 2016 (was that really 10 years ago?) Southgate attempts to stamp his authority on the team in a surprisingly peculiar way.

A far cry away from what you would stereotypically imagine as a no-nonsense coach, he attempts to use sports psychologist Pippa Grange (Jodie Whittaker) to introduce a softer approach.

Replacing fear and pressure with joy and mental resilience, Southgate’s tactics proves to be a hit with players.

Shining a mirror on how fear manifests itself, Dear England manages to ask a series of hugely important questions about our nation and how we support our football teams, in a way that goes far beyond football.

As an England fan who has screamed at the television and slammed players for underperforming, this surprisingly tender four-part series is a truly humbling watch.

Graham’s beautifully written dialogue provides a meditative hope on how England can maybe unite at a time when things feel as divisive as ever.

A particularly powerful moment also comes as some of England’s players face terrible racial abuse after Euro 2020.

Casting a light back on some of the most magical summers of football, the series also feels strangely emotional as we see our footballing hopes turn around.

And in the lead up to this year’s World Cup, the series does truly feel like a brilliant commentary on where we have gone wrong as a nation in supporting our team.

With that being said, despite the show’s hugely interesting premise, certain fictionalised conversations can feel jarring at times.

A particular example comes when the chairman of the FA casually speaks to Southgate while in a urinal as several players walk past.

Additionally, at times the use of archive footage to show previous results made the series feel like less of a drama at times and more of a documentary.

As the show attempts to capture the rapidly changing political landscape, including the Covid-19 lockdown, Liz Truss’s reign as Prime Minister and the Queen’s death, everything starts to feel slightly chaotic and it becomes unclear just what this series is trying to say.

However, when the series focuses in on what we as England fans do to our team and how our arrogance can cause so much damage, it is a really strong series and it has certainly changed how I will approach a football match for the rest of my life.

The first episode of Dear England is available to watch at 9pm on BBC One on Sunday.

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