What is the Dear England letter? The BBC series took its title from a real one — 1,700 words in The Players' Tribune
The BBC's four-part drama Dear England, which began on BBC One on 24 May 2026 with Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate, takes its title from a real open letter Southgate published in The Players' Tribune on 8 June 2021 — roughly 1,700 words addressed to the nation days before Euro 2020 kicked off. This is what the letter said, why he wrote it, and how one piece of pre-tournament writing turned into an Olivier-winning play, a TV series, and a book.
Before it was a BBC series, and before that a National Theatre play, Dear England was a piece of writing with a byline: Gareth Southgate, published in The Players' Tribune on 8 June 2021, days before England's opening match of the pandemic-delayed Euro 2020. Roughly 1,700 words, addressed — literally — "Dear England".
What the letter said
Southgate wrote it into a specific storm. England players were being booed by sections of their own supporters for taking the knee, and the manager decided to answer in print rather than in a press conference. The letter defended his squad's social conscience outright, arguing their duty to speak on equality, inclusivity, and racial injustice sat alongside the football rather than in conflict with it. It ranged over the pandemic, national identity, his grandfather's wartime service, and the weight of the shirt — noting that only around 1,200 men have ever played senior football for England.
"This is a special group. Humble, proud and liberated in being their true selves," Southgate wrote of his players.
A month later the letter looked prophetic in both directions: England reached the final at Wembley on 11 July 2021, lost to Italy on penalties, and Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka were racially abused within hours — precisely the England the letter had been arguing with.
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From letter to stage
Playwright James Graham (Sherwood, Quiz) built a play around it. Dear England opened at the National Theatre in June 2023 with Joseph Fiennes as Southgate, transferred to the West End, and won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2024. Graham's version covers Southgate's 2016 appointment onwards — the penalty-shootout ghosts, the culture rebuild with psychologist Pippa Grange, the tournaments — with the letter as its hinge.
The BBC series
The TV adaptation began on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday 24 May 2026: four hour-long episodes, written by Graham and produced by Left Bank Pictures. Fiennes reprises Southgate; Jodie Whittaker plays Pippa Grange; Jason Watkins is FA chairman Greg Clarke. The squad includes Will Antenbring as Harry Kane, Josh Barrow as Jordan Pickford, Adam Hugill as Harry Maguire, and Abdul Sessay as Saka, with the story stretched beyond the play to take in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Graham, for his part, would rather the actual England squad gave the whole thing a miss:
"I wouldn't want them to watch it," he said at the series launch in 2026 — on the grounds that he'd rather not be the man who disrupted England's best shot at a World Cup.
And Southgate himself?
He has kept a polite distance from every version, having said back in the play's run that watching himself on stage would simply be too awkward. Since the letter, he's taken England to a second consecutive Euros final (lost to Spain, 14 July 2024), resigned two days later, been knighted in the 2025 New Year Honours, and published his own book — Dear England: Lessons in Leadership.
For the record: one open letter is now a play, a TV drama, and a management manual. Per word, the most productive 1,700 words in English football.
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