The actor is reprising his award-winning role in the new four-part BBC football series

Joseph Fiennes attends an exclusive screening of new BBC four-part series “Dear England(Image: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage)

Joseph Fiennes is playing former England football manager Gareth Southgate in a new BBC drama, but who is his model wife from Switzerland an what role did he play in a Best Picture winner.

Reprising his role from James Graham’s multi-award-winning play of the same name, Fiennes will be seen in the BBC four-part adaptation on Sunday night. Just like the play it follows Southgate as he looks to turn around the nation’s fortunes in the beloved sport.

Its synopsis reads: “Gareth Southgate aims to start a new chapter with the England men’s team. With the worst team track record for penalties in the world when he takes over as manager, Gareth knows he needs to open his mind and face up to the years of hurt to take England back to the promised land.

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“The country that gave the world football has delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t the England team win at their own game? Dear England is a fictionalised account of the struggles and successes of the England men’s team, based on extensive research and interviews.”

Joining Fiennes, 55, as part of Southgate’s backroom team is Doctor Who’s Jodie Whittaker as Team psychologist Pippa Grange, The Crown’s Jason Watkins as former FA chairman Greg Dyke, Small Axe’s John Hodgkinson as former FA chairman Greg Clark and The Bay’s Daniel Ryan as Southgate’s Steve Holland. Sam Spruell is playing fictional coach Mike Webster, who was created for the play.

Additionally, lots of footballers will be played by various actors across the series, including Unforgivable’s Bobby Schofield as Wayne Rooney, Waterloo Road’s as Alfie Middlemiss as Phil Foden, Peaky Blinder’s Sam Baker Jones as Jack Grealish and War of the Worlds’ Edem-Ita Duke as Marcus Rashford.

Fiennes, who won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his work in the Dear England play, rose to fame for his work as William Shakespeare in Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love. Known for his theatre work prior to this, his first feature film landed him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

(Image: Ian West/PA Wire)

Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, and Judi Dench, the film depicts a fictional love affair involving playwright Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps (Paltrow) during the writing of Romeo and Juliet. Several characters are based on historical figures, and many of the characters, lines, and plot devices allude to Shakespeare’s plays.

Comparing playing Southgate to Shakespeare, Fiennes told Four Four Two: “When my agent rang me up and said The National wanted me for a project, I did think it was going to be Shakespeare or Chekhov or some classic epic.

“I rolled up and I got given a script about Gareth Southgate and I was surprised. But there is that Shakespearean sense, a bit like Henry V, there’s the sort of the ageing corps, the kind of bringing the troops together. You could say there’s elements of that in this.”

On top of this, Fiennes has played Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commissar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Monsignor Timothy Howard in the second season of American Horror Story and Commander Fred Waterford in The Handmaid’s Tale. The latter saw him nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2018.

Back in 2009, Fiennes married María Dolores Diéguez, a Swiss model and photographer, in a wedding ceremony held in Tuscany. Welcoming two daughters into the world, Eva and Isabel, the family currently live in Mallorca.

Previously asked by Channel 4 how his family life helped with working on the dystopian series The Handmaid’s Tale, Fiennes said: “My mother was a writer and a painter, so I’ve been surrounded since childhood by dynamic women and female voices in arts.

“I have my wife, my two children, the three most important females (and people) in my life. So I think it’s just and right, and it is so important that we are finally having this conversation about the imbalance. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

“I’ve worked with numerous female directors and writers…not enough…and I’ve been the second lead to many female leads. I feel like I’ve participated in my short journey, in my career, with a good balance in that regard. But it’s a long, long way to go, for sure.”