{"id":71332,"date":"2026-05-24T18:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/71332\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T18:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T18:39:09","slug":"inside-dear-england-gareth-southgate-actor-joseph-fiennes-marriage-to-swiss-model-and-major-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/71332\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Dear England Gareth Southgate actor Joseph Fiennes’ marriage to Swiss model and major role"},"content":{"rendered":"

The actor is reprising his award-winning role in the new four-part BBC football series<\/p>\n

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

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

Reprising his role from James Graham\u2019s multi-award-winning play of the same name, Fiennes will be seen in the BBC four-part adaptation<\/a> on Sunday night. Just like the play it follows Southgate as he looks to turn around the nation\u2019s fortunes in the beloved sport.<\/p>\n

Its synopsis reads: \u201cGareth 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.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n

\u201cThe country that gave the world football has delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can\u2019t the England team win at their own game? Dear England is a fictionalised account of the struggles and successes of the England men\u2019s team, based on extensive research and interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Fiennes, 55, as part of Southgate\u2019s backroom team is Doctor Who\u2019s<\/a> Jodie Whittaker as Team psychologist Pippa Grange, The Crown\u2019s Jason Watkins as former FA chairman Greg Dyke, Small Axe\u2019s John Hodgkinson as former FA chairman Greg Clark and The Bay\u2019s Daniel Ryan as Southgate\u2019s Steve Holland. Sam Spruell is playing fictional coach Mike Webster, who was created for the play.<\/p>\n

Additionally, lots of footballers will be played by various actors across the series, including Unforgivable\u2019s Bobby Schofield as Wayne Rooney<\/a>, Waterloo Road\u2019s as Alfie Middlemiss as Phil Foden, Peaky Blinder\u2019s Sam Baker Jones as Jack Grealish and War of the Worlds\u2019 Edem-Ita Duke as Marcus Rashford.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Image: Ian West\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, and Judi Dench, the film <\/a>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.<\/p>\n

Comparing playing Southgate to Shakespeare, Fiennes told Four Four Two: \u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Tale. The latter saw him nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2018.<\/p>\n

Back in 2009, Fiennes married Mar\u00eda Dolores Di\u00e9guez, 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.<\/p>\n

Previously asked by Channel 4 <\/a>how his family life helped with working on the dystopian series The Handmaid\u2019s Tale, Fiennes said: \u201cMy mother was a writer and a painter, so I’ve been surrounded since childhood by dynamic women and female voices in arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve worked with numerous female directors and writers\u2026not enough\u2026and 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The actor is reprising his award-winning role in the new four-part BBC football series Joseph Fiennes attends an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[8667,41,17,7926],"class_list":["post-71332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-bbc","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116631015462727133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}