{"id":245837,"date":"2025-07-07T17:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245837\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T17:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:41:15","slug":"jason-watkins-confirmed-for-exciting-new-british-bbc-drama-as-part-of-huge-cast-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245837\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Watkins confirmed for exciting new British BBC drama as part of huge cast announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear England<\/a>, the upcoming BBC<\/a> drama, has announced some big names as part of its cast.<\/p>\n

The four-part series, based on James Graham<\/a>‘s play of the same name, tells the story of Gareth Southgate during his stint as manager of the England men’s football team, depicting the journey which saw them reach two major finals.<\/p>\n

After it was previously announced that The Handmaid’s Tale<\/a> star Joseph Fiennes would be reprising his role as Southgate from the stage version, the BBC<\/a> has today confirmed a whole host of actors in a major update.<\/p>\n

Fiennes will be joined by The Crown<\/a>‘s Jason Watkins<\/a> and Doctor Who<\/a> star Jodie Whittaker<\/a>, with the pair set to play former FA chairman Greg Dyke and team psychologist Pippa Grange respectively.<\/p>\n

John Hodgkinson, Adam Hugill, Josh Barrow and Lewis Shepherd are also reprising their roles from the stage production, with other cast members including Will Antenbring, Edem-Ita Duke, Francis Lovehall, Bobby Schofield and Sam Spruell.<\/p>\n

\"jodie<\/p>\n

Netflix<\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong> Best film and TV tours for 2025<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

“Bringing the national game to the National Theatre over two years ago was one of the most rewarding moments of my writing life,” said Graham, who will adapt his own play. “To kick off its journey on screen now, and on our national broadcaster, is a huge opportunity.”<\/p>\n

“I’m so grateful to [the] world class cast and creative team [that] we’ve assembled,” he continued, adding that it was an “inspiring” story of “redemption, resilience, kindness and compassion”. <\/p>\n

\"jason<\/p>\n

Channel 5<\/p>\n

Related: 6 unmissable shows you must watch this week, from a ’60s period drama to Netflix’s London-set romcom<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

“We’re so thrilled to announce such a fantastic cast for Dear England and it has been a joy to witness the comradery within this top team as they start filming,” added Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama.<\/p>\n

“With Joseph Fiennes and Jodie Whittaker leading the cast, Rupert Goold and Paul Whittington directing and Left Bank Pictures producing, BBC viewers are in for a real treat.”<\/p>\n

Dear England will air on BBC One and stream on BBC iPlayer in 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s new print issue is here! Buy <\/strong>Oasis – Live in ’25<\/strong><\/a> in newsagents or <\/strong>online<\/strong><\/a>, priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deals that might interest you\"Shop<\/a>Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile deals\"Stranger<\/a>Stranger Things Hellfire Club Dice Dangle CharmCredit: Pandora\"Shop<\/a>Shop Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors looksCredit: BBC \/ Studio Lambert\"On\"Richard<\/a>Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersCredit: Viking\"Shop<\/a>Shop PS5 consolesCredit: PlayStation\"Shop<\/a>Shop Alison Hammond’s outfitsCredit: Mark Bourdillon\"Apple<\/a>Apple TV+ 7-day free trialCredit: Apple TV+\"Sign<\/a>Sign up for Disney+Credit: Chuck Zlotnick\"The<\/a>The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive NovelCredit: Octopus Books\"Death<\/a>Death in Paradise: The Puzzle BookCredit: BBC Books \"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy<\/strong>, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear England, the upcoming BBC drama, has announced some big names as part of its cast. The four-part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,95459,1331,77,3989,1330,95458,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-245837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-9b896ed4-f4c3-40d3-b6c5-4376a086c39e","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-shorttitle-jason-watkins-confirmed-for-new-british-bbc-drama","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114813186923501574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}