Dear England writer to begin creating TV show straight after Olivier win

The writer of Dear England has said he will begin adapting the play for TV the day after winning an Olivier Award.

A new BBC four-part series has already been announced with James Graham returning as writer and star Joseph Fiennes reprising his role as England football manager Gareth Southgate.

After accepting his Olivier for best new play on Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall, Graham told the PA news agency: “I need to write it so I’m going to start doing that tomorrow morning, maybe after 10 o’clock.

“But we know that Joe is going to reprise his role to Gareth Southgate and that is absolutely vital because no one else on earth could play him like Joe.”

He added that he did not want to be “a cliche” but he “really wasn’t expecting” the prize.

Graham also said he hoped that the Football Association was listening and he can get tickets for the Euros in Germany later this year.

After winning the Olivier for best actress in a play, Sarah Snook spoke of sharing her one-woman show The Picture Of Dorian Gray with her Succession cast members.

The Australian star previously took home a Golden Globe award for her role as Siobhan Roy in the critically acclaimed family drama Succession, which came to an end last year after four seasons.

She said that she was “overwhelmed” by being on the Royal Albert Hall stage as she had never been there before.

“Well, Matthew (Macfadyen) came into the show and Brian (Cox) came, they loved it,” she said.

“And it’s so special for you to share it with people that you have spent the last 10 years, almost, of my life acting with, then to go off doing our own things now, and I can’t wait to see Brian into the (theatre) show (Long Day’s Journey Into Night).

“It’s really special to sort of start the next journey and I think it’s been nice to get to share that with some of the cast members.”

She added that she would be “putting” the award in her suitcase to take home to Australia.

Irish actor Andrew Scott’s play Vanya scooped up the best revival play for Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s family drama Uncle Vanya, but he lost out on the best actor prize to Mark Gatiss for The Motive And The Cue about the relationship between Richard Burton and John Gielgud.

Scott told PA that it was a “collaborative effort”.

He added: “There was pressure, certainly. You have a real sort of connection with the audience then because you just need them as much as any sort of actor and, yeah, so it was a pressure.”