James Graham discusses Gareth Southgate, male role models and why his next play is about the collapse of the global economy

In the week that Dear England, his play about the English football team, reopens at the National Theatre, Sarah Crompton chats to multi-award-winning playwright James Graham.

In this revealing conversation, he talks about his admiration for Gareth Southgate, the tragedy behind his play Punch, his horror of social media, and why theatre is a vital tool for building empathy and countering toxic masculinity.

Graham’s next play Make It Happen, announced earlier this year, will star Succession’s Brian Cox at the Edinburgh International Festival and be about the financial crash of 2008.

Crompton and regular co-host and editor-in-chief Alex Wood present a weekly series on all things theatrical. News, views, frank exchanges and lists offer an unmissable guide to what’s happening on stage (and in film and on television) now, in the past and in future.

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