I think the media and the press will be a more present character in the TV drama.
The story will still be framed around Southgate, but an ending is up for grabs.
But as a playwright, it puts him in a bit of a pickle.
Barry Sloane (center) as Yasser Hughes in ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’; James GrahamJason Roberts/Curtis Brown
Were a strange country, I remark.
Were a mad country, he responds.
Because were so old.
Joseph Fiennes in ‘Dear England’ (Marc Brenner)Marc Brenner
Thats why were mad, he suggests.
The Das Reboot, he jokes.
Then they come back 10 years later and they win the World Cup again.
We just cant do that, Graham argues.
We cant, like, regenerate.
And thats what Southgates trying to do, he adds.
To celebrate the past, dont burn it down but be released from it to write a new story.
And deal with the fact that were going to lose and were not always going to be amazing.
Graham accepts that its galling that the England national team isnt always exceptional at a game it invented.
That should be a great thing, he reasons.
Hes up for a couple of cameos from legacy players like goalkeeper David Seaman.
Graham says hes still working out what to do about the Gary Lineker character in the play.
And that was a relief.
Neither Southgate nor Harry Kane and the England players sawDear England.
And they need to protect that.
So I totally get it.
However, Southgate deputized family and friends to check it out.
Boys from the Blackstuffis a winner, though.
Rather, they were.
More than that, the plays about men and women demanding to be seen.
Demanding to have a job.
Demanding to raise their families out of poverty.
And then Bleasedale came up with the series starring Bernard Hill and Michael Angelis.
Theres a line in that first drama where in-your-face Yosser makes this incredible speech: Im a man.
I want to be seen.
I feel its like a story about masculinity in the modern world.
And these men are just screaming, Look at me!
Graham heard that she wanted to offer him a job.
It was the last thing he wanted.
I was so busy.
I was like, No matter what she offers me, Im going to say no.
How can I say no to that?
Its just very old-fashioned now if you put moaning northerners on stage.
Is there an appetite for it?
Just those timeless human stories of despair and loss and identity, Graham said.
A different situation, but the despair is the same and the anger is the same, he says.
The work places Bleasdale, Graham believes, as the British Arthur Miller.
These men really express themselves through Bleasdale and Graham.
The two artists did a workshop at the National Theatre.
It was a lovely full circle for him.
Graham wrote a draft and sent it to Bleasdale.
Then hed jump on a train and go visit him in Liverpool.
Its very analog but beautifully so.
The famous Gizza job!
and I can do that!
Youre a cog in a corporate machine, whether its an Amazon warehouse or a call center.
Boys from the Blackstuff runs in the Nationals Olivier Theatre until June 8.
Bill Kenwright Productions will transfer it into the Garrick Theatre from June 13 through August 3.
Boys from the Blackstuffmarks Grahams third play at the National Theatre afterDear EnglandandThis House.
Its very early days, but he wants to look at the mood sweeping across Europe at the moment.
Brexit will be in there.
But also history and kings and queens and countries and borders.
Therell be discoveries of European pasts and alternative lines of history and things like that, he adds.
Its another compelling topic for the playwright of Nottingham to explore.
