James Graham
Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware
Alice Williams
4.7 • 12.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we have the fantastic James Graham joining us for lunch! James came by to talk about his award winning play, Dear England coming to the BBC. Over lunch, we covered everything from growing up in a Nottinghamshire mining village and telly dinners, to the huge Sunday roasts his family loved. We also chatted about Gareth Southgate, turning football into theatre, his love of musicals, the Polish soup disaster that put him off hosting, and his very romantic passion for whisky. James was such a thoughtful guest, we are such fans of his work and we absolutely loved having him at the table. Dear England is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One later this month!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Tablemanors. I'm Jessie Ware. It's a beautiful day in South London. You look fabulous. I like the red. Do you match my lips? Or my lips match the jumper. It's good. It's working, honey. We are so excited about the guests today. I can't wait. I think I've seen probably at least more than half of his plays that he's written or been involved with. |
| 0:27.0 | So we have the phenomenal James Graham, who is a playwright, a screenwriter. |
| 0:33.2 | He's the national treasure. |
| 0:34.5 | He's got an OBE for his services to drama. |
| 0:37.5 | Yeah. He is one of our most cherished and celebrated playwrights in Britain and just kind of |
| 0:43.8 | around the world too. He's incredible. He addresses current issues. That's what I love about him. |
| 0:49.8 | And old institutions. If you don't know who James Graham is, you may have heard of the hugely successful play |
| 0:57.5 | that was at the National and then transferred to the West End called Dear England, |
| 1:01.1 | which was all about Gareth Southgate's kind of rain and vision with the England squad |
| 1:07.4 | and how he really turned things around for us. |
| 1:10.3 | He's also made musicals, Tammy Fay, which was hugely popular at the Almeida. |
| 1:15.3 | House. |
| 1:16.2 | I didn't see House. |
| 1:17.5 | I did. |
| 1:18.1 | He tackled Parliament and people voting, voting in the House. |
| 1:22.5 | Sherwood. |
| 1:23.2 | Sherwood, the Nottingham Drama, which is so good. |
| 1:26.6 | Punch, which I think won best. Punch, one best, which is so good. Yeah. Punch, which I think one best... |
| 1:29.3 | Punch, one best new play, I think. |
| 1:31.5 | And has transferred from Young Fit to the West End. |
| 1:35.1 | And then it went to Broadway, Mom. |
| 1:36.2 | It's gone to Broadway play. |
... |
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