Netflix has set the core cast for The English Game. Edward Holcroft (Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Kevin Guthrie (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, The Terror), Charlotte Hope (The Spanish Princess, Game of Thrones), Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), James Harkness (The Victim, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Niamh Walsh (Jamestown, Jekyll & Hyde) have all been cast in the football drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes.
Rouding out the cast is Gerard Kearns (The Mark Of Cain, Shameless), Joncie Elmore (Downton Abbey, Shameless), Sam Keeley (Anthropoid), Daniel Ings (The Crown, Lovesick), Kate Dickie (Red Road, Prometheus), Henry Lloyd Hughes (Killing Eve, The Inbetweeners, Indian Summers), Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, The Crown), Ben Batt (Captain America: The First Avenger, Scott & Bailey), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Happy-Go-Lucky, The Death of Stalin), Harry Michell (Chubby Funny, Devils) and Anthony Andrews (The King’s Speech).
The English Game charts the origins of football and how those involved in its creation reached across the class divide to establish the game as the world’s most popular sport. The series is being produced by 42 – the production company behind the BBC’s Watership Down and Channel 4’s spy drama Traitors. In addition to creating and writing the series, Fellowes directs and serves as executive producer. Rory Aitken, Eleanor Moran, Ben Pugh and Eddie Charlton also executive produce. Rhonda Smith is the series producer, while Birgitte Stærmose and Tim Fywell are directing. Production is now underway ahead of a 2020 premiere.
