Playing Gareth Southgate on the Chichester Festival Theatre stage

“The response has been very positive,” he says, “and there are a few things that you hear more than once during the tour like hearing that people who have got no interest in football or even stronger, people who have got a real dislike of football still really enjoy the play.

“I think it's because football provides the framework for a play which is actually about a lot more than football. It talks about so many other things like triumphing over adversity and dealing with setbacks. It's also about mental health and it's also about our national identity. It is also about coping with pressure, and these are all things that people can relate to whether on a personal or professional level.

“That's why people have responded to it regardless of their interest in football or not. I think it's similar to the millions and millions of people that tune into shows about baking or ballroom dancing. Not all of those people have a direct interest in baking or ballroom dancing but they love the relationships that develop between the contestants and all the things that are going on.”

Plus, in the case of the play, there is also the fact that our relationship with football is so complex as Gareth Southgate himself makes clear in the play: “There is a line that I say in the play that ‘There is a lot that I don't like or agree with in this game.’ It is such a powerful line, but then he says just how much he loves the game. You can unpack that as much as you want, and I think it just shows what a complex relationship we have with the sport. It's acknowledging that football is not perfect and that it has its difficulties but there is still so much to love about it.”

As for playing someone who's still very much living and breathing: “It is quite surreal. When I have played historical figures like kings in the past, you're playing someone who was around hundreds of years ago, and they occupy a very different part of our consciousness. I don't think I've ever played anyone who's still alive before and you really feel it particularly at the moment given that Gareth Southgate has published a new book and he's been doing lots of media around it.”

David's approach to the role is absolutely not to do an impression of Southgate: “I am not an impressionist. I'm an actor. My approach is to separate Gareth Southgate the real man from the character that James Graham has written for the play which sounds a bit like splitting hairs but I think it's a really important distinction to make. Dear England even though it portrays real people is a work of fiction which portrays things in a dramatic way.”

But there is certainly an essence of the character that David has got to get across: “I say in the play ‘I want to make people watching England happy again.’ He wants to change some of the culture within the England men's football team. He wants it to be more inclusive. He wants it to be a team rather than a collection of individuals, and some of the players have actually been talking about that just recently.

“But I think you've also got to get across his decency and his integrity and his inquisitiveness. There is a huge passion within Gareth Southgate in his love for the game alongside his ability to be quite objective in terms of how he is going to get there.

“I haven't met him. I haven't spoken to him. I would love to meet him just on a personal level. I think he's a really interesting and fantastic guy. What he's doing now since leaving England has been to become a very vocal advocate for young men in this country and presumably worldwide to have positive role models. The way that he's jumped into that and chosen to use his voice to make a real difference I think is so brilliant. It seems to me in all the footage that I have seen of him that he is somebody who isn't trying to be any more than they actually are but at the same time when you have got so many wonderful qualities then that is certainly enough.”