Film
That'll Be The Day
A 1973 British film capturing the moment rock and roll arrived, following a restless teenager through seaside grit and small-town aimlessness. David Essex is magnetic as Jim, caught between dead-end work and the electric promise of music. It's intimate, grubby, and genuinely felt—a love letter to 1950s Britain from inside the era itself, before nostalgia cleaned it up.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like coming-of-age stories where the pull of a good record is weighed against the dull grind of growing up, and you don't mind a rough edge to get there.
Skip it if you want a tidy feel-good music story; this is a bittersweet, episodic drift with a seedy streak, and the songs often sit in the background.
What it asks of you: Unhurried and loose, it spends long stretches watching Jim drift between jobs, rooms and moods, so patience pays off more than attention to plot.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Quadrophenia1979
The spiritual successor: British youth, music as salvation, class and boredom colliding. More kinetic and angrier, but the same DNA. Mod culture where That'll Be The Day had rock and roll.
But Nearly two and a half hours, and the plot takes a back seat to atmosphere and soundtrack. The Who's music, while extraordinary, sometimes drowns the story.
This Is England2007
Shane Meadows making a film about a lost boy finding tribe through music and subculture. Working-class Britain, the same hunger for belonging, a young protagonist adrift. Heartbreaking and visceral.
But Skinhead culture in the 1980s. It goes to genuinely dark places—not exploitation, but unflinching. Heavy subject matter.
Absolute Beginners1986
A musical romance set in 1958 London, the exact year That'll Be The Day begins. Jazz, photography, art versus commerce. Ray Davies produced it. It's visually sumptuous in a way the original isn't.
But The tone is lighter, almost whimsical. If you want That'll Be The Day's grittiness, this is candy-coloured by comparison. Some find the stylization too much.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from That'll Be The Day
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Stardust2007
Both are about the precise moment a young man realizes music is the door out. That'll Be The Day documents the discovery; Stardust documents the obsession that follows.
David Bowie's biopic as imagined by Gabriel Range: a portrait of the artist as a young man arriving in America to reinvent himself. Shot in the style of a 1970s thriller, introspective and strange. It's about the hunger that That'll Be The Day captures—the need to become someone else through music.
But It's unconventional and fractured. Not a traditional biopic. Some find it pretentious; others find it profound. Bowie fans often hate it. Fair-minded but uncompromising.
More like this (6)
A Clockwork Orange1971
British, dystopian, obsessed with music as identity and rebellion. Released just before That'll Be The Day. Alex's violence versus Jim's petty crime, but the same question: what does society want from young men?
But Kubrick's vision is deliberately repulsive. The sexual violence is graphic and disturbing. Not a comfortable watch; it's designed not to be.
Half a Sixpence1967
Tommy Steele as a young man on the make in Edwardian England. Lighter than That'll Be The Day but similar DNA: youth, aspiration, the collision of old and new worlds. A musical with real charm.
But It's aggressively cheerful. If you're after grit and truth, this is a fairy tale. The production numbers can feel theatrical to the point of artifice.
A Taste of Honey1961
British New Wave realism about a working-class girl adrift in Manchester. Jo is like Jim's sister—young, poor, trying to make sense of a world that doesn't want her. Sincere and unsentimental.
But The pacing is languid. Black-and-white and deliberately unglamorous. If you're looking for plot momentum, you'll find it slow.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner1962
Tom Courtenay as another restless young man trapped by circumstance. Class warfare, rebellion, the refusal to fit in. It understands the same exhaustion Jim feels. Desolate and brilliant.
But It's bleak—unremittingly so. There's no comfort here, no redemption, just the grinding pressure of poverty. Not everyone's in the mood for that.
Mona Lisa1986
Bob Hoskins, London, crime and the underworld, a young man navigating streets full of danger and disappointment. Similar mood to the seaside park sequences. Tender and violent at once.
But It's a crime drama, not a music film. The tone is harder, more cynical. If you loved That'll Be The Day for its rock and roll heart, you might find this cold.
Kes1970
A working-class boy in Yorkshire, trapped by circumstance, finding something like freedom through a hawk. Barry Hines' masterpiece about class and childhood. The mood—yearning and futile—echoes That'll Be The Day.
But It's a slow burn. The ending is deliberately bleak. If you need something uplifting, this isn't it.
People
Cast
David EssexJim MacLaine
Ringo StarrMike
James BoothMr MacLaine
Rosemary LeachMrs. MacLaine
Billy FuryStormy Tempest
Rosalind AyresJeanette Sutcliffe
Robert LindsayTerry Sutcliffe
Keith MoonJ.D. Glover
Deborah WatlingSandra
Brenda BruceDoreen
Daphne OxenfordMrs Sutcliffe
Kim BradenCharlotte
Directing
- Claude WhathamDirector
Writing
- Ray ConnollyWriter
Production
- Roy BairdExecutive Producer
- David PuttnamProducer
- Sanford LiebersonProducer