That’ll Be the Day – 1973 | 87mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Dated, but still infectiously cheery tale of a working-class dreamer through adolescence into manhood in the late 50s, as his frustrations find their release in the music of rock‘n’roll. Co-starring the real life rockers Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Billy Fury, Claude Whatham’s warmly nostalgic drama helped to establish David Puttnam as a producer. Puttnam commissioned Ray Connolly to write the screenplay based on Harry Nilsson’s song 1941, although the final resemblance is slight. A superior sequel, Stardust, followed in 1974.

Abandoned by his father as a child, suburban school dropout Jim MacLaine (David Essex) leaves home and drifts through a succession of dead-end jobs until he finds an outlet for his frustration in rock ‘n’ roll. Tossing away the chance of a college education much to the consternation of his mother, alienated MacLaine becomes a lowly deckchair attendant before streetwise friend Mike (Ringo Starr) gets him a job with the fun fair. The initially shy Maclaine quickly becomes a heartless fairground romeo leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake. Eventually the prodigal son returns home to run the family store and marry his girlfriend, but despite the birth of a son, restless Jim feels the lure of rock’n’roll again.