That'll Be the Day is a 1973 British coming of age drama film directed by Claude Whatham, written by Ray Connolly, and starring David Essex, Rosemary Leach and Ringo Starr.

Set primarily in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it tells the story of Jim MacLaine (Essex), a British teenager raised by his single mother (Leach).

The cast also featured several prominent musicians who lived through the era portrayed, including Starr, Billy Fury, Keith Moon and John Hawken.

His mother wants him to do well on his final exams, qualify for university, and have many opportunities—but Jim is far less enthusiastic about continuing his education, preferring to draw, write poetry, listen to rock n' roll, and chase girls—unsuccessfully.

After two years gone, Jim decides to return home, finding his resentful mother struggling to run the grocery shop and care for her father, who is now an invalid.

David Puttnam and his producing partner Sandy Lieberson met with Nat Cohen of EMI Films who agreed to provide half the budget.

[2][3] According to Filmink the film: Wasn’t an obvious slam dunk – Puttnam had some credits, but they included only a mild success (Melody) and a disaster (The Pied Piper), the story was downbeat, and the lead was not a big name at the time (David Essex).

But Cohen could recognise Puttnam’s talent, not to mention the opportunities for a killer soundtrack – always a factor at a company like EMI – and the fact that the script had sex in it, thus it might be another A Kind of Loving or Poor Cow.

[2] Connolly worked on it in the evenings, and said they would "ransack our own lives as we created the fictional character of Jim Maclaine, and steal moments from our favourite films, a bit from East of Eden here, something from Francois Truffaut’s 'The 400 Blows' there.

Ringo Starr was cast as Mike after Connolly, who had never been to a holiday camp, consulted him and former Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall about their Butlins memories.

[2] Several roles were played by prominent musicians who had lived through the film's era, including Starr, Billy Fury, Keith Moon of the Who, and John Hawken of the Nashville Teens.

[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] (despite its enormous popularity this album has never had an official CD release in the UK) The film was a hit at the box office (by 1985 it had earned an estimated profit of £406,000).

A sixth form drop out, who throws his school books into a river when he should be sitting his A-level history, writes poetry in the rain while hiring out deck chairs, and lets down just about absolutely everyone was hardly an obvious subject.

Based on a well-received screening at Filmex in Los Angeles, programmer Jerry Harvey, partnering with Richard Chase and Kenneth Greenstone, created a small company, Mayfair Film Group, to take over distribution.