Sunderland ’Til I Die revisited five years on – ‘I know Prince William’s watched it’

Philip Buckingham
Dec 14, 2023
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It is in the closing scenes of Sunderland ‘Til I Die when supporter Michelle Barraclough delivers that heart-rending line to distil the enduring appeal of the Netflix documentary.
“Why is it never us celebrating?” she asks in the aftermath of a stoppage-time defeat to Charlton Athletic in the 2019 League One play-off final at Wembley. “Why is it never us?”

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Her question is not looking for an answer, but the suffering is wholly authentic and raw. Almost uncomfortably so.
“A right water bag,” says Barraclough now in a blunt, retrospective self-appraisal. “We’ve had opposition fans singing ‘We saw you crying on Netflix’ since then and there’s not a lot I can say to that, is there?”
Guilty as charged, but a smiling Barraclough has no wish to change her role in the docu-series that first aired five years ago today. She was among a handful of fans who added depth to the story of Sunderland’s decline, illustrating the human cost of a football club living through its nadir.
“It showed the passion that people in the North East have for football,” she says. “You saw what it meant to so many people. That’s what made it special.”
And viewers are now going to see more of it. Limited to three episodes rather than the eight and six of series one and two respectively, Sunderland ‘Til I Die is due to return to Netflix in the new year.
Sunderland’s play-off final win over Wycombe Wanderers in May 2022, which sealed promotion back to the Championship under Alex Neil, will be the central thread and some protagonists, including Barraclough, will return.
So will Peter Farrer, the straight-talking, spirited taxi driver of the first two series. He has embraced retirement in the past two years but remains a recognisable face to strangers at the Stadium of Light.
“It was popular because it was about the city and it was about the people,” says Farrer. “And the city loves the football club. Just a genuine thing, even when they’re at rock bottom.”

Peter Farrer in front of the Raich Carter mural in Hendon (Philip Buckingham/The Athletic)

That is exactly where Sunderland found themselves when a Netflix audience was last asked to pity them. A humbling relegation from the Championship was confirmed at the end of series one before promise ultimately went unfulfilled in series two. That failure to win promotion out of League One at the first attempt under Jack Ross amounted to what was the lowest standing in the club’s history.

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And it got worse once the cameras stopped rolling. The 2019-20 season, curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, brought an eighth-place finish in League One under Phil Parkinson before the next campaign ended with another play-off defeat under Lee Johnson, beaten by Lincoln City over two legs.
Only when Stewart Donald, the enthusiastic but hapless owner who was followed in series two, ceded control to Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the Swiss heir to a billionaire’s fortune, did Sunderland’s stagnation turn to progress and, by May 2022, there was cause for the Netflix cameras to return in search of their happy ending.
“It was such a fabulous feeling when it finally was us,” says Barraclough at her home in the Silksworth area of Sunderland. “I was probably in tears again. Happy tears, at least.”
Sunderland ‘Til I Die was always pitched as being different to the modern football documentaries when first aired in December 2018. It was the antithesis of Amazon Prime’s All or Nothing, a polished product that has featured the likes of Manchester City, Juventus, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
Its creators, production company Fulwell73, include lifelong Sunderland fans Ben Turner and Leo Pearlman, who joined the club’s board of directors in October of this year. The focus purposely went beyond the struggles of a beleaguered club and out towards its community. The power was in its people.
“Unlike some football documentaries, it didn’t just focus on the inner workings of a club, the players and the manager, like a fly on the wall thing,” says Andrew Cammiss, the former serviceman and family man who was filmed spray painting his beard red and white for a Wembley trip in series two.
“This area is massively passionate about football and the club is a major part of the city. The fact they went out and found fans to tell their stories made it different. Unlike the players, we don’t move on. We stay and support to the bitter end. That’s why it had so much raw emotion in there.”

Sunderland fans at the play-off final at Wembley in 2022 (Eddie Keogh via Getty Images)

The only constant across the two series of Sunderland ‘Til I Die became the fans and it was that charm that helped convince Rob McElhenney to buy Wrexham along with Ryan Reynolds three years ago. “I was falling in love with this team and these people and the story,” said McElhenney in 2021 after binging the two series during lockdown.

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He was not the only one sucked in. “Sunderland’s become known around the world on the back of it,” says Farrer. “I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but I can go into the Colliery Tavern (the closest pub to the Stadium of Light) before a game and somebody will recognise me. I’ve had people from Slovakia, America, Chile, Germany, France come up to me.
“I used to pick up a fare in the taxi and you’d have people in the back nudging each other saying, ‘It’s him off Sunderland ‘Til I Die’. I know Prince William’s watched it as well. One of the local councillors came round here (close to Farrer’s home in Hendon) and was saying when he’d spoken with Prince William he’d told him he’d watched it. You couldn’t make it up.”

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Farrer has a video message on his phone to illustrate the reach of Sunderland ‘Til I Die. “The strangest one came after the end of the first series,” he says. “My son is Peter Farrer and he’s on Facebook, which I don’t bother with. He says to me he’s had a message off a bloke from River Plate and I’m like, ‘F*** off, man!’. He thought my son was me and he wanted to speak to me about Sunderland.
“He’d totally fallen in love with Sunderland and he sent me a video telling me how popular I was in Argentina. They’d loved the series and invited me over to see the stadium and the club.”
The video, filmed at the Estadio Monumental with the 2018 Copa Libertadores trophy in the background, still makes Farrer chuckle. Only the Covid-19 pandemic and prostate cancer put a stop to his travel plans. “I’ve had it all removed,” he says cheerfully. “I’m champion now.”
Barraclough also finds her days interrupted by those eager to talk Sunderland. “It was wonderful to be part of it,” she says. “I still get recognised at games. It was part of our matchday experience in the end. We’d meet up with the crew and they’d follow us through matches. They’d mic us up and you’d eventually forget you were wearing it.
“That’s probably what made it popular. It’s authentic and, correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think anyone hates us. Except for them (Newcastle) up the road. I don’t think we’re a club that anyone really dislikes and a lot of the time we’re underdogs. I think the North East people are pretty wonderful, too.”

Owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus at the Stadium of Light last month (Stu Forster via Getty Images)

Sunderland ‘Til I Die was warts and all. The aimless leadership of former chief executive Martin Bain was laid bare, as was the desperation of a deadline-day bid for Will Grigg. Then there were those awkward moments that tracked Charlie Methven, the former director who introduced dance music to the Stadium of Light in an attempt to make it “a bit Ibiza”.

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Sunderland was a club of good intentions but was fatally undermined by an instability that brought false dawns.
Not so much anymore. Donald and Methven checked out of Wearside long ago and Louis-Dreyfus, a 26-year-old withdrawn public figure, has a five-year plan to take Sunderland back to the Premier League by 2026.
Promotion out of League One came at the end of his first full season with a controlling stake before last term ended with a sixth-place finish in the Championship. Only defeat to Luton Town across two legs denied Sunderland another trip back to Wembley.
“The club’s in a good place now,” says Barraclough. “I’ve met Kyril and I really like him. A very astute young man who’s got his head screwed on. He knows exactly what he wants.
“It’s a very different club now, for the better. We’ve got better owners and we’ve got more people in the club who are Sunderland fans. We’ve got an owner who, hopefully, has learned from the mistakes of our previous owners.
“In the past, we spent a fortune on players thinking it would be an easy fix, but we bought a lot of journeymen who were only here for the money. They didn’t have the heart or the motivation that these young lads are showing now.
“We’re now trying to build for the future, but the difficulty is trying to stay patient. We might lose games, but these are young kids who give everything now and they’ll get better with experience.”
This season, though, there has already been turbulence that fans had hoped to leave behind. Tony Mowbray was sacked last week after a run of two wins in nine games, a call made all the more ruthless after last season concluded with an injury-hit team defying the odds.
“I loved Mowbray, the best football we’ve seen since Peter Reid,” says Cammiss. “I was distraught with the way he’s been treated. He was sacked when we’re three points off the play-offs. A rash decision and, for me, not the right one.”

Manager Tony Mowbray was sacked earlier this month (Stu Forster via Getty Images)

Cammiss is torn on the direction of travel for Sunderland. “They’ve got this plan in place now where they’ll sign young players for very little money and sell them on for a lot of money. Have I enjoyed the young players coming in and watching them flourish? Of course.

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“But my opinion on the owner is that he’s very clever for a young man. He’s got this model in place because he’s here, like a lot of foreign owners, to make money by taking a club to the promised land.”
Farrer is more understanding of Mowbray’s dismissal, believing it a pity but inevitable for a manager growing irritable with his employers. “The club is in a place the club wants it to be in for now,” he says. “I know that sounds daft, but it’s about that next step up. It’s a massive gulf between the Championship and the Premier League.
“Just look at the teams that went up last season. If we were to go up, we’d have to buy five or six experienced players and I’m not sure that’s what they want to do. But do you want to get promoted? Of course you do for the money side, but those three clubs that went up tell you it isn’t much fun when you get there.”
Farrer, a supporter for over half a century, does not find much to relish in an FA Cup third-round date with Newcastle United either. The first meaningful meeting between the local rivals in almost eight years, scheduled for January 6, has the potential to highlight an uncomfortable gulf that has widened since Newcastle’s Saudi takeover.
“I suppose we’ve nothing to lose,” he says. “If we get beat, we get beat. If we win, then brilliant. But it’s not the draw I wanted, I’ll tell you that. You can’t enjoy those games.”
Sunderland ‘Til I Die will return next year to show a club back on an upward trajectory, but the past 12 months have brought a loss that will form part of the final chapters.
Ian Wake was Barraclough’s long-standing companion at Sunderland fixtures, the towering presence next to her when she is filmed crying at Wembley. Wake was also the fan who had the Sunderland ‘Til I Die logo tattooed on the inside of his arm ahead of the defeat to Portsmouth in the 2019 Checkatrade Trophy final, another scene captured by Netflix cameras.

Michelle Barraclough at her home with a photograph of Ian Wake (Philip Buckingham/The Athletic)

This year brought Wake’s unexpected death in March and his funeral is set to be featured in an episode where producers have sought the approval of Barraclough. “It’s been so sad, so emotional,” she says. “He was 62, so he should’ve really had another 20 years ahead of him. What they’ve done is a beautiful tribute to Ian. Sunderland ’til he died.”

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Wake passed in the closing weeks of last season when Sunderland’s late charge into the Championship play-offs brought more pain with the loss to Luton. Although the third series will relive the League One semi-final win over Sheffield Wednesday and then a cathartic victory over Wycombe in the final at Wembley during the 2021-22 season, it is now three seasons out of five that have concluded with Sunderland beaten in the play-offs.
A place in the Championship play-offs is already the summit of Sunderland’s ambitions after seeing the current top two of Leicester City and Ipswich Town disappear over the horizon, and there is a sense that the division’s youngest squad will eventually not have enough. Sunderland are sixth after Tuesday’s impressive 1-0 win over Leeds United, the same position they ended last season.
“I’d love it to happen, but I just can’t see it,” says Barraclough. “Maybe I’ve had the optimism knocked out me. I’m more of a realist and I look at the other clubs in the league. The only route left is through the play-offs and I’m not sure I could bear another one of them…”

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