People the world over know about a football team that play in red-and-white up in the North East of England thanks to a Netflix series that took off in popularity.
Sunderland ‘Til I Die captured the hearts of viewers with its fly-on-the-wall coverage of Sunderland AFC, the impassioned support of the club’s fans and the depiction of life in the coastal working class city.
While the programme was heralded by TV critics, unfortunately for the producers of the two series — some of whom support the Black Cats — the side fared poorly during the seasons they spent covering the team.
But, after appearing lukewarm on the idea of a third series, Fulwell 73 — the company behind the production — has come back for what it is calling one last hurrah.
(Image: Getty)
And they finally are able to show fans celebrating a huge club success.
Why Sunderland ‘Til I Die is back for third series
Leo Pearlman, a founding partner of Fulwell 73, said adding a mini third series was a way of ending the popular series “on a high”.
Fulwell 73 — which has recently gone into business with comedian and talk show host James Corden — said the third series will be only two episodes long.
The pair will focus on Sunderland’s play-off victory, which secured them promotion into the Championship, English football’s second division.
Sunderland convincingly beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley on May 21, 2022, to put to bed years of near misses.
The celebrations, which are likely to be seen in the third series when it airs, will be a far cry from what the Sunderland ‘Til I Die programme had covered at the Stadium of Light to date.
The show’s eight-episode first series followed Sunderland after the club had been relegated from the Premier League, and covered their freefall into League One — the third division — over the course of the 2017-18 football season.
The follow-up second series focused on the club’s then-owners Stewart Donald and Charlie Methven, against the backdrop of the club’s attempt to win promotion from League One in 2018-19.
The six-episode series ended with the defeat in the play-off final at Wembley against Charlton.
Sunderland, away from the glare of the documentary-makers’ cameras, had a poor league season to follow, finishing eighth.
They then had another failed promotion bid through the play-offs in 2020-21, losing in the semi-final to Lincoln City.
But last year the team had a spring resurgence under new boss Alex Neil, which culminated in promotion back to the Championship after victory in north-west London.
The curse of the cameras
(Image: Getty Images)
Fulwell 73 were set-up by four friends, three of whom — Leo Pearlman, Gabe Turner, and Ben Turner — are Sunderland fans.
In fact, even the name of the company is a homage to the Mackem team.
The Fulwell End was a name of a stand at the club’s former ground Roker Park and 73 is a reference to the 1973 FA Cup Final — the last time Sunderland won a major trophy.
Their love of the team and the city inspired their decision to pitch to make a fly-on-the-wall series that was an alternative to the big-bucks productions made about Premier League clubs.
But after both series ended with heartbreak, the cameras were not invited back for almost two years.
However, with a change in ownership — 24-year-old French businessman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is chairman and has steadily become majority shareholder — the team were given another crack at it.
A deal was negotiated for the crew to focus on the play-off final win and celebrate a long-awaited Sunderland promotion.
Yet the strange coincidence of the cameras rolling while club turmoil was going on continued.
In August, the Fulwell 73 cameras were at the club’s Academy of Light training base on the day that club manager Alex Neil decided to leave Sunderland to take over at Stoke City.
Mr Pearlman announced that Sunderland ‘Til I Die would return at the Sunderland Business Festival, joking that whenever his company’s cameras turned up at the club, it seemed to be a harbinger of doom.
“I genuinely had nothing to do with the manager leaving,” he said, referring to Neil departure.
“It seemed whenever we turned up, the club turned to s***!
“This time we are purely focussing on the play-off win from last season.
“There will be two episodes that look at the incredible finale to the season with the play-off semi-finals and the play-off win against Wycombe at Wembley. We are ending Sunderland ‘Til I Die on a high.”
No date has been set as yet for the release of the new series.
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