Stephen Graham Awaydays fans have a new way to watch the Liverpool-set crime drama for free, after the 2009 film landed on ad-supported platform Tubi, where it is now available without a subscription.
Directed by Pat Holden, Awaydays is set in 1970s Birkenhead and follows 19-year-old Paul Carty (Nicky Bell) in the aftermath of his mother’s death. Adrift and searching for somewhere to belong, Paul falls in with The Pack, a legendary and hyper-violent group of football hooligans commanded by ex-soldier John Godden, played by Graham. The film also features Holliday Granger as Paul’s sister Molly, Liam Boyle as Elvis, and Oliver Lee as Baby Millan.
From novel to screen: the making of Awaydays
The film is an adaptation of the 1998 novel of the same name by Kevin Sampson, who also wrote the screenplay. According to Wikipedia, Awaydays had its theatrical release on 22 May 2009, was distributed by Optimum Releasing, and runs for 105 minutes. The score was composed by David A. Hughes, while the wider soundtrack leans on post-punk icons Joy Division and Ultravox, a combination that has kept the film’s reputation alive long after its original run.
That reputation has been built largely through word of mouth. Over the years, Awaydays has developed a loyal following, with viewers drawn in by the performances, the period atmosphere, and a story that tries to treat its characters as people rather than archetypes.
Stephen Graham Awaydays: what the critics made of it
Audience reaction has always been warmer than the critical consensus. On IMDb, one fan argued that the film steers clear of the preconceptions of what a ‘football hooligan’ film should be, calling it ‘superb’ and a standout in the subgenre. Another described it as a ‘punchy’ and ‘vibrant’ adaptation of the novel, ‘entertaining, admirable and bittersweet’.
Critics, on the other hand, have been less convinced. Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 39% critic score from 31 reviews. The broad critical agreement is that Awaydays deserves credit for refusing to glamourise hooligan culture in the way other films in the canon have, but that its script lets the story down.
‘Bell’s wholehearted performance and the film’s convincingly scuzzy atmosphere don’t make up for the big hole in the script,’ wrote The Times. Time Out put it similarly, arguing: ‘The film falls down in its effort to make credible the background stories of its well-performed lead characters.’
Total Film offered some acknowledgement of what Awaydays gets right: ‘To its credit, Awaydays does not glamorise its hooligans the way The Football Factory and Green Street did.’ The Spectator, meanwhile, landed on a similar note of qualified praise: ‘The performances are good, actually, particularly Bell’s, but the film lacks any context.’
The throughline in almost every review is that Bell’s central performance holds the film together even when the script loses its footing. Graham’s role as Godden, all controlled menace, is less frequently singled out but remains the pivot around which the story turns.
Where to watch Awaydays now
For anyone who missed the film on its original release or wants to revisit it, the options are straightforward. Awaydays is now free to stream on Tubi with adverts. It also remains available to subscribers on Prime Video in the UK.
The Tubi availability means the film is now reaching an audience it never quite found in cinemas, which is perhaps fitting for a picture that has always been better loved by viewers than by reviewers. With its Joy Division-heavy soundtrack and a cast now considerably better known than they were in 2009, it arrives on a new platform with considerably more of a back story than it had at first release.
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