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ANOTHER new Beatles film. It's almost as if the runaway (for which read: very underwhelming) success of a podcast on the subject has led to a surfeit of new releases.
And underwhelming is the key word here: yes, Peter Bradshaw can somehow write a five-star review in the Guardian without once mentioning whether the actual film is good or bad, but for those of us at the coalface of Beatles films appraisal it's a bit more nuanced. What is the film actually trying to say? How much work have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr put into this official Apple release? Fair enough, they're in their eighties, but still. And does the mention of Martin Scorsese suggest more prestige than the film actually delivers?
See Paul's Instagram story which was definitely shot on the same day he did his interview for this film: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6gxsThsAOV/Leonard Bernstein talking about the Beatles in the 1967 documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution: https://youtu.be/v32U0mjGz6gElaine Kim's cover of All My Loving, as used in the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrFx2LZB7D4Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It's taken a while to get here, but Brian Epstein biopic Midas Man, starring Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, is released on Prime Video today, 30 October 2024. We got a chance to see it at an advance screening and we think there's lots in there for Beatles fans to enjoy. Among the items up for discussion here: the performances as the Beatles by Jonah Lees, Blake Richardson, Leo Harvey-Elledge, Campbell Wallace and Adam Lawrence are all excellent. Did being less central characters free the actors up to focus more on mannerisms and delivery? Could you transplant them straight into the Sam Mendes biopics on this basis? How well does the film get around not being able to use Lennon/McCartney songs?
Watch Midas Man on Prime Video. We understand this is a release in the UK only for now, with international release to be confirmed: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Midas-Man/0L8KQBPKMK7JQHBNO8K7KBOK2KWatch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzDYxAwoUWkIMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12627606/Jacob Fortune-Lloyd's article about finding the character of Brian: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/understanding-brian-epsteinThe story of Dizz Gillespie, represented in the film as Tex Ellington, is told both in The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, and by Devin McKinney at https://www.heydullblog.com/brian-epstein/the-dizz-gillespie-story/IMDb and trailer for 2021's Creation Stories, with a clip of Leo-Harvey Elledge (George in Midas Man) as Liam Gallagher: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5693182/Vanity Fair doing the Lord's work and writing up the Hanks/Fonz beef from Turner & Hooch so we didn't have to: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/01/tom-hanks-henry-winkler-feudMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Filmed in 1974 and now remastered (not that you'd notice) for a cinema release, One Hand Clapping is the latest thing to come out of Paul McCartney's ongoing project to clear out his shed. It's good though! In this bonus episode we talk about how the idea behind its release might be as a sort of Get Back-lite, and whether that stands up, about the dynamic between Paul and the rest of the band, and about the "very special" bit at the end, which you won't see on the YouTube version, where Paul plays some acoustic songs in the Abbey Road back garden. Plus: Linda McCartney was very cool indeed.
The film is currently on limited release in UK cinemas. https://www.onehandclapping.filmIMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223840/Our rant about cinemas agreeing a policy on start times shouldn't be read as shade thrown at Picturehouse cinemas, by the way: they are lovely cinemas and someone gave us a free poster.Watch Paul on stage with comedian Deon Cole on 17 September 2024: https://youtu.be/TPTgmoW3VL8Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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One more, then: here's a bonus episode covering the Beatles Anthology DVD extras. We note just how much this disc complements the Anthology series, to the extent that watching it without watching this feels incomplete. It made us rethink some of the assumptions we'd made about the Beatles' interpersonal relationships in the 1990s, in fact. We see in longer form the footage from the Threetles' day at George Harrison's Friar Park home on 23 June 1994, and observe the differences between their behaviour when being interviewed together versus apart. We talk about the making of the Free As a Bird video, and put forward a theory about the nurse selling poppies from a tray (if it turns out it's been on the internet for years, no need to tell us).
Thanks for listening to season five. We loved hanging out with you guys. See you again later this year.
The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset is available to buy.Watch the Free As a Bird video: https://youtu.be/ODIvONHPqpkWatch the Real Love video: https://youtu.be/ax7krBKzmVIGeorge Martin's Alderney Sailing Club jumper will be from when he owned a house in Alderney, on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. He also lived on Montserrat, where he had his studio. Here's an article from January 2024 about Guernsey donating instruments to young people in Montserrat in his name: https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2024-01-15/children-of-beatles-producer-receive-guernsey-instrument-donationMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Beatles: Endgame. We discuss how the documentary gives George Harrison and Ringo Starr the space to craft their own narratives around how they left and then returned to the band, and we go over how it treats the Beatles' breakup, to the extent that it does at all. We talk about All You Need is Love in the context of the Beatles as rabble-rousing religious icons, and about how Yoko Ono is shown mainly in the context of her being a disruptive force. Plus: how the Anthology fails to tell a coherent story around the White Album. Was it a disjointed series of solo performances or a unified and enjoyable creative experience? It's the bloody Beatles White Album, shut up!
The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset is available to buy.The Abbey Road songs on which John Lennon didn't perform are Her Majesty, Here Comes the Sun and Maxwell's Silver Hammer.Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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On we go from Shea Stadium to Sgt Pepper. We see how George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Neil Aspinall remember the incident in Manila differently to Paul McCartney, and we put forward the idea that these episodes contain the Beatles' two imperial phases. We ask why George in the 1990s is still annoyed with Paul for making himself LSD spokesman in 1967, and we look in detail at Paul's chipped tooth: did it change everything?
The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset is available to buy.Maybe this is Meryl Streep at Shea Stadium, maybe it isn't. Why not spend your valuable time arguing with strangers on the internet in an attempt to resolve the matter? https://youtu.be/x6aNSHLg18YRead more about the idea of a band's imperial phase: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_phaseOf course, only an idiot would confidently claim George won Best Rock Video at the 1988 MTV Music Video Awards for Got My Mind Set On You, not least because that award didn't exist until 1989. He was nominated for both Best Male Video and Best Special Effects in a Video for that song but he won nothing, despite When We Was Fab also picking up several nominations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_George_Harrison#MTV_Music_Video_AwardsThe producer at the A Day in the Life session who announced "I just can't believe it ... I give up", was Ron Richards, producer of the Hollies, according to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.John Bishop is a Liverpudlian comedian and presenter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bishop We tried and failed to find a clip of the question he asked Paul that annoyed him at the Eight Days a Week premiere, but if you ever meet Paul, don't call the Beatles "an overnight success".Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Into episodes 3 and 4, the bulk of the Beatlemania and touring years, and we get straight to the key issue: why has Paul McCartney suggested he be interviewed while steering a tugboat? We also get into how the Anthology handles John's habit of making fun of disability: why is it addressed, given there was probably no real pressure on them to do so in the nineties, and how would it be received if included in a rereleased Anthology today?
Plus: Jimmie Nicol and another example of Ringo Starr's emotional intelligence, as his memory of being temporarily replaced mainly involves taking a 24-hour flight to Australia on his own and how that made him feel.
There's a bit more too on the group dynamics of the Threetles meeting at Friar Park, and we ask whether George Harrison would've been as snarky in his interviews if John Lennon had been alive and participating in the documentary.
The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset is available to buy.The Big Train sketch in which George Martin can't stop doing Beatles anecdotes: https://youtu.be/yIA_NVFnXZ8The episode of BBC Radio 4's Front Row in which Samira Ahmed uncovers the previously unheard recording of the Beatles performing at Stowe School on 4 April 1963: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kpq1Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In the first of our four episodes covering the 1995 documentary series, we start with some of our own memories of when it aired, when we were teenagers and Britpop had made The Beatles cool again in the UK. We note the vast structural difference between episode 1, which of course covers the bit of their career of which there's the least amount of video footage, and episode 2, which focuses much less on talking head recollections and more on live and TV appearances, often shown nearly in full.
We also discuss the practical impact of the three Beatles still alive at the time, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, being interviewed mainly separately, and how much each of them is enjoying the experience. Paul is in full anecdote mode, but is George enjoying himself more than he expected to?
Plus: how are Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best treated in this, and why? What are the implications of only including a limited core of contributors? And a bit of digging into the idea that they got their name from the Marlon Brando film The Wild One.
The Beatles Anthology DVD boxset is available to buy.Watch a TV advert for the Anthology DVD release: https://youtu.be/hlHX8FPqsDMThe tweet from Joe Wisbey of the Beatles Books Podcast, linking to the short doc that aired before the Free as a Bird video premiere on ITV. Thanks Joe! https://x.com/BooksBeatles/status/1631351804335120391Beatles Bible diary entry for 30 October 1963, when the Beatles performed on the Swedish TV show Drop In: https://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/10/30/television-drop-in-stockholm-swedenMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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A quick bonus episode to discuss Michael Lindsay-Hogg's film, restored by Peter Jackson's team and released on Disney+ on 8 May 2024.
We discussed the original film at length in our two-part episode at the end of season four, and you can find that in this podcast feed. But we were lucky enough to get an advance viewing of the restored Let it Be, so we wanted to have a quick chat about the significance of this re-release. In particular we try and answer the question: Why do we need this when we have Get Back? We also talk about Jackson and Lindsay-Hogg's introduction, and how it suggests this has been ready to go for over a year, and about the visual and audio distinctions between this restoration and Get Back.
So give it a listen and then scroll back through this feed and check out the original Let it Be two-part episode.
Read Dan Rivkin's excellent post about the Let it Be restoration on his blog, They May Be Parted: https://theymaybeparted.com/2024/05/07/tmbp-extra-then-and-now/Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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George Harrison of the Beatles and Ravi Shankar organised two concerts on 1 August 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as relief for refugees from East Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide. The gigs featured Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and Badfinger. We talk here about both the concert film released to cinemas in 1972, and the 2005 documentary on the DVD, The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends.
We discuss how this set a template for the benefit concert as we know it today, and talk about the white saviour complex and how acknowledging the culture of Bangladesh through Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan's performance arguably sets the concert apart. We also talk about the performances; and the challenges of, and comically rookie errors made while, filming it. And! Is Clapton's lacklustre performance down to choosing a hollow-bodied guitar, or the fact he was boxed on methadone?
We use clips of the film and concert in this episode, so we've made a donation to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, and you can do the same here if you'd like: https://www.unicefusa.org/about-unicef-usa/partnerships/foundations/george-harrison-fundThe concert on George's official site, with links to buy the DVD: https://www.georgeharrison.com/films/the-concert-for-bangladeshJohn Lennon's benefit gig for Willowbrook State School was released as Live in New York City: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6cgunrThe Greatest Night in Pop is the Netflix documentary about the recording of We Are The World: https://www.netflix.com/title/81720500The documentary we were thinking of is not called “Clapton” or “Slow Hand” but 2017’s Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars: https://g.co/kgs/hAKZ9TkAfter recording we confirmed that, uncharacteristically, Ed was right: Setlist.fm shows that If I Needed Someone is the only song written by George ever performed live by The Beatles. https://www.setlist.fm/stats/the-beatles-23d6a88b.htmlMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Scot Williams is best known to Beatles fans for playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and In His Life: The John Lennon Story. Scot's been a successful actor, director and writer for 30 years, and having grown up in Liverpool the Beatles have always been a big part of his life, and have featured in lots of his projects.
Scot is about to direct a play, Two Of Us, adapting Michael Lindsay-Hogg's 2000 film about John Lennon and Paul McCartney's final meeting. We covered it in our first episode, which we were delighted to hear Scot listened to, and which informed his interpretation of the script.
As well as Two Of Us, we talk about how he came to be in Backbeat, Stephen Dorff and the dynamic of British actors alongside Hollywood stars, and his friendship with Pete Best. We also get his take on the upcoming Sam Mendes Beatles films.
Note: through our own fault we had some problems recording Scot's voice, so we've cleaned it up with an AI tool (yes, just like John's voice on Now and Then). If the odd word sounds a bit funny, that's why!
Two Of Us runs at the Watford Palace Theatre 13–21 September 2024. Tickets: https://watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk/events/two-of-us/Then at HOME Manchester from 26–28 September. https://homemcr.org/production/two-of-usHear our episodes on Two Of Us and Backbeat in this podcast feed.Watch Two Of Us: https://youtu.be/nOGgmsDbx-UScot's IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931656/Barry Sloane will play John in Two Of Us: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1289351/Richard Short will play Paul: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2095375/ Scot's Beatles/Shakespeare musical A Bard Day's Night, cowritten with Backbeat co-star Chris O'Neill: https://abarddaysnight.com/ The Conversations with McCartney audiobook where Scot read Paul's bits: https://open.spotify.com/show/61RgyFASIKjzbP6OrgZOlIMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Let's look at Ringo Starr's 1978 TV comedy film, written by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, both of whom would go on to make significant contributions to film comedy through the Police Academy and Naked Gun films, and loosely designed to promote his recent album Bad Boy.
We discuss where Ringo is in his career and how his performance (he plays two versions of himself in a take on Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper) made Hollywood reappraise him and led to his leading role in Caveman (also covered in a previous episode). We talk about why so many stars like Art Carney, John Ritter and an immediately-post-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher are keen to get involved.
And we discuss George Harrison’s performance, and why it’s a good job Ringo doesn’t seem to play You’re Sixteen live anymore.
Watch the film: https://youtu.be/LditHJXu4LUThe Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is James Mangold's A Complete Unknown, currently in production: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11563598/Watch 1977's The Prince and The Pauper, starring Oliver Reed: https://youtu.be/CNx2-e-OcIUWatch 1983's Trading Places, with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/trading-placesSetlist.fm stats which seem to show that Ringo wisely hasn't played You're Sixteen live since September 2019: https://www.setlist.fm/stats/ringo-starr-and-his-all-starr-band-63c6b20b.htmlMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Leslie Woodhead's 2009 film for BBC Four wasn't his first entry into Beatledom: he also shot the Cavern Club footage in 1962 that we're all so familiar with. He's also spent time making films in Russia, so he's ideally placed for this look at Russian youth's relationship with The Beatles, during the Soviet era and into the early, less scary, Putin era. We look at Russian then-Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov's contribution to this film. He seems fun! Maybe less so these days. We also discuss the practice of smuggling contraband Beatle recordings about by etching them into X-ray acetates, and Paul McCartney's meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2003.
You can watch the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUO1atyECD8 Chuck Norris vs Communism doesn't look like it's on any streamers at the moment, but its details are here: https://g.co/kgs/uoaNUFT Nick Broomfield's film Kurt & Courtney: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hfrtn Pete Paphides' excellent book, Broken Greek: https://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4KElton John's autobiography, Me: https://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4KMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Paul McCartney's first solo project, other than judging beauty contests, was the score for The Family Way, a 1966 comedy-drama in which a northern English community have an invasive interest in the non-consummation of Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills' marriage. Is Paul really the chief composer of the score for which he won the Ivor Novello award, or did George Martin do more than "supervise and arrange" it?
There's a lot going on in The Family Way in terms of changing attitudes in the sixties, and of course the Beatles were at the forefront of this. Intellectualism, sexual freedom and men being allowed to be sensitive and artistic. We look at how the film handles these things. Plus! A bonus (if you like that sort of thing) Kula Shaker connection!
You can watch The Family Way in good quality on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8csmfpAnd listen to the soundtrack album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4opUUCL6CG5SLSEysBytapSome more information about the Carry On film franchise, if you don't mind a wiki in your face: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_(franchise)There are full episodes of Hywel Bennett's long-running sitcom Shelley on YouTube. You might recognise the title theme if you like the Top Flight Time Machine podcast: https://youtu.be/BMduOLx6vToThe book Ed mentions is Steve Turner's excellent Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year: https://g.co/kgs/n29WPBaMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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We both loved Robert Zemeckis's 1978 debut feature, the story of a group of New Jersey teens trying to get into the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. We talk about the techniques Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale use here and how a lot of it prefigures their later work, in particular the Back to the Future trilogy. We also discuss how using the Beatles as characters who are always just off camera or somehow out of reach plays into how America saw them at the time: almost as mythical figures or religious icons. And we get into how the female characters find self-expression through the freedom their fandom gives them, and how that mirrors the Beatles' sociological impact where teenage girls were concerned.
I Wanna Hold Your Hand isn't on a streaming service, but pick up the Blu-ray, which is cheap and a great restoration with an interesting commentary track from Zemeckis and Gale.Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/QEPDFYuhkDIWe also mention some other films in this episode, like Detroit Rock City, a similar story revolving around a Kiss Concert: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/detroit-rock-cityAnd American Graffiti, George Lucas's 1973 coming-of-age film: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/american-graffitiAnd Dazed and Confused, again about the last day of high school: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/dazed-and-confusedMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The 1988 documentary commissioned by Yoko Ono might have been the jumping-off point for the Lennon legacy project we know today. It shows John at his best, for the most part, and there's not much dissent from the talking heads, including May Pang, Julian Lennon and Cynthia Lennon. We ask why John chose George Harrison to play on How Do You Sleep?, his Paul McCartney diss track, when he could've got a session player. We discuss how John and Yoko's bed-in confrontation with the cartoonist Al Capp prefigures a lot of contemporary online discourse. And why wasn't Paul familiar with Real Love when Yoko gave him the demo cassettes, given he'd seen it used in this?
You can rent the film to stream very cheaply on a few platforms: https://g.co/kgs/RvcGK68Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/kqg3plZzxZYHere's the audience member who asked John and Yoko a question on Dick Cavett, wrongly thought by some to be Curt Claudio: https://youtu.be/-Ej3h02KPLU?si=nRgu_iUn3-DSYg6n&t=71A documentary, What Happened to Claudio? has been on the verge of release for a while and we're looking forward to seeing it. Here's its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaR2o3qwr2RBu7s95IxSMXw John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky contains a longer version of the encounter with Claudio than you get in this film: https://youtu.be/99fXJ8nSR1M An in-depth article by Ryan H Walsh about Curt Claudio which is well worth reading: https://medium.com/@JahHills/on-claudio-the-man-who-sought-out-john-lennon-to-ask-if-his-songs-were-about-him-c0b34c5d57ac The interview Julian Lennon gave to the Daily Telegraph in 1998: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4713954/Dad-was-a-hypocrite.-He-could-talk-about-peace-and-love-to-the-world-but-he-could-never-show-it-to-his-wife-and-son.html Julian's 1984 song Too Late for Goodbyes: https://youtu.be/aQs1Ynq0rlkMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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With the announcement that Sam Mendes is to direct four Beatles biopic films for release in 2027, one from each of the perspectives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, it'd be remiss of us not to speculate wildly about what this might involve. Will it tell the same story four times? Will bits of it only be told from one Beatle's perspective? Will it actually just be a bit more metaphysical than that, bypassing the need for narrative realism? Will it be like Beatles Peep Show? God, we hope so. Join us as we discuss all this, plus thoughts on who should play who, and the mechanics of shooting and releasing four films simultaneously then releasing them all within 12 months of each other. And a reminder to Sam Mendes that we are very much available as creative consultants for a modest fee.
Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Merry Christmas! Here's a festive gift marking 40 years since Paul McCartney's Pipes of Peace video, which recreates the 1914 Christmas Day truce on the Western Front of World War 1. How was this video turned around fast enough to be aired on the BBC six days after shooting? Has Paul got the acting bug after spending half of 1983 shooting Give My Regards to Broad Street? Does his decision to play both the English and the German soldier lend a sense of shared humanity and emphasise the futility of war? (Seriously, stay with us here.) And why hasn't the song endured as a peace anthem in the last 40 years, in the way that Give Peace a Chance has?
We used a clip of the charity record He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by The Justice Collective in this episode, and so we've made a donation to The Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance. You can donate here if you'd like to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/1qf2s20740
Thanks so much for listening in 2023. We've loved making these podcasts and we're very grateful for all the positive feedback we get. If you've enjoyed any of them, we'd really appreciate it if you gave us a five-star rating in your podcast app. It helps people find us. See you again in 2024.
Watch the Pipes of Peace video: https://youtu.be/B3q4Up5ugTcPaul McCartney and George Martin being interviewed at the AIR Studios mixing desk by Russell Harty, 14 December 1983: https://youtu.be/xabqb5Y6Mg0All Together Now by The Farm: https://youtu.be/iRgtzZ-mOQoHe Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother by The Justice Collective, featuring a guitar and a vocal line by Paul: https://youtu.be/Ye4cELYLzJMPaul McCartney performing Freedom: https://youtu.be/zFFLlpC9f9QMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcastHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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To finish off our fourth season, thrill as our takes on why George Harrison is laughing when Ringo Starr starts playing Octopus's Garden differ slightly. Later we discuss how Let it Be's pacing is affected by showing the finalised songs in full. Would it defeat the purpose to have done this differently? Plus, is John Lennon's claim that the film was set up to make the other Beatles look like sidemen for Paul McCartney justified, given how Let it Be, The Long and Winding Road and Two Of Us are shot almost like music videos with Paul the focus? We talk about how forward-thinking Michael Lindsay-Hogg's approach was to filming the rooftop gig, and about how this was maybe underappreciated until Get Back revealed the extent of it, and about whether there's now any point releasing a remastered version: could audiences be blamed for receiving it like a shorter Get Back? (NOTE this episode was recorded and released about five months before the restored version came out.)
This episode and part 1 are both based on our viewing of Let it Be in its original form, or close to it, ie a bootleg we found online. Since we recorded this it has of course now been restored and re-released on Disney+, and we've got a short bonus episode discussing the restored version later in this feed.Meet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Now is the winter of our discontent: or is it? Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Let it Be is widely thought a miserable affair, documenting arguments and the breakup of the Beatles. But watching it afresh after Peter Jackson's Get Back in 2021, it doesn't feel so much like that. We ask whether the widespread consensus that it's a negative depiction is actually more a failure of collective memory. What was it really set George Harrison off when he told Paul McCartney "Well, I'll play whatever you want me to play"? And what do we make of Lindsay-Hogg's decision not to let you hear any of the songs in full until the end?
This episode and part 2 are both based on our viewing of Let it Be in its original form, or close to it, ie a bootleg we found online. Since we recorded this it has of course now been restored and re-released on Disney+, and we've got a short bonus episode discussing the restored version later in this feed.The clip we mention of George Harrison talking to George Martin in the studio is from the Hey Jude sessions, and you can see it at https://youtu.be/nb8Ue3mk0QoMeet the Beatles Films PodcastThe Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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