Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Beatles Films Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| George Harrison and Ringo Starr interview on Aspel and Company, 1988 | 01 Jun 2026 | 01:14:50 | |
We love an iconic Beatle interview, and here's one: the first time two Beatles had been interviewed together on TV since the band split up. It's fascinating for a few reasons. We talk about Ringo's alcoholism (he went into rehab later that year), and how George gently prevents his drunk friend from going too far. Plus some discussion of the When We Was Fab video, which George was there to promote. Was Paul McCartney in the walrus costume? And did Michael Aspel found the Traveling Wilburys?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Beatles (2014 Norwegian film) | 25 May 2026 | 00:48:10 | |
Based on Lars Saabye Christensen's 1984 book, a huge success in Norway, it's another coming-of-age story! Why does teenage Beatles fandom dovetail so well with this genre? We look at the use of the music in the film, which secured the rights to use a few Beatles songs, as well as how successfully it marries up the four teenage boy characters with their respective Beatles.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Power to the People: John & Yoko Live in NYC | 18 May 2026 | 01:00:32 | |
Given a short cinema release in April 2026, this film remixes and restores John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1972 One to One concerts at Madison Square Garden, New York, John's only full-length post-Beatles concerts. We look at the context: this is shortly after the release of Sometime in New York City, an album which hadn't gone down well with fans or critics. Does this explain the seeming audience relief at hearing songs from other albums? We also look at Yoko Ono as an "anti-rock" vocalist, and discuss Imagine: as this was its only concert performance by its author, did the song escape the singalong anthem status it might otherwise have had?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass | 11 May 2026 | 01:07:23 | |
In 1972, Paul McCartney's original 1961 Höfner bass guitar went missing. Then he got it back! Is there enough for a whole BBC documentary in it? Well, as we'll see, this film tells the story very well, but maybe the story itself is a bit unsatisfying. Still, a decent line-up of talking heads, including Paul himself, Klaus Voormann and Elvis Costello. What's not to like? Especially if you're into watching Klaus act out the middle section from A Day in the Life for no obvious reason.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Paul McCartney: Man on the Run | 02 Mar 2026 | 01:07:53 | |
Morgan Neville's new documentary, released in conjunction with MPL and with Paul McCartney's cooperation, covers the 1970s and what Paul did next after leaving The Beatles. It could've been a hagiography. But anyone who's seen it will have noticed it allows a lot more criticism of Paul than you'd expect. We look at the reasons for this and the effect of it: is this a Paul acknowledging his shortcomings, or just taking the opportunity to frame the narrative around them? We also discuss the effect of Sean Ono Lennon's contribution to the film, and whether it constitutes some public validation for Paul about his relationship with John Lennon.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sam Mendes' four-film Beatles cinematic event: Beatle wives and other casting discussion | 13 Jan 2026 | 01:15:00 | |
Time for some wild speculation, now we've got a lot of the Beatle wives and fifth Beatle candidates' casting confirmed. We look in particular at Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, and discuss the film Foe, in which she and Paul Mescal played a couple living in an isolated setting. A bit like Paul McCartney and Linda's Scottish farmhouse exile? We've been watching lots of films featuring the cast too, and we look at what their performances suggest they'll bring to these roles. Does the casting of high-profile actors to play wives and Beatle family members suggest big roles for them, and does this in turn suggest these films will have a focus on the band's home lives, and how fame affected them?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko | 25 Dec 2025 | 00:47:08 | |
Happy Christmas! Let's have a look at Dave Mullins' film, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, which won Best Animated Short Film at the 2024 Oscars. We discuss the animation techniques, including use of the Unreal Engine, and talk about how John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Christmas song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) came about in 1971, and how it came to be used in the film.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Beatles Anthology (2025 remaster): episode 9 | 08 Dec 2025 | 00:58:16 | |
What did we expect from the new episode? Well: the big decision here is not to include any new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr from the 2020s. We discuss the effect that decision has on this episode, and on how it rounds off the series as a whole. Does the episode work as a general making-of-Anthology, or as a patchwork of unused clips from the other eight episodes? And is there any more Threetles footage to come, or is that your lot?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Beatles Anthology (2025 remaster): episodes 1 to 8 | 01 Dec 2025 | 01:05:58 | |
They couldn't let it lie, could they? Well, fair enough: The Beatles Anthology felt like a sleeping giant for Apple: gathering dust on a lot of fortysomethings' DVD shelves when it could be out there, brand spanking new and showing a whole new generation how great these guys were. And of course these episodes have been altered: we talk about what's new, and what's been removed and why. Plus there's the subject of the AI upscaling of some of the early performance footage: what effect does it have and what are the implications?
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| Concert for George (with Nothing Is Real's Steven Cockcroft): part 2 | 24 Nov 2025 | 00:49:54 | |
It's part 2 and we're getting into it: what were the standout performances? There's a lot to choose from: Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney all had a go, but what motivated their song choices? We also discuss Paul in particular: less secure than Ringo in his relationship with George Harrison, it's fascinating to watch Paul tread carefully through his contributions, and we talk about the credit he deserves for how he handled this. What would a Paul McCartney tribute concert look like and who would appear at it?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Concert for George (with Nothing Is Real's Steven Cockcroft): part 1 | 17 Nov 2025 | 01:06:45 | |
As reluctant as he famously is to talk about it, Steven Cockcroft, one half of the Nothing Is Real podcast, attended the George Harrison tribute concert on 29 November 2002. So when it came to discussing the 2003 concert film we thought, Who better to invite on as a guest? Part 1 of our conversation touches on our memories of George's death in 2001, how Steven got a ticket, which artists were confirmed when, and which were rumoured, and the differences between the DVD's two versions: the full concert and the edited theatrical release.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Son of Dracula (1974) | 10 Nov 2025 | 00:52:55 | |
Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson playing Merlin (yes, the wizard) and the son of Dracula: what could possibly go wrong? Well, a fair bit as it turns out: some baffling choices are made and it can't quite make up its mind what it is, but at least Ringo enjoyed being a producer, didn't he? No, not really. Still, he had a bar in his Apple Films office, at least.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Paul is Dead (2018 British short film) | 07 Nov 2025 | 00:39:39 | |
It would've been remiss, having just covered the German Paul is Dead, not to do a quick bonus episode on this lovely little short from British writer-director George Moore. He imagines a Lake District writing retreat in which the Beatles wake up after a drug-fuelled night to discover Paul McCartney is dead, and go about trying to recruit local shepherd Billy Shears as a replacement. We talk about the characterisations used for the group and how much that allows a comprehensive story to be told in just 12 minutes, the references to the Strawberry Fields Forever video and A Hard Day's Night, and what it tells us about Ringo Starr's emotional intelligence.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Paul is Dead (2000 German film) | 03 Nov 2025 | 00:58:33 | |
We really enjoyed Hendrik Handloegten's 2000 film, which uses fandom and the old Paul is Dead mystery trope to great effect in a coming-of-age story. Tobias maybe has some stuff going on at home, and at 13 is on the cusp of noticing girls, and the film perfectly shows how kids get obsessed and wilfully believe outlandish things because the fantasy is more appealing than reality. We go down the rabbit hole of the Paul is Dead theory ourselves, and ask: is there anything in it? (No, no, there isn't.)
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Good Ol' Freda | 27 Oct 2025 | 01:07:39 | |
We look at Ryan White's 2013 documentary about Freda Kelly, employed by Brian Epstein and The Beatles from 1962 to 1972, and president of their fan club. How influential was she in what became Beatlemania? We discuss her obvious empathy with and yet professional distance from the Beatles' female fans, and her instinctive understanding that a personal connection with fans strengthens the relationship. Also, this small film made with Kickstarter funding secured the rights to use four Beatles songs: how?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Ebony and Ivory | 20 Oct 2025 | 00:47:40 | |
Strap in for Jim Hosking's deliberately provocative and frustrating take on the "genesis of a song" story. In fictionalising a meeting between Paul McCartney (Sky Elobar) and Stevie Wonder (Gil Gex) at Paul's Scottish cottage, and throwing narrative structure and logic out the window, is he poking fun at how seriously classic rock fans take these stories? We discuss the comedy of repetition, how it can force you to reinterpret simple statements by overexposure to them, and, briefly because it can't be avoided, prosthetic penises.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade | 13 Oct 2025 | 01:16:28 | |
Alan G Parker's latest Beatles-related documentary is about John Lennon's last ten years - or maybe the last 15 or so? We look at the film's unfocused approach, its long, seemingly unedited anecdotes, and the perspective lent it by its choice of talking head contributors. We also discuss its use of AI animation, from both a creative and ethical perspective.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | 06 Oct 2025 | 01:28:30 | |
A film that contains one of the most famous cinematic depictions of the Beatles: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman's brief cameo as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in Rishikesh, India is widely quoted and memed. We ask what assumptions it makes about the Beatles' personalities. How responsible was the Yellow Submarine film for how a generation, particularly in America, thinks of the Beatles' individual characters and does that play a role here? The film itself parodies music biopics so of course there's a lot else to talk about. We discuss the tropes of the music biopic. How many of them will there be in the Sam Mendes Beatles films?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| John Lennon and George Harrison on The Frost Programme 1967: transcendental meditation debate | 29 Sep 2025 | 01:12:08 | |
On Friday 29 September 1967, John Lennon and George Harrison appeared as guests on The Frost Programme, whose host David Frost had just interviewed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom the Beatles were then prominently associated in the press. They discussed their newfound practice of transcendental meditation and the public were interested enough that the two appeared again, five days later, on Wednesday 4 October to continue the discussion, this time in front of a questioning audience of academics and doctors. We discuss first how remarkable it is that pop stars were given a platform like this to debate theology, and how different the environment was compared to today's discussion programmes, in that everyone was given time to make their points without interruption, and the two Beatles weren't condescended to or shouted down. It's interesting too to note the group dynamic: George is the much-more serious leader here and John takes a back seat, adding humour but not undermining their points.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| One to One: John & Yoko | 17 Apr 2025 | 00:59:58 | |
First question about this new documentary from Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards: is there anything new in it? It's a resounding yes: we discuss the framing device the film uses to evoke the chaos and political turmoil of Nixon-era early 1970s America. One big selling point for the film is also the archive of recorded phone calls between John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Allen Klein, May Pang, and other assistants, and we look at what this reveals about them. And it's interesting to note that this seems remarkably free of airbrushing: there are editorial decisions made here that don't flatter John or Yoko, and we talk about what this means for the creative direction of the Lennon estate.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sam Mendes' four-film Beatles cinematic event: cast announcement | 04 Apr 2025 | 00:38:18 | |
Sam Mendes has his cast, then: Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. What do we think of the official cast announcement? Can fans get past the idea that not every actor looks exactly like the Beatle he's playing? What do these actors' other performances suggest they could do with the Beatles story? Plus we discuss the release strategy, now it's seemingly confirmed that all four films will be released in the same month. How will this work?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (part 2) | 17 Mar 2025 | 00:51:16 | |
We finish off this season with a look at the film's use of footage that's been colourised from black and white. Was this done, as Iain Lee suggested to Ed on his Talk Radio show in 2016, because American audiences don't like black and white? We think there's a bit of mileage in that: more specifically that the brief here was to present this footage to a new audience with a bit of sheen. We also discuss talking heads in the film like Eddie Izzard, and look at what they contributed, as well as some who appear only in the Blu-ray extras, like Paul Greengrass.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years (part 1) | 10 Mar 2025 | 00:50:35 | |
Has Ron Howard's 2016 documentary effectively been superseded by other films since? Probably the first official Apple film to be released as part of the Beatles legacy project, it's very polished and pays a lot of respect to fan culture, in particular teenage girls. But nine years on, does it cover too much of the same ground as other films, like Beatles '64, to be significant?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Doctor Who: The Devil's Chord | 03 Mar 2025 | 01:05:23 | |
The coming together of two great British cultural institutions feels fated, but how well did Russell T. Davies pull it off? We look, of course, at how accurate they've been when it comes to Beatle detail, and in particular at the characterisations of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Matt, a Whovian, explains how this episode fits into the canon and how this season of Doctor Who compared tonally to others, while Ed, who thinks he might have seen a couple of the Christopher Eccleston ones 20 years ago, mainly just listens.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Yesterday (1985 Polish film) | 24 Feb 2025 | 00:49:50 | |
We look at Radoslaw Piwowarski's Beatles-themed film, which won the Golden Shell at the 1985 San Sebastián International Film Festival. It's the story of teenagers in 1964 communist Poland trying to forge an identity through their love of the Beatles. We talk about cinema behind the Iron Curtain (the Polish People's Republic was under communist rule both in the story and when the film was released) and what that means for freedom of expression, both for the filmmakers and the characters. Is the Beatles' music, which we hear in the film, treated with a special reverence given how it was contraband to the characters? And as the boys are forced to have haircuts we talk about the cultural significance of the Beatles' hair and what that meant in a regime where signifiers of rebellion were more dangerous than in the West.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial | 17 Feb 2025 | 01:03:40 | |
We weren't big fans of this 2023 Apple TV+ documentary series: it's prurient and invasive, and in the parts where it suggests conspiracy theories but then does nothing to back them up, it's pretty irresponsible. We discuss the techniques it uses in the context of the contemporary true crime boom, and ask whether we'd have liked it more if we had no personal investment in John Lennon's murder. Could it have achieved more by doing what it briefly threatens to, and framed itself around how thinking around criminality and mental illness, and gun control in the United States, has moved on since 1980?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Sextette | 10 Feb 2025 | 01:07:19 | |
Ringo Starr's film career includes the odd misstep, of course, but this 1978 vehicle for Mae West is often cited among the worst films ever made. And fair enough, it's not great. But Ringo is the best thing in it: we talk about how he brings his whole self to the role, further evidence of how committed he was to making acting his primary career at this point in his life. And there are other Beatles connections: Dom DeLuise sings the Lennon/McCartney song Honey Pie in the film, and of course there's the small matter of the cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Rupert and the Frog Song | 03 Feb 2025 | 00:58:55 | |
Paul McCartney's 1984 short animated film was a project he'd been planning for years: buying the film rights to the Rupert the Bear character was the first thing he did after leaving The Beatles. The more you get into it, the more you realise the extent of his passion for it. Released alongside Give My Regards to Broad Street in cinemas, the film also serves as a music video for We All Stand Together, also known as The Frog Song. We start by discussing the song: why was it for so long the watchword for "embarrassing Uncle Paul", and how does it measure up today now that image is largely shed? Paul's voiceover work is also worth getting into: it serves the story rather than acting as a showcase for him, and we contrast this with the approach to Broad Street. And with Ringo Starr doing the Thomas the Tank Engine voiceover, and George Harrison writing the foreword to the 1990 book The Secret Life of Sooty, we look at the relationship between psychedelia and the childlike.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| An Accidental Studio | 27 Jan 2025 | 01:02:05 | |
An Accidental Studio is the story of HandMade Films, the production company set up by Beatle George Harrison and his business partner Denis O'Brien, which produced or distributed Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Long Good Friday, Withnail and I, and Mona Lisa. We discuss George's contribution and what it says about his creative instincts. He seems to have been very happy to trust creative people with more film expertise than he to make the films. Was this good creative sense or commercial naivety? What does the film tell us about Denis O'Brien, whom George later sued for financial mismanagement, and about investors wanting to make creative decisions?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus | 20 Jan 2025 | 01:09:33 | |
In December 1968 Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who next month filmed The Beatles for the Let It Be/Get Back sessions, shot this circus-themed showcase for the post-psychedelic rock movement, starring John Lennon and Yoko Ono fronting supergroup The Dirty Mac, which also featured Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell. Between performances the Rolling Stones introduced acts like The Who and Taj Mahal, and there were pieces to camera from John and Yoko with Mick Jagger. We ask: Beatles or Stones: is it a stupid question? Why was the film, like so much of the Get Back footage, shelved for so long, only seeing a release in 1996? Why didn't The Beatles perform here as a group? And was Yoko Ono subverting the gendered norms of the rock 'n' roll vocal performance by wailing a lot?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Lennon Naked | 13 Jan 2025 | 01:10:18 | |
Next up: it's the 2010 BBC TV movie starring Christopher Eccleston as John Lennon, and Andrew Scott as Paul McCartney. We get into the film's approach, in which it frames the story around John's meetings with his father, and ask how successfully it makes the point it's trying to: that Freddie Lennon's abandoning him was the main catalyst for John's emotional turmoil, and that primal scream therapy allowed him to overcome it. We look too at Eccleston's performance, and ask how he stacks up against the other Lennon big hitters like Ian Hart and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. And does the film do Yoko Ono a disservice?
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Beatles: The First US Visit | 06 Jan 2025 | 01:07:31 | |
Many viewers of last year's Beatles '64 seemed to ask the question: "Why does this exist when we already have The First US Visit?" So we thought we'd have a go at an answer. This is a 1991 re-edit of the Maysles brothers' original 1964 Granada TV film What's Happening! The Beatles in the USA, and a much straighter, more chronological telling of the short tour's story using much of the same footage. We ask how this compares to Beatles '64, and in particular we discuss the effect of having no narration or talking heads, and whether this creates a void of context that needs filling. Apple later bought the rights and released it on DVD in 2004, and we look at how Apple's approach to documentary releases differs 20 years on, now the Beatles legacy project is in full swing.
The 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:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Paul McCartney making mashed potatoes (Christmas special) | 25 Dec 2024 | 00:38:10 | |
Welcome to this year's Christmas special in which we, the fearless investigative journalists that we are, refuse to be silenced and meet head-on the issue the mainstream media doesn't want us to: can Paul McCartney make mashed potatoes? On 17 December 1998 Paul took part in a live webcast to promote Wide Prairie, a compilation album of Linda's songs, released six months after her death in April 1998. In it he fronted a cookery segment in which he made mashed potatoes as part of a promotion for her book: Linda McCartney on Tour: Over 200 Meat-free Dishes from Around the World. We ask: does his addition of raw onions into the dish represent a bold embrace of the avant garde, betraying the influence of Stockhausen? How significant is it that Paul chose the DIY ethic of a webcast whose content he could control when he was grieving for his wife? And how else did Paul and George Harrison interact with the early internet from the late nineties? Merry Christmas and thanks as always for your support this year. We'll be back with season six in January.
The 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:
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| Beatles '64 | 29 Nov 2024 | 01:12:05 | |
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?
The 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:
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| Midas Man | 30 Oct 2024 | 01:14:12 | |
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?
The 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:
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| One Hand Clapping: Paul McCartney and Wings | 01 Oct 2024 | 01:11:16 | |
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 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:
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| The Beatles Anthology: DVD special features (original version) | 17 Jun 2024 | 01:19:35 | |
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 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:
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| The Beatles Anthology: episodes 7 and 8 (original version) | 10 Jun 2024 | 01:38:42 | |
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 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:
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| The Beatles Anthology: episodes 5 and 6 (original version) | 03 Jun 2024 | 01:37:45 | |
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 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:
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| The Beatles Anthology: episodes 3 and 4 (original version) | 27 May 2024 | 01:29:09 | |
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 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:
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| The Beatles Anthology: episodes 1 and 2 (original version) | 20 May 2024 | 01:36:30 | |
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 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:
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| Let it Be (2024 restoration) | 10 May 2024 | 00:31:03 | |
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.
The 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:
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| The Concert for Bangladesh | 06 May 2024 | 01:21:33 | |
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?
The 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:
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| Scot Williams interview: playing Pete Best in Backbeat, and directing Two Of Us, a play | 29 Apr 2024 | 01:01:20 | |
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!
The 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:
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| Ringo (1978 TV movie) | 22 Apr 2024 | 01:04:35 | |
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.
The 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:
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| How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin | 15 Apr 2024 | 00:59:54 | |
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.
The 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:
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| The Family Way | 08 Apr 2024 | 01:08:59 | |
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!
The 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:
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| I Wanna Hold Your Hand | 01 Apr 2024 | 01:02:56 | |
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.
The 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:
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| Imagine: John Lennon | 25 Mar 2024 | 01:22:45 | |
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?
The 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:
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| Sam Mendes' four Beatles biopics: movie release and casting discussion | 18 Mar 2024 | 00:44:25 | |
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. The 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:
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