Published by the Pirate FM News Team at 8:37am 19th August 2012.
It is billed as the most exclusive BBC Radio 4 programme ever.
Three of the world’s most famous musicians – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yoko Ono – have been urged to take part in a rare reunion with one man who has spent his life following them, and the one who has been there from the start, over the big 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ famous appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Beatles: Get Back is an hour-long special guest-edited by Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer Sir George, and focuses on the song that opened the group’s career, and the Thelma Holt documentary that inspired it.
The group, now all in their 60s, were contacted with an offer by Love Productions to take part in the programme to mark the airing of a new film of the Sullivan show.
“I’ve been lucky enough to work with them for 35 years so I’ve seen their journey from the outside, with quite limited knowledge of what really went on. I’ve seen quite a lot of aspects of their lives with access to Paul, Ringo and Yoko. I’ve watched them go from zaniness to professionalism – it’s quite difficult to imagine what life was like to be a 19-year-old a Beatle in 1962.”
Giles Martin says The Beatles: Get Back will be “a really excellent experience for a lot of people who really love the Beatles, especially the first time they’ll hear a song that changed their life”.
Originally an hour-long documentary on the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show – to be screened on BBC One on 8th September – it is being edited down to a one-hour special.
To listen to “The Beatles: Get Back” tune into BBC Radio 4 from 3pm on Monday 19th August.