{"id":706064,"date":"2026-05-31T09:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706064\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:59:18","slug":"itll-be-like-barbenheimer-uk-gripped-by-new-wave-of-beatlemania-in-lead-up-to-four-biopics-the-beatles-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706064\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019ll be like Barbenheimer\u2019: UK gripped by new wave of Beatlemania in lead-up to four biopics | The Beatles films"},"content":{"rendered":"

If anyone needed a reminder of the enduring cultural clout of the Beatles, the past few weeks have provided a glut. Firstly, there\u2019s the small matter of The Boys of Dungeon Lane<\/a>, Paul McCartney\u2019s 20th solo album, billed as \u201can adventurous and limber take on guitar music\u201d by the Guardian.<\/p>\n

When England announced their World Cup squad, the soundtrack was Come Together, played alongside a film of fashionable young people in New York<\/a> and a clip of a young, puckish John Lennon. The same week Stephen Colbert was played off from his final episode of the Late Show by a Paul McCartney rendition of Hello Goodbye<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney plays out the final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive\/CBS\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the less showbiz locale of Felixstowe, 70 people got together to campaign for a \u201cBeatles Day\u201d by recreating the cover of Sgt Peppers<\/a>, while barely a week passes without a \u201cnew\u201d discovery of memorabilia and artefacts<\/a> connected to the Fab Four.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the scale, Peter Murrell, the disgraced former SNP chief executive who admitted embezzlement this week, is a fan \u2013 and used party funds to buy a special edition Beatles pen set for \u00a31,475.<\/p>\n

Ian Leslie, the bestselling author of John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs, said the UK was in the middle of a new wave of Beatlemania that was reminiscent of the 1990s revival. \u201cWe\u2019re only just starting to come to terms with how big a cultural phenomenon they were,\u201d said Leslie, who thinks the group were wrongly measured up against the Rolling Stones for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat rivalry is irrelevant; they moved on to a plane of their own. You think about Shakespeare: we\u2019re still reading Marlowe and the other Elizabethan playwrights, but the bard is \u2013 like the Beatles \u2013 in a whole separate category.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beatles occupy a unique place in the British cultural imagination. Their songs have soundtracked lives for the past 60 years, while the band\u2019s friendships, breakups and tragedies provided a psychodrama that still captivates today.<\/p>\n

Leslie said the latest wave of interest could be traced back to Peter Jackson\u2019s eight-hour documentary Get Back<\/a>, which gave viewers an intimate and intense look at the group. No doubt the biggest upcoming Beatles event will be Sam Mendes\u2019 four biopics dedicated to the group\u2019s members, which are due in 2028, looming large over the cultural landscape and looking set to eclipse Jackson\u2019s films in terms of impact.<\/p>\n

A scene from Get Back, Peter Jackson\u2019s documentary. Photograph: TCD\/Prod.DB\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The Mendes films, each one dedicated to a different band member, appear set to rekindle conversations about the rivalries and partnerships, with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr. Its not the only film project currently in the works: Christian Schwochow\u2019s BBC drama series Hamburg Days<\/a> is also in production.<\/p>\n

The cultural critic Simon Reynolds, whose book Still In A Dream<\/a> is out in June, said the group\u2019s transformation from pop stars to psychedelic travellers in less than a decade had made them \u201cthe greatest adventure that ever happened in pop music\u201d.<\/p>\n

They had also embodied a changing Britain that was culturally punching way above its weight. Reynolds said. \u201cHere\u2019s this shabby, worn-out, repressed little culture thousands of miles away that is unexpectedly sparring with and even \u2013 I would say, with Stones and Beatles \u2013 eclipsing the source nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to the Fab Four and their portrayal in the films, feelings are already running high. Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of George Harrison, who will be portrayed in the forthcoming biopics by Aimee Lou Wood, was furious<\/a> at not being contacted by Mendes or his team.<\/p>\n

Leslie said that if the drumbeat of Beatles content felt loud now, it would be turned up to 11 when Mendes\u2019 films were released. \u201cIt\u2019ll be like a second wave of Beatlemania,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely crazy. They\u2019re a pop band that people were saying, in 1963, would be lucky to last a year. Now 60 years on they\u2019ll be the biggest cultural moment of the year. It\u2019ll be like Barbenheimer all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If anyone needed a reminder of the enduring cultural clout of the Beatles, the past few weeks have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-706064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}